"We shall be led in prayer today by Reverend Rakel Evenson, who is the pastor of the New Life Lutheran Church in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Reverend Evenson is the guest of Representative McAsey. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones and pagers and rise for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance."
"Good morning. I invite you to pray in a way that is comfortable to you. Source of all life, we thank You for another day to live as You have created us. We thank You for the blessings of our lives, family, friends, good health, earth's bounty of food, the opportunity to serve others, and much, much more. Source of all hope, give us the peace that lasts. Cleanse from our own hearts the seeds of strife, greed and envy, harsh misunderstandings and ill will, fear and the desire for revenge. Make us quick to welcome avenues of cooperation among all peoples in the world. In opportunity make us diligent and in peril bend us to trust on Your faithful providence. Source of all refuge, we call to mind before You all whom it is easy to forget: the homeless, the destitute, the sick, the sad and the lonely. The addicted, and the abused. We lift up those who suffer from natural disasters, political oppression, war, famine, and preventable diseases. May Your compassion be known in all that we do and in all that we say. Source of all guidance, You call us to honor those in authority. Help us elect trustworthy leaders. Empower us to participate in wise decisions for our common life and to serve our neighbors. 09600134.doc 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 Above all, bless the elected leaders of Illinois. Help them to serve faithfully. Give them wisdom. Encourage them and their gifts. Sustain them through difficult… discussions and debates. Keep watch over their families, while they are away from home. Strengthen them in their vocation, that through their governance, peace and justice be common to all. For all these things we pray and we trust in grace, Amen."
Speaker Lang: "We'll be led in the Pledge today by Representative DeLuca and his family."
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Speaker Lang: "Roll Call for Attendance. Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker. Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record reflect the excused absence of Representative Collins."
"Representative Bost."
"Thank you, M… thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let the record reflect that Representatives Black and Mathias are excused on the Republican side of the aisle today."
Speaker Lang: "Please take the record. 115 Members being present, the House is ready to do the peoples' work. Mr. Clerk, announcements."
"Committee Reports. Representative McCarthy, Chairperson from the Committee on Telecommunications reports the following committee action taken on April 30: 09600134.doc 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 do pass as amended Short Debate is Senate Bill 107. Introduction of Resolutions. Referred to the House Committee on Rules is House Resolution 1185, offered by Representative Monique Davis, and House Resolution 1188, offered by Representative Brauer."
"On Supplemental Calendar #1 there appears Senate Bill 107. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 107, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Second Reading of this Bill. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Please hold that Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Members, we're going to begin on page 3 of the Calendar. There will be Bills skipped, but we will be going a, somewhat in order, starting on page 3. And the first item is Senate Bill 731, Representative Flowers. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 731, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Flowers."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 731 would require a licensing fees for hospitals. And I'll be more than happy to answer any question you may have in regards to Senate Bill 731."
"Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Eddy."
"Thank you. Would the Sponsor yield?"
"The Lady yields." 09600134.doc 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Representative, is… is this basically, I… I mean, could it be characterized as a hospital per bed annual license fee?"
"Yes, Representative, because it depends on the size of the hospital as to how much would be bought in."
"So, how much is the amount of the fee per bed?"
"Representative, it's $30 per bed, not unless it appears to be a lesser amount of beds."
"So, in… in practical terms how this works is for every… every bed that a hospital has they'd have to pay an annual license fee of $30. And… and the purpose, where… where do they collect the money from then? Is that passed on to the individuals who are using the health services during the year?"
"Yes, Representative. I just want to say, just for the record, that it is the norm for the department to collect fees from other health care providers and the hospitals are the only ones that have never been charged a fee. And so, this would be bringing the hospital beds in compliance with all the other health facilities."
"Okay. Well, what's… what's the purpose then? It… are the purposes of the collection of these additional fees to capture federal funds? Wha… wha… where's the money going to go? Let's say the… is there a…"
"There's a variety of places, Representative. Remember, we passed the hospital report card. Remember, that we passed Bills dealing with medical errors. So, the fees could possibly go to fix some of the problems that we have in our hospitals that the hospital report card have… 09600134.doc 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 that we found out that's going on in the hospitals. So, the fees could be used for multiple purposes, but more… but all of them would be for the hospitals."
"Okay. Now, I… I think one of the things we have to, for disclosure purposes, put on the record is they… they're probably paying for the CON, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, it's not as if they're not paying anything and that this fee is, you know, some… something that is contributing to a cost that they don't have. They already have a substantial cost. Now, has Amendment 1, obviously, been adopted? What did Amendment #1 do to the Bill?"
"Amendment #1 said that it took away the statement in the Bill that said the funds could not be swept. And currently, you know, that we've been sweeping funds for years with or without that language. And today, we know the state of the state. A few years from now, we don't know what it's going to be like, so we should not have anything to tie our hands. But we're the lawmakers, so we can make the law or we can change the law. And so basically, this is just making it a little easier."
"But… but now… now, I understand your stated purpose for the establishment of this fund, but today there's, by… by inserting Amendment #1, we're almost not, at least from the start, trying to establish the intent and guarantee that the money is used for that stated purpose, because as you mentioned we… we sweep funds all the time around here. I… I think that you would want the protection in the Bill to make sure that the fund, if we're going to establish it, would go for it's intended purpose and we'd remove that." 09600134.doc 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"I agree with you, Representative. I would want the money to go for it's intended purposes. But if the money is needed for outside reasons to help a mother, or family, or either to pay the bills so we can keep the programs going here in the state, to me is all basically the same because it's going toward the same cause or the same people and that's having access. Because if the doors are closed at the hospital or having access to health care is not available, then it's all for naught."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Bill. Thank you, Representative, I appreciate the… the answers. I… I'm going to… I'm going to urge Members of the committee to pay very… or excuse me, the House to pay very close attention to this, though. I believe the Lady's intentions are good. I… I understand the purpose for perhaps even trying to set this fund up, but I… I think we're setting up a fund that's going to be swept. I mean, we're talking about just simply a fee that's going to become part of general revenue and that's not what anybody wants and that's not the intention of trying to establish this fund to begin with. I think that unless and until these funds are protected that we shouldn't throw what is well-intentioned money for something that… that we would all maybe like to support into a fund, the general revenue fund, that… that likely is going to cause a lot of these funds to… to lose there intended purpose. I… I would urge the Body to vote against the Lady's Bill until we know that the funds would go to their intended purpose."
"Representative Reis." 09600134.doc 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor yields."
"Representative, how did you come up with the $30?"
"Representative, this is a Senate Bill, so I don't know how they concluded, but…"
"Did you talk to the Senate Sponsor?"
"…the Hospital Association was in an agreement with the fee, with the charge of 30…"
"Did you talk to Senator Delgado of how he came up with $30? I mean why not 50, why not 100."
"Well, I didn't talk to the Senator about it, but the most important thing is the Hospital Association was in agreement with the $30. So for whatever purpose it may have been, it's okay, as long as they are in agreement with it, as well."
"But I think they agreed to the $30… under the original Bill when it was agreed upon that it wouldn't be swept."
"Well, Representative, as I just said to the previous speaker that right now and in previous Sessions funds have been swept. So, for those of us who don't want to raise taxes and who have programs that we want to see continue to be funded and schools that are going to continue to be funded and health care that will continue to be funded because we will have access. And so if we have to combine these funds in order to keep those entities working and open and have an access for the people, sobeit, but it is… it is the intention… it is the intention for these funds to be used for health care purposes." 09600134.doc 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"But Representative, when you talk about paying this fee… and I want to take this down a different road… a lot of what hospitals collect are Medicaid, Medicare dollars. So, you're going to bill Medicaid and Medicare dollars so that you can put more dollars into Medicaid and Medicare. I mean, I… I don't understand where you're going with this and if Obamacare is implemented and he's going to take care of the world, you're just going to be rotating dollars. I… you're not going to generate dollars with this and our fear is… is as you start something, you come in, it's just a small increase, a small increase, the next thing you know $30 is a $100 and all you're doing is just rotating dollars around in a government bureaucracy."
"Well, Representative, I just want to make a point. I don't know about Obamacare, that's not what this Bill is about and I don't know about…"
"Well, I hope you know about it. You wanted us to implemented it."
"And Sir, I don't know about him taking care of the world. Right now, the only thing I'm trying to deal with is House Bill… Senate Bill 731."
"But don't you agree that hospitals are… are sending invoices for care for Medicaid patients to the State of Illinois. They're going to use that money to pay your $30 fee to pay money back to the State of Illinois."
"Sir, it happens all the time in various entities. When people pay taxes, when we buy products, we're sending the moneys right back to the State of Illinois." 09600134.doc 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"But you're not charging the taxes to the State of Illinois. You're charging this $30 back to Illinois because they're going to… they're going to add that into their costs of running a hospital."
"There are other health care facilities and entities that pay this fee as well."
"No, it's just for hospitals."
"There are other facilities that pay a fee as well to the Department of Public Health for the purposes of having access to health care in one form or another. And this is just a new fee that's added on."
"Thank you, Representative. To the Bill. This is just bureaucracy running over bureaucracy. Charging a fee, that's going to get added on to the cost of running a hospital that in turn is going to get charged back to Medicaid and Medicare. This is crazy. There's a few private people… private pay people left. I… I have a feeling that the vast majority of that is going to get socked on to those people. That's why when a… a person or a family goes into have a baby on Medicaid, they reimburse $900 or $1 thousand and a private pay person goes in and it costs them $7 thousand. And we wonder why people can't afford their insurance anymore. So, I think this is just adding to the problem. It's a solution looking for a problem. And I encourage the Body to vote 'no'."
"Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield? Thank you. I think a lot of the Representatives have brought up some of the questions that we had in the 09600134.doc 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 committee hearing and in the Human Service Committee. And I respect your… I know your mission is for public safety and quality… patient quality in the hospitals and we know that 'cause you have been very in the MRSA issue and the hospital infection issue. Our concern is, is that when this Bill came over from the Senate it was a Bill that the Hospital Association was neutral on. I want to ask you if the Hospital Association is now opposed to the Bill because of the Amendment that was put on?"
"Was… was that a question for the Sponsor?"
"Yes."
"Representative, the Hospital Association is opposed to the Amendment, not the underlying Bill."
"Right. Okay. Thank you. I wasn't sure if they still were. Thank you very much, Representative. To the Bill. This is a Bill that came over from the… from the Senate as an agreed Bill or… the Hospital Association was neutral. As to what the other Representatives has said, the reason I can't support the Bill and that there were several 'no' votes in the committee is that now this is going to create a fund, of which, it was supposed to go towards patient quality and safety. Now, the Amendment deletes that and this fund can be easily swept at any time. So that you're going to put a new tax or a fee on the beds in the hospital and now all of that money by Amendment 1 can be deleted and swept out of that fund. So, you're creating a new tax or a fee that will have to be passed on to the private payers that go into the hospitals and now we can't be assured that that will go to patient quality. So, 09600134.doc 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 even though I respect the Representative, I know her dedication to hospital infection and to patient and quality safety, I cannot support this Bill at this time. And I would encourage you to vote 'no'. Thank you."
"Representative Pritchard."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Lady yields."
"Has anyone totaled how much expected revenue this $30 tax will generate?"
"Approximately 1.2 million. Approximately 1.2 million."
"Excuse me?"
"Approximately $1.2 million."
"1.2 million per year?"
"Yes."
"Is there… have… have you thought through who actually is going to be ultimately paying for this? I mean, it's a bed tax, it's a hospital tax, but do you think… hospitals will use it out of their residual or are they going to pass this on in patient costs?"
"Representative, I… I have no idea. I'm not in a position to answer that question, but the most important thing and this is what we need to remember about this legislation, the legis… the Amendment merely says that the fund can be swept. The ultimate purpose of the legislation is to provide funds as the… Representative Bellock stated to deal with the quality and access. When you take into consideration the infection disease in certain hospitals and the quality of patients, or the care, or the lack of 09600134.doc 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 care, that a lot of hospitals may or may not be giving the patients because the shortages of funds. All of this should be factored in as to the reason why these dollars are important to save lives. It's not stated that the funds will be swept or shall be swept. It is stated merely that it can be swept as we have swept other funds… throughout our time here. In order to balance the budget. In order to go back and tell our constituents, see we did not raise the taxes, but we didn't tell…"
"So… so, back to the point of this legislation."
"…we did not tell them that we swept the funds."
"Thank you."
"Which is their tax dollars as well."
"To the point, though, of this legislation. Is this money going to be used just to monitor whether hospitals have quality and access or is this going to be used to actually ameliorate some of these problems?"
"It will be used to ameliorate, to eliminate, to inter… for intervention prevention, in order for the quality of care."
"So… so, in other words, the funds are going to be awarded to a hospital to do those things."
"Pardon me."
"So, there'll be a grant process to award the money to a hospital to solve some of the problems they may have?"
"Well, when you look at the… the report that must be submitted into the Department of Public Health and the report card, that you were gracious enough to help me pass, that is where we will get the information from; that is 09600134.doc 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 where we know where the problems will be; that is where the Department of Public Health will know to send the money to correct whatever problems there may be."
"So, if the funds are going to be used to correct problems, that's one thing. If all we're going to do is identify problems, I think we already know where some of those issues are. Thank you, Representative."
"Representative Flowers to close."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. This is a very important piece of legislation. We all know that one day that we may have to go and visit a loved one in the hospital or either be a patient ourselves. We want that hospital to be the best and the safest and the only way that we can do this is to make sure that the funds are there to make sure that the quality and access there to eliminate any problems that the hospital may have. I would urge an 'aye' vote. Thank you."
"Those in favor of the Bill will vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Currie, Dunkin, Gordon, McCarthy. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 42 voting ‘yes’, 72 voting ‘no'. And the Bill fails. Members, if you have a Bill on Senate Bill-Third Reading and you're not on the floor, I would suggest getting here because we're going to move through these Bills. We will be using the timer on these items that are on Short Debate. The next Bill is Senate Bill 851. Representative Yarbrough. Out of 09600134.doc 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 the record. Senate Bill… I'm sorry. I did not see you in your chair. Please read the Bill, Sir."
"Senate Bill 851, a Bill for an Act concerning health. Third Reading."
"Representative Yarbrough."
"Thank… thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 851, in order to comply with Federal Law, deletes the provision in the law that allows smoking in nursing home residential rooms where the occupants have requested to do so in writing. Instead, the Bill allows smoking in a designated common area within a long-term care facility where smoke cannot infiltrate other rooms. I'd be happy to answer any questions."
"The Lady moved for the passage of the Bill. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Eddy for two minutes."
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"She yields."
"For… just quickly for purposes of clarification and maybe this is… this is an inquiry of the Chair. Has Floor Amendment #1 been added to the Bill?"
"Mr. Clerk."
"Floor Amendment #1 was adopted to the Bill."
"Mr. Eddy."
"That's all I really needed to clarify for the Members on this side. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Representative Yarbrough to close."
"I just simply ask for a favorable vote." 09600134.doc 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Those in favor vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Ford, Golar, Jefferson, Mitchell, Turner. Let's go Members, it's Friday. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 114 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 2554. Representative Poe, Mr. Poe. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2554, a Bill for an Act concerning public employee benefits. Third Reading."
"Mr. Poe."
"Yeah, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. This is a Bill… it's just a very technical change and… when an employee goes to work for the IMRF, in the past it took about two months and a week to get on if you want to go into a program like deferred comp. And what this'll do with the new technology, it would make it… they could do that the first day. I'd ask for a favorable vote."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor will vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Winters. Please take the record. On this question, there are 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 2556, Representative Hoffman. Out of the record. Senate Bill 2819, Representative Osmond. Please read the Bill." 09600134.doc 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Senate Bill 2819, a Bill for an Act concerning insurance. Third Reading."
"Representative Osmond."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 2819 prohibits the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation from transferring moneys in the Insurance Financial Regulations Fund to the Professional Indirect Cost Fund. It also has an Amendment that was put on, which adds to the Bill and is a life insurance council initiative, which removes the requir… I'm sorry, it provides that in life insurance policies you need to have a… a proof of identification of those making a claim. I'd be happy to answer any questions."
"Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Brady for two minutes."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"Representative, can you just walk through what the significant changes are in this particular Bill as… as it pertains to claims and life insurance. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Could you just walk through what a couple of those may be, the major changes?"
"Well, one of them before there was a vagueness as to having proof of who you are when you're making a claim and they're asking for identification. And in committee, Representative Mautino did this Amendment and he requested 09600134.doc 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 that there be a change as to not having an ID that had… you know, that would have a picture on it, so we changed that. We changed it so that they just have to have some sort of proof of ID. In other words, they'll accept a birth certificate or any form that would show it, who the person is making the claim."
"So, a number of the things and I… I was not able to be in the last committee, but a number… a number of things that some of us had questions about have been gutted from this and cleared up in the Amendment. Is that correct?"
"That's correct. Yes."
"Thank you very much."
"Thank you."
"Mr. Mautino. Lady to close."
"Thank you. I appreciate an 'aye' vote."
"Those in favor vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Representative Feigenholtz, Riley. Please take the record. 114 voting ‘yes’, 1 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 580, Representative Ramey. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 580, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. Third Reading."
"Mr. Ramey."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 580 is DuPage County Water Commission Reform Bill. This is an agreed upon Bill. This is the form of the Bill I want to see to the… get to the Governor's… Governor's desk. Is agreed upon by the Senate Sponsor. It puts many reforms into the 09600134.doc 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 DuPage County Water Commission that were recommended by an internal audit. And it sunsets a quarter cent sales tax June of 2016. I ask for an 'aye' vote."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. On this question, the Chair recognizes Representative Miller for two minutes."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just… will the Sponsor yield?"
"Gentleman yields."
"There seems to be some controversy regarding this Bill. I talked to some of the commissioners from DuPage County. They had some concerns. What… can you sort of elaborate in particular when you say, it's agreed upon?"
"Correct."
"They felt that the rate would go up or a certain sweetheart deal would be in play here and I just want to know a little more information about this."
"No. The… the language in the Amendment were… was language given to me by the DuPage County Mayors and Managers. It's going to apply to DuPage County only. And the original Bill was the concern of the… the mayors because the original Bill was going to get rid of the water commission. The Amendment no longer does that and no longer places it under the purview of the county. We have recommendations that were given to us by the internal audit… or the forensic audit that are placed into this Bill. And the agreement was that we were going to sunset the… the this quarter percent sales tax when the bonds are paid off and that date is June of 2016." 09600134.doc 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Okay. So, in terms of the difference between the original Bill and what is presented now… and excuse me, I'm not… I hadn't followed this, but someone had… a few folks had talked to me about it. The Amendment was… was adopted here in the House. Is that correct?"
"The Amendment was adopted in Townships & Counties Committee."
"Okay. And in terms of when you say an agreement, is the current commissioners and the current board members in agreement with this particular legislation?"
"I cannot speak for the current board members because they were not in the discussion of the agreement. The mayors, who appoint these board members, were the persons giving me the information and building this Amendment."
"Okay. And in terms of cost…"
Speaker Lang: "Mr. Miller, please bring your remarks to a close."
"Thank you. Just the last question. In terms of cost, there seems to be some issue that it would… it would increase the cost of… to the… to the citizens of DuPage County. Any comments on that? And I'll close."
"Currently, the quarter percent sales tax is paid by everybody in the county. We are going to sunset that tax because that tax was put in place to pay for the infrastructure of the water commission, which was bringing… Lake Michigan water to DuPage County. The villages and the commission set a rate that they then sell the water to each village and they then, of course, send it to their… people of each village and they pay their water bills. Currently, 09600134.doc 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 the water bill rate that the people of DuPage County are paying is less than what we are paying for the water from the City of Chicago. So what they will need to do over the next six years is probably bring that rate up to the point where they are covering their costs when the sales tax goes away because currently they use $23 million of the sales tax to cover those water costs."
"Representative May."
"Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Gentleman yields."
"Yes, Representative. Can you tell me where in this Bill it says that this is DuPage County only? I…"
"The date. I'm sorry."
"Just tell me where 'cause I'm looking at it and it says any county of which governance and legislative authority over a water commission has been transferred and consolidated."
"That… that's the original portion of the Bill. In the Amendment, it refers to the enacting act in 1985 that created the DuPage County Water Commission. So, after that enacting statement, we introduced the Amendment which then applies to the DuPage County Water Commission."
"Okay."
"No other entity follows that Act."
"Which… which Amendment, Representative?"
"Amendment… House Amendment #1."
"Okay. Thank you. Because I've heard from a lot of people in Lake County that said it applied to all counties. 09600134.doc 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 So, I'm going to try to figure this out because they were very much opposed."
"There was a lot of concern with the original Senate Bill, Amendment 4, that… Senate Amendment 4 that said that you could get rid of all water commissions. With House Amendment 1 it replaces all that language. So, it no longer will affect any other water commission only the one created in 1985, which is the DuPage Water Commission."
"Thank you. I'm reading it and trying to ascertain that before we have to vote. Thank you."
"Okay. Thank you, Representative."
"Representative Reitz."
"Thank you. Just a couple of short questions. One, just for follow up on what Representative May has. For legislative intent, this Bill on… specifically applies to DuPage County? Correct?"
"That is correct."
"And then secondly, are you in support of this Bill?"
"Yes, I am."
"Good enough."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Representative Kosel."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"We now know that this pay applies to DuPage County only."
"Correct."
"Does it apply to any water agency that might be formed in the future?" 09600134.doc 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"No."
"Thank you."
"Mr. Ramey to close."
"I ask for an 'aye' vote. This is good reform for DuPage County."
"Those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Flider, Hannig, May, Mitchell. Please take the record. On this question, there are 111 voting ‘yes’, 1 voting ‘no’, 3 voting ‘present’. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 4 of the Calendar appears Senate Bill 2996, Mr. Hoffman. Out of the record. Senate Bill 3118, Representative Nekritz. Please read the Bill."
Senate Bill 3118, a Bill for an Act concerning transportation. Third Reading."
"Representative Nekritz."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 3118 establishes a Inspector General for the… Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and the purpose of the Inspector General is to detect, deter, and prevent fraud, corruption and mismanagement. They are… after… when they're appointed, they're subject to the consent of the Senate and they're appointed for five-year terms. I ask for your support."
"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. On this question, the Chair recognizes Representative Franks for two minutes."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields." 09600134.doc 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"How is the Tollway Authority investigated now, Representative?"
"I believe that they… they appoint their own Inspector General. It's not subject to any advice and consent of the Senate."
"Is that what the basic difference is? Is that what this Bill will be doing?"
"I… I think basically. It also contains some additional things that… that… and I'm no expert on the… on the Ethics Act, but it… it contains some additional provisions about… when the Inspector General had it… performs an investigation. If they have a finding, what they have to do with that and how that would work with the… with the executive ethics commission."
"Would this be more transparent than what we've seen with the previous Inspector Generals? Because what I've often found, and you and I had talked about this, is instead of really being investigatory, they used it more as a shield than as a sword because if someone would make an inquiry, they'd say we're going to have our person look at it and that way they could never respond to us. You know, there are Legislators who would ask a question or the… or the citizens. Would this do something to not allow them to really pervert the idea of the entire Inspector General purview and instead actually require them to be more open and transparent?"
"Oh, I'm sor… I misspoke, Representative. They're not allowed to have an Inspector General under current law. And this… so, this would give them the authority and yes, 09600134.doc 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 we… we would want to… I mean the… the goal of this is to establish a more independent investigator so that… so that those types of things can be rooted out."
"Do we know how many employees that the Toll Highway Authority has? Would… and I presume this would be subject to all… all the folks whether union or nonunion, correct?"
"Correct."
"Okay. And do… do we have any idea how many employees there are?"
"No, clueless."
"I'm going to… could we just bring them under the provision of the Illinois Department of Transportation and couldn't we use the same type of Inspector General and just maybe expand that… those…"
Speaker Lang: "Mr. Franks, please bring your remarks to a close."
"Could we expand those duties to the Department of Transportation? 'Cause one of the things that I… a lot of us have talked about is eliminating the Toll Highway Authority and melding it in with the Department of Transportation. I'm… I'm a little concerned about providing them independent Inspector Generals if we're ever going to be the ones who would be eliminating them. I would rather see an Inspector General from the Department of Transportation also have this… this portion in that portfolio. Is that something that we could consider and possibly amend?"
"Representative, the Toll Highway Authority is a… is a different agency than the rest of the executive agency. 09600134.doc 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 It's a qua… it's a, you know, quasi- governmental agency that… has it… stand alone. And so I don't think that we could do that right now, actually. And… and at such point that we would want to meld them together, there would have to be a lot of statutory changes and this could simply be one of those."
"Okay. Well, thank you."
"Mr Moffitt, for two minutes."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"Representative, could you just clarify. Our analysis said that this position is currently vacant. Is it vacant or are you creating a new position?"
"It's my understanding we're creating a new position."
"And do you have any estimate of the… the cost? And I would… I would add to that obviously this position could be… could be cost effective and… and probably could find expenditures waste that… that would more than pay for the position. But just the initial outlay of costs and the size of staff, do you have any estimate of that?"
"I've… I've not gotten that information from the Tollway Authority, but it… that would be subject to the approv… the action by the board of the Toll Highway Authority in setting that salary and… and setting a budget for the entire office."
"It'd be the Tollway Authority and… and it's not going to need any state resources. Is that correct?"
"They don't get any state resources now 'cause it…"
"So this… this would not use state resources." 09600134.doc 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"This would… this would… this doesn't change that."
"And I think that is an issue of independence. I… I hope it truly is an… an independent position with lots of transparency and one that would…"
"If not, we'll be back."
"Okay. Thank you."
"Mr. Brady."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"Representative, I… I think in earlier discussion you had indicated that you didn't have a price tag to this. Is that correct? That you don't know exactly what the price is going to be."
"The tollway budget is set by their board and approved…"
"Okay."
"…by their board, and so I don't know what, you know, I don't think that those discussions have gone ahead yet. So, that… that would be within their discretion."
"Is… is there… is there some reason why with what would need to be investigated that the Auditor General of the state could not have a role, or the Attorney General's Office of the State of Illinois could not have a role, or the Auditor General's Office of all the investigatory agencies we have under the Auditor General could not have a role, or is there some reason why the Illinois State Police and their investigative powers could not have a role, the Secretary of State's Office division of 09600134.doc 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 investigative authority law enforcement. Is there not some existing agency that could perform what's trying to be accomplished here?"
"Well, Representative, all those agencies, I think, could have a role in this. But like the executive… we have Inspectors General for… for the Executive Branch. We have an other Inspectors General and the Toll Highway Authority had no statutory authority for an Inspector General, so we are giving them that authority."
"Well, I can… I can appreciate that. It just seems to me like we have more generals inspecting and investigating things in the State of Illinois with… with more titles that I… I can't fathom that there's not some division within some of these Inspector… Inspector General divisions or investigative authorities or law enforcement officials that they could not absorb and do what we're trying to do without creating a new position in State Government without knowing what the price tag's going to be."
"Well, Representative, we're not creating a new position in State Government."
"Please bring your remarks to a close."
"Okay. I'm… I'm sorry, Representative, I… I thought you said that we were creating a new position."
"Well, remember, the Toll Highway Authority is its own separate entity. It is not an agency of State Government. It's a quasi- governmental agency. So, it… it needs… and given the history of the Toll Highway Authority I think we… we would want this Inspector General in house to be doing this kind of investigations. We've… you know, continued to 09600134.doc 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 see over the last, even last several months, allegations of… that I think… raise some concern with regard to the oasis and… so this is, I think a necessary improvement for the operation of the Toll Highway Authority."
"Well, I… I can appreciate your efforts and… and I will just simply say I… I find it hard to believe of all the people who are sworn law enforcement officers or peace officers in the State of Illinois with investigative powers, that somewhere within that investigative authority in those agencies they could not be involved in any type of assistance in investigations and inspections for the Illinois Tollway Authority. Thank you very much, Representative."
"Representative Nekritz to close." Nekritz. "I'd just ask for an 'aye'… 'aye' vote."
"Those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Boland, Dugan, Watson. Please take the record. On this question, there are 112 Members voting ‘yes’, 3 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3281, Representative McCarthy. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3281, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"Mr. McCarthy. Out of the record. Senate Bill 3295, Representative Turner. Mr. Turner. Out of the record. I'm sorry. The Gentleman is in the chamber. Please read the Bill." 09600134.doc 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Senate Bill 3295, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. Third Reading."
"Mr. Turner."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Assembly. House Bill 3295 is basically a Bill to clean up and clarify the… the expungement Bill or process here in the State of Illinois. It does two things. One, it clarifies that when there are two or more charges brought against an offender, the outcome of the conviction, rather than the initial charge determines if the offender qualifies to have his or her records sealed. And secondly, it amends the current law to clarify the records expunged pursuant to the Governor's pardon power may be transferred post expungement like all other records sealed by the Illinois State Police. And that's what Senate Bill 3295 does. And I move for the endorse… for the passage of that Bill."
"Gentleman has moved for the passage of the Bill. There being no debate, those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Brady. Please take the record. On this question, there are 91 voting ‘yes’, 23 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3320, Representative Holbrook. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3320, a Bill for an Act concerning safety. Third Reading."
"Mr. Holbrook." 09600134.doc 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Thank you. Senate Bill 3320 is the result of the Legislative Task Force Underground Storage Tanks, better known as LUST. This Bill came out of the Senate unanimously, came out of committee after we amended it with some cleanup language and it does three things. It sets criteria for cleanup sites, so that it'll make it easier for us to do more cleanups. It sets up an optional… bidding program. And it sets up a legacy site cleanup under the LUST program. I have not had anyone object to this Bill to me."
"The Gentleman has moved for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Currie, Fortner, Osterman. Please take the record. On this question, there are 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3346, Representative May. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3346, a Bill for an Act concerning safety. Third Reading."
"Representative May."
"Thank you, Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. Senate Bill 3346 creates the Mercury Thermostat Collection Act. In as… background I can tell you that in 2006 we banned these thermostats with mercury in them in the state and we have a voluntary collection program. Senator Steans did a fabulous job of working to create an agreed Bill with all members of the industry. We have letters from Honeywell and G.E. that are signing it in support of this. It will 09600134.doc 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 create a collection program so that we can get from the 4500 we collect now with a goal of 15 thousand a year. It's very comprehensive because it's hard to tell exactly how many thermostats there are, millions in the U.S. Other state are doing this and we care about it because mercury causes… it causes memory loss, mental impairment, especially for children and fetuses. So, we have gradually been phasing it out. Now we're collecting it. It's a very similar program that was developed for auto switches, also. So, I ask for your support for this important Bill. It was unanimous in the Senate and unanimous in committee also."
"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Soto. Please take the record. On this question, there are 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. The Chair recognizes Representative Gabel."
"Thank you, Speaker. I rise on a point of personal privilege."
"State your point."
"I would like to recognize a… my Page for a day from Evanston, Illinois. We have Andrew Kelly, Jr. and his father Andrew Kelly, Sr. up in the gallery. Please give them a warm welcome. Thank you for coming today."
"Thank you. Welcome to Springfield. Next Bill is Senate Bill 3359, Representative McAsey. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill." 09600134.doc 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Senate Bill 3359, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. Third Reading."
"Representative McAsey."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. This is an Act concerning criminal law. Does three things. First, creates the offense of eyeball tattooing, scleral tattooing of the white of the eyeball. It updates the definition of electronic communication in both the cyber stalking and harassment through electronic communications statute. And in the harassment through electronic communications, inserts language related to transmitting an electronic communication with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass any protected class. I'd be happy to answer any questions and move for passage of the Bill."
"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. The Chair recognizes Representative Reis."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"Representative, now you amended this, right? And you took out a couple of words, which is obscene or you put those back in?"
"There… there have been a couple of Amendments to the Bill. Initially, when the Bill was filed there was a drafting error it included the word 'obscene'. That language was removed because with that language in it, it made no change to existing law. Yesterday there was a Floor Amendment adopted deleting the word 'offend' so that ultimately in the elec… the harassment through electronic communication, the statute reads that it would be 09600134.doc 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 transmission of an electronic communication with an intent to abuse, threaten, or harass."
"What constitutes an intent to harass?"
"Well…"
"What is the definition of harass?"
"The definition of harass, actually there in… in multiple places both in the statute, not specifically in the harassment thru electronic communication statute, but in the cyberstalking statute, there is a definition of harass that this Body passed. There's also case law that speaks to the definition of harass. That harassment implies intentional acts which cause someone to be worried, anxious or uncomfortable and that… the emotional disturbances would be more serious than the mildest state that those terms suggest. And…"
"Representative, we only got a couple of minutes here. Could nonviolent religious speech be something that could be an intent to harass?"
"Well… the… the courts, the trier of fact would look at all the circumstances in the, in… in whatever is alleged and… and looking at all the circumstances would have to make a determination about the intent. And so, it becomes a question of the intent and then the question of motivation… of the… the person making those statements."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Well, it's a question for the courts, for the trier of fact about what all the circumstances…" 09600134.doc 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Representative McAsey will complete her answer and Representative Reis will finish up, if he can. Representative McAsey."
"The courts would have to look at all the circumstances and make a determination as to whether intent to… intent and harassment has been proven. So, it's… it's a question for the… the courts."
"Representative… or Mr. Speaker, I'll have somebody else yield me time. I have more questions for the Representative."
"Representative Kosel wishes to yield you two additional minutes, Sir."
"And Representative, that's what our concern is with this is… we're going to allow judges to determine law here, down the road, rather than putting it into statute. And so, that's one problem that we still have with your Bill. Also, is military police, firemen, and other groups of people are not included in this Bill. Is that correct?"
"This language speaks specifically to electronic communications that are transmitted with an intent to abuse, threaten, or harass…"
"But those people…"
"…motivated by certain protective classes. So any protections that are already in law for those groups would not be affected and this goes to the specific enumerated lists in… in the Bill's language."
"Why would you include them?"
"Right now, what we're going… what… what this legislation is doing is standing up against harassment, 09600134.doc 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 abuse, and threats based on a person's race, a person's gender, sexual orientation, religion."
"But why would we exclude those groups and…"
"There is… there… this… this is providing protection to specific groups. It's not… this is not excluding any other… there's no specific exclusion."
"Well… let me ask you a question. How would this a… apply to political campaigns? I mean, you're not quite… as here as long, but I think you know as well as a lot of us do those can be very harassing campaigns. A lot of things can be said, a lot of things can be said electronically. How would this apply to political campaigns?"
"This… this is separate from… from what you're talking about. So the language before us…"
"Would this affect… would this affect political communication…"
Speaker Lang: "Please provide an answer to Mr. Reis's question."
"The language before us goes specifically to electronic communications, the intent and the three specific words abuse, threaten, or harass that are motivated by these different protected classes. And so, were there behavior that would fit into these words, then… then perhaps, but that would become a question for the trier of fact based on all the circumstances surrounding whatever the communication is."
"Mr. Rose."
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields." 09600134.doc 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"First of all, Representative, putting aside for a moment the fact that I could really care less if somebody wants to tattoo their eyeballs, this Bill… this Bill is probably the most damaging assault on the First Amendment I've seen in eight years in Springfield. That says a lot. And let me ask you something, Representative. Have you ever heard the old saying sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me? Have you heard that childhood nursery rhyme?"
"I have."
"Okay. Why would you protect some people but not… a military person? Why would you say that you can harass a military person? That's okay, but it's not too okay to harass somebody else. Why would you set up that distinction?"
"I… I am not saying that it is okay to harass a military person or…"
"But you've excluded them, Representative."
"…anyone that serves in our Armed Forces. This particular…"
"You've excluded them and police and firemen. Why would you exclude them?"
"This particular language goes to the protected classes and… and is…"
"Well, let me ask you… here's a hypothetical. So, if I sent a text message to a military man and said, you stupid military man, that's okay, but if I sent a text message to an African American and said, you stupid African American, that's not okay. What is the difference? What happens if 09600134.doc 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 that African American happens to be a military man or woman? Do you charge it or not? What… do you charge it or not, Representative? What's the difference? You stupid 'fill in the blank' if it's a military man or woman it's not chargeable. If it's one of the other ones it is. You can't do this. This is the United States of America. Do you know what? People could say all kinds of stupid, ignorant, dumb things and sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, Representative."
"And… and this legislation goes…"
Speaker Lang: "The Gentleman's time has expired. Representative Reboletti."
"I… I yield the Gentleman from Champaign my time."
"Mr. Rose for two minutes."
"Again… Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, Representative McAsey, how… I mean, lets take… Okay. So, here we've got a… a contradiction in terms. You can insult an African American military person, that's okay, but you couldn't insult them the minute they take the uniform off, that's not okay. Forget that. Lets go to a grade school… lets go to the junior high school on any given day of the week on facebook, text messaging, phones, whatever. You stupid girl, you stole my boyfriend. You stupid boy, you stole my girlfriend. You're going to indict all the school kids in the State of Illinois for what happens every day of the week. How do you do that?"
"Representative Rose, I think that if you look at the language of this legislation that it goes directly to people who are being continuously abused, threatened, or 09600134.doc 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 harassed based on race, based on color, based on gender, sexual orientation. I…"
"It doesn't say continually harassed, it says intent to harass."
"Exactly… exactly to what is going on in schools where we have students who are being harassed. We have continued text messages. We have young people who have taken their lives as a result of repeated harassment and we need to stand up against that."
"And Representative McAsey, that's every kid in America."
"Mr. Rose… Mr. Rose, please allow the Lady to finish answering your question, Sir. Thank you very much. Representative McAsey."
"And… and I would just say that's what we need to stand up to. I urge the support of the Members of this chamber in joining me in doing that."
"Representative McAsey, every kid in America at some point in time in grade school, junior high, or high school will be guilty of this, every kid, and everyone in this room, when we were in grade schools. 'Cause you know what, part of growing up is learning what ignorance is. And when you shouldn't offend someone…"
Speaker Lang: "The Gentleman's time has expired. Mr. Fritchey."
"Thank you, Speaker. To the Bill. Ladies and Gentlemen, the woman had a Bill that needed work. She took the steps to fix the Bill. There were some issues with the Bill that I actually had raised with her, and some other folks, and she agreed. And she fixed it. She is not 09600134.doc 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 trying to do anything drastic or dramatic here. She's being chastised for letting the courts have to interpret statutes that were laws that we passed. They do that all the time. That's what they're there for. The Gentlemen across the way are looking for an issue where one doesn't exist. The aspect of harassing an individual has been dealt with in the courts before. It can be dealt with again. I believe that this Bill is narrowly tailored and properly tailored. You know, I… I find it… well, I'm not even going to get into this argument. But I… I find some of the arguments that are coming from across the way to be very interesting, of… of late, but… but that being said, to my colleagues on the entire floor, but especially on this side of the aisle, folks, don't… don't be swayed by red herrings here. This… this is a Bill that is very clear what it tries to do. It says that you cannot use electronic communications to abuse, threaten, or harass. With the issues that we've seen with cyber stalking, with the issues that we've seen with bullying, with the issues that we've seen with new modes of communication being used to harass some of the most vulnerable people in society, this is legislation which is unfortunately needed but needed nevertheless. I suggest an 'aye' vote. Thank you."
"Representative Cultra."
"I yield my time to Representative Rose."
"Mr. Rose for two minutes."
"Thank you. Thank you. Representative McAsey, what's… what's the charge on this?"
"Are you speaking to the eyeball tattooing or the…" 09600134.doc 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"The harassment."
"…inclusion harassment?"
"Yeah."
"This is a Class B misdemeanor."
"Okay. So, that's punishable by up to six months in jail?"
"That's correct."
"Okay. So, a junior high school kid sends a text to their ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend making fun of them, clearly with the intent to harass…"
"And Representative Rose, it is not just an intent to harass, but an intent to harass motivated by the perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, national origin of another individual or group of individuals."
"Well, look I'm… I'm not going to belabor the point. But there's a simple, sticks and stones may break my bones, words will never hurt me. You know, that's a real simple thing that I thought we all learned in grade school as we were growing up. As… all of us were going through saying stupid stuff that we never would have said once we became older and mature and had respect for people. But another guy once said… his name was Voltaire. Voltaire once said, I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. That's what this country was founded on. That's what makes democracy great. Free speech. The… the ability to come in and say whatever you want even if it's stupid is what moves democracies. It's what makes them vibrant and healthy. Voltaire was 09600134.doc 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 right when he said that. I… I just… I don't… I don't know where we keep going in this country that somehow we think government can protect everybody from everything including unhurt feelings… or hurt feelings."
"The Gentleman's time has expired, but I'll let him finish his thought."
"I don't know where we're going in this country when we have this notion that government can protect everyone from everything including hurt feelings. And we've gotten so far afield from what we were founded on. I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. That's what makes us Americans, everyone of us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy's not in his chair. Representative Tracy."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to yield my time to Representative Reboletti."
"Mr. Reboletti."
"Thank you, Speaker. Representative, does this mirror the telephone hara…"
"The Sponsor will yield, Sir."
"Thank you, Speaker. Representative, now that you've yielded, does this statute mirror the telephone harassment statute? We already have a Class B misdemeanor for telephone harassment. I know we've been looking to update that because obviously you can harass people via e- mail, and Internet, and text messaging, cell phone, so we had to update that almost like we're updating our Telecommunications Act. So, why can't we just mirror that 09600134.doc 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 statute and provide equal protection of the law fairly across the board? We already have a statute. It is constitutional. It's been charged before. Now, if we update it, why can't we just do that without violating any equal protection?"
"Well… and Representative, you're talking about harassment through the telephone; whereas, this is harassment through electronic communication." Reboletti: That's right."
"Right."
"And what I'm saying is why… why don't we just update the telephone harassment statute to include these new devices; therefore, we already have a constitutionally sound statute."
"Well, part of this Bill does update the definition of electronic communication in both the… the Harassing and Obscene Communication Act as well as the Cyberstalking Act."
"Well, I… I appreciate that. Representative Rose talked about offensive contact or… or intent. When you and I talked about it, you send out a political e-mail or even a state e-mail you don't know what the other person is going to think about it. If they go to the State's Attorney's Office and say, look, I've been offended, the… it's going to be the state's attorney who decided what they're going to charge, not the trier of fact. Somebody has to initiate the charge. It could be the police officer or it could be the state's attorney. They're going to 09600134.doc 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 determine if there's probable cause for that. That's fair to say, right?"
"The Lady will finish her response."
"The… ultimately… the… while the state's attorney would make a decision related to charging based upon the facts and the circumstances, the trier of fact would make the determination about whether to hold someone accountable. Now… we talked earlier about, you know, this is multipronged issue here. We're talking about the… the communication being transmitted, the intent and then the… that… that intent was motivated by one of these classes. So, all of those facts are going to have to be present and… and that will be a determination of the people involved in the process, be it the prosecutorial authorities or ultimately the courts."
"Mr. Reboletti, please bring your remarks to a close, Sir."
"Representative, I'm going to ask you to take it out of the record briefly. I think we can make this Bill a little bit better. I… I think we should get it done right here, not just pass it along to the Governor to see what he'll do."
"Mr. Froehlich."
"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to call the previous question."
"The Gentleman moves for the previous question. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. The previous question is put. Representative McAsey to close." 09600134.doc 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"I urge your 'aye' vote."
"Those in favor vote 'yes’; those 'no'… opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Brady, Hannig, McCarthy. Please take the record. On this question, there are 63 voting ‘yes’, 49 voting ‘no’, and 2 voting ‘present’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3446, Representative Joyce. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3446, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. Third Reading."
"Mr. Joyce."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 3446 would simply change the… the date that property taxes become delinquent for the 2010 tax year from March 1 to April 1. In essence, these are the bills that will be due March 1 or April 1 of 2011. I'd be happy to answer any questions."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Eddy for two minutes.
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Gentleman yields."
"Representative, originally the… Cook County was opposed. Did they remove their opposition to this?"
"You know what, Representative, I… I really don't know if they… I… I don't know if they removed their opposition to this." 09600134.doc 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Okay. I… I think the opposition… originally; this thing lost in… in committee…"
"The House version, right?"
"…because of some opposition, but they removed the opposition because of a change in the Bill. I just want to… want to verify that 'cause I know a lot of folks originally who might have been concerned with this would not be if they understand that the opposition was removed because of a change to the original Bill. In fact, our analysis continues to state that opposition."
"Yeah. My… my analysis says the opposition too. There hasn't been an Amendment, but because of two reasons this Bill is necessary. Number one, tax bills are being delayed as it is and so I think that's… that's one thing but the… the bigger reason was, you know, last year the General Assembly passed the 55 percent on the first installment. This applies to the first installment only. Instead of having half… your first installment bill being half of what the previous year was, we have now changed it to make it 55 percent of what the previous year was. So, in essence, this removes… it actually doesn't remove the due date it just changes when something becomes late on the first installment by one month."
"Okay. Well, Representative, I…"
"It's only… and it's only for Cook County. I'm sorry."
"I appreciate that and I just want to make sure people understand that… that it's our understanding that maybe the analysis doesn't reflect the fact that they have removed their opposition." 09600134.doc 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Yeah. And I'm not 100 percent sure…"
"Okay."
"…or comfortable to tell you that right now. Sorry."
"Thank you."
"Have you completed your remarks, Mr. Eddy? Mr. Joyce to close."
"Simply request an 'aye' vote."
"Those in favor shall vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Currie, Lyons, Mell. Please take the record. On this question, 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. The Chair recognizes Representative Bellock."
"Thank you, Mr Speaker. Will you please show me voting 'yes' on Senate Bill 3295."
"The record will reflect your intentions."
"Thank you."
Speaker Lang: "Senate Bill 3509, Representative Saviano. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3509, a Bill for an Act concerning professional regulation. Third Reading."
"Mr. Saviano."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. Senate Bill 3509, as amended, addresses concerns of all the health care professionals in the way we identify health care professionals in a health care setting as far as how their… their name tags are identified besides their name. We… we'll only allow their legitimate… profession indicated on 09600134.doc 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 that and not some other unrecognized certifications. This has been a problem and I think we address it with this Bill. And I ask for its passage."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Coulson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Gentleman yields."
"Thank you. I just want to make sure that… in the Amendment that we're mainly looking at people being able to say what their profession, their license is on their name tag. What does this Bill do to any kind of advertising and that kind of thing? An… anything?"
"No. What… what it actually does is in some of these health care settings what… what the problem was, was that they would, on their name tag, have not only, you know, indicating if they're an R.N., or an L.P.N., or whatever, they would have some other certifications that were only granted in-house, in that facility and it was somewhat confusing and we're… we're trying to address that and clarify exactly what they're licensed to do."
"So, if someone has a degree in a particular field and they're licensed, they can put that on their name tag, put that in their advertising, but not… another outside certification."
"Correct."
"What… what happens in advertising as far as their degree… in whether it be… we have… in our analysis and… there's a difference between a doctor of psychology and a 09600134.doc 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 medical doctor who practices psychiatry. Does this address that issue or can they still say they're a doctor of psychology?"
"They can say they're a doctor of psychology as long as they indicate what they're a doctor of. And it clarifies that."
"All right. Yeah. Okay. That's what I needed to know. Thank you…"
"Those in favor of the Bill should vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Colvin, Hannig, May. Please take the record. On this question, there are 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Moving to page 5 of the Calendar. Senate Bill 3635, Representative Chapa LaVia. Representative Chapa LaVia. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3635, a Bill for an Act concerning education. Third Reading."
"Representative Chapa LaVia."
"First of all, I just want to say, Speaker, you're doing an outstanding job. You can send me something later. Okay. House Bill 3635, we amended it to the language which my Representative on the other side of the aisle with the request, but what it does, it amends the section of the School Code that pertains to the amount of expenditures for bilingual trans… transitional programs to 60 percent. And I'm available for any questions and request an 'aye' vote." 09600134.doc 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. There being no debate, those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Bassi, Reitz. Mr. Reitz. Please take the record. On this question, 114 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’, 1 voting ‘present’. And this Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3628, Representative Turner. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3628, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. Third Reading."
"Mr. Turner."
"Thank you… Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Assembly. Senate Bill 3628 is a gut and replace Bill. What it does is it add two public defenders to the criminal justice information authority. One being from the county of Cook and the other one being appointed by the Governor."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. There being no debate, those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Cole, Durkin, Jakobsson. Please take the record. On this question, 115 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 3631, Representative Dugan. Please read the Bill. I may have misstated that, Mr. Clerk. Senate Bill 3661. Representative Dugan." 09600134.doc 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Senate Bill 3661, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"Representative Dugan."
"Thank you, Speaker, Members of the House. House Bill 6172 amends the Illinois Lottery Law by creating a special retailers' license for veteran service organizations to sell the veteran's cash… scratch off game. And I'll certainly be willing to answer any questions and would like an 'aye' vote."
"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. There being no debate, those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Coulson, Moffitt. Please take the record. On this question, 106 Members voting ‘yes’, 9 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. The Chair recognizes Representative Moffitt."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The number… the Bill number that you announced and the number that the Legislator said was being presented, I believe, were two different Bills, weren't they?"
"I misstated the number, Sir and then I corrected myself."
"I didn't hear the correction. So, we were… you agree, we were voting on the… It's not… the number you said first was not the one that the… Legislator presented."
"Correct number of the Bill was Senate Bill 3661 and that is the Bill that Representative Dugan described, Sir." 09600134.doc 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Thank you."
"Thank you. Next matter on the Calendar is Senate Bill 3762, Representative Mautino. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3762, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading."
Speaker Lang: "Out of the record. Senate Bill 3761, Representative Colvin. Please read the Bill. Did I… I'm making a habit of this today, Sir. Senate Bill 3781. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3781, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading."
"Mr. Colvin."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 3781 is some cleanup language that… from a Bill that was passed last year dealing with the Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008. It removes several exemptions. The one, and most important and in particular, removes mortgage and licensing exemptions for people that originate less than two residential mortgages loans a year as personal real estate investments. It brings those folks under the Act and it makes several small technical changes. Be happy to answer any questions."
"The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Miller, Pihos, Verschoore, Wait. Please take the record. On this question, 113 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’, 1 voting ‘present’. And this Bill, having received the 09600134.doc 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. We have a few Bills on Senate… Senate Bills, Second Reading. Page six of the Calendar, Senate Bill 380, Representative Davis. Representative Will Davis. Out of the record. Oh, I'm sorry, Sir. Please read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 380, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Second Reading. And Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Davis, has been approved for consideration."
"Mr. Davis." Davis, w.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Floor Amendment #1 to Senate Bill 380, we had that in committee yesterday. Essentially, what the Amendment does is we're trying to create a reusable energy standard for the possibility of a facility in the south suburbs that incinerates tires. We had great discussion on that Bill… on the Amendment yesterday. And there are a number of concerns that were raised by some of the advocates and we're still trying to figure out ways to address that, but we still want to keep this issue moving forward. So, I would ask for the adoption of the Amendment."
"The Gentleman has moved for the adoption of the Amendment. And on that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Eddy for two minutes."
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Gentleman yields."
"Representative, my understanding is that with this Amendment the original opposition really hasn't changed and 09600134.doc 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 it… it really kind of centers around the fact that tire burning is a difficult concept to align with… renewable energy and… and they just… they just really kind of oppose that application to a renewable energy Bill." Davis, W.: "Well… well, first of all, what we're… what we're trying to do is we're not calling it renewable. Based on the definition of what renewable is, we're not calling it renewable. We're trying to create another… another category that we call reusable. And you're correct because the opposition didn't change. When we first met with the advocates, they offered us some suggestions that may lessen their opposition and that's what you… essentially see in front of you, but at the end of the day, on an issue like this one, the advocates are never going to be in favor of something like this. But one of the things that we wanted to make clear, Representative, is that this Bill was not trying to give permission to do something that they couldn't already do. We're just trying to figure out a way to incentivize to keep a facility in the south suburbs in one of the, unfortunately, one of the poorest communities. We're trying to keep the facility open and operating."
"And I understand the job implication here. I… I think their point is, though, that if it's really renewable energy, to define that it's… not going to be something that in any way pollutes the air, or… or the water, or land. Let me ask you this. Is it your intention to… to attach this Amendment, keep this on Second and continue to work on this? Are you going to keep the Bill on Second and work on 09600134.doc 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 it or are you going to try to move it to Third? What… what's your intention?" Davis, W.: "Well, the intention is to move the Bill. Again, what we realized in committee yesterday is that we aren't going to be able to do anything to make the ad…"
"Please bring your remarks to a close." Davis, W.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We aren't going to be able to do anything to make the advocates happy. So, we're going… I'd like to adopt this Amendment. We got it out of committee. I'd like to adopt the Amendment, move the… move the Bill to Third. Now on Third, again, there was still something that was brought up by one of the downstate Representatives that we're going to explore. So, I'm… I'm not saying that I will hold it on Second. That was not asked of me in committee. So, I'd like to move it to Third. But there's still one thing we'd like to explore, which may require another Amendment, but hopefully before we get out of here. But at this point, the objective is to keep it on… to move it to Third."
"Mr. Eddy." Eddy: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Chair… I… first of all, I'd like to request a Roll Call on this Amendment. There are concerns. I… I think if we left it on Second and you continued to work on it with the adoption, it'd be different, but if we move this to Third, there are a number of groups that are adamantly opposed, the Sierra Club, some environmental groups. I would… I would urge Members to help keep this where… where it is on Second Reading and 09600134.doc 54 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 vote against the Amendment until it's an agreed… a more agreed Amendment. Thank you."
"The Gentleman's request for a Roll Call vote will be granted. There being no further… people wishing to debate, Representative Davis to close." Davis, W.: "Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of clarification. If… if this Amendment were to fail, does… does the Amendment die? Help… help… the Bill moves as is? Okay. Well, one… one and one thing I will say, Representative Eddy, again, I know that there are a number of… of folks that were opposed to this. Again, there isn't anything that we're going to be able to do to make them happy. Even with the change that was brought up by one of the Representatives is not going to change, unfortunately, where… where the advocates are. Unfortunately, it's… it's just not going to… not going to happen. Again, we're trying to help a facility and a community move this issue forward. Again, we're still open to continuing to talk about it, but unfortunately, that's… that's just not going to happen, Representative. I… I hate to say it that way, but I'll be straightforward with you in that respect."
Speaker Lang: "The Gentleman's moved for the adoption… Representative Eddy."
"Speaker, I'll… I'll withdraw my request for the Roll Call. If he wants to move it to Third as is that's his… I… I just think this is not… not what we want to see happen with renewable energy. I will re… remove my request."
"The Gentleman has removed his request for a Roll Call vote. The Gentleman has already closed on his… 09600134.doc 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 comments on the Amendment. Those in favor of the adoption of the Amendment shall say 'yes'; those opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Returning briefly to page 5 of the Calendar. Senate Bill 3780, Representative Golar. Mr. Clerk, what is the status of that Bill?"
"Senate Bill 3780, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"Please put that Bill on the Order of Second Reading at the request of the Sponsor. Returning to page 7 of the Calendar, there appears Senate Bill 2494, Representative Joyce. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2494, a Bill for an Act concerning education. Second Reading. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Joyce, has been approved for consideration."
"Mr. Joyce."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 2494. On Amendment #1, it straightens out many of the concerns that some of the folks had to make sure that this is following Chicago students only. This is a voucher program that sets up a school choice for Chicago public school students that are in the lowest 10 percent performing schools. It also allows for the 5 percent most overcrowded schools that have at least 70 percent, excuse me, at least 70 percent poverty stu… poverty qual… qualified students. I'd like to adopt this Amendment. There's going to be additional Amendments to fix some 09600134.doc 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 technical changes to address the Illinois State Board of Education's concerns, and leaving the Bill on Second Reading."
"The Gentleman moves for the adoption of the Amendment. There being no one wishing to debate, those in favor of the adoption of the Amendment shall say 'yes'; those opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. However, notes have been requested and not yet received on this Bill."
"The Bill shall be held on the order of Second Reading. And on page 8 of the Calendar there appears Senate Bill 2987. Representative Acevedo. Representative Acevedo, 2897? Please read the Bill."
Senate Bill 2987, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. Second Reading. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Acevedo, has been approved for consideration."
"And that is Senate Bill 2987. Representative Acevedo. Out of the record. The Chair recognizes Representative Hernandez."
"Thank you, Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Please state your point."
"I'd just like to make an announcement. My seatmate Eddie Acevedo has become a grandpa for the second time at 1:55 this morning."
Speaker Lang: "Congratulations, Representative. Is Representative Moffitt in the chamber? Mr. Moffitt on a Motion… on Senate Bill 3661. Mr. Moffitt." 09600134.doc 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Having voted on the prevailing side, I move to reconsider Senate Bill 3661. There was some confusion there as to which Bill we were… was being presented. I believe the Sponsor, and certainly no… nothing was intentional, was presenting House Bill 6172 and the description did not match what was being presented. I think, just in fairness to everyone, we should reconsider this Bill. Thank you."
Speaker Lang: "You heard the Gentleman's Motion. On that question, the Chair recognizes Representative Reis."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor of the Motion, Sir?"
"The Sponsor of the original Bill."
"The Sponsor of the original Bill is not in order, Sir. There's a Motion to reconsider. You have any questions of Representative Moffitt, who's the maker of the Motion?"
"I'll ask my questions when… before we revote."
"Thank you. No… there being no one wishing to debate, those in favor of Mr. Moffitt's Motion to reconsider shall vote 'yes'; those opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Brauer, Cultra, May, McCarthy, Poe, Sente. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 43 voting 'yes', 71 voting 'no'. And the Gentleman's Motion is defeated. The Chair recognizes Representative Moffitt."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems to be ongoing, maybe lack of clarification and if the… if the Sponsor of 09600134.doc 58 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010 the Bill would comment, I'd appreciate it, but I believe it's fine with her to reconsider it. I just think from the point of clarification to have stated that we're voting on one Bill and actually presented a different Bill is not a good situation. I don't think it'll change the outcome of the… the vote on… on the Bill that she presents. It's my understanding it's all right with the Sponsor."
"Mr. Moffitt, with all due respect, Sir. The record was corrected at the time, it was corrected after the vote, as well. You made a Motion to reconsider, which was defeated, Sir. Mr. Reis."
"Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."
"Please state your point."
"I understand that that went on, but it also had a tag line at the top. People thought they were voting on an expansion of enterprise zones. And we went to the Sponsor and asked. You know as well as I do, that most of these expansion of gaming Bills get about 20 'no' votes. They pass. But I think there were some people that did not understand what they were voting on with that Bill with the misconfusion of the Bill number and the tag line across the top. I don't know how a gaming Bill gets attached to an enterprise zone Bill but it did. We talked to the Sponsor. She was agreeable to it. That's why I wanted to talk to the Motion about the Bill before we voted."
"The Chair recognizes Representative Sommer."
"A point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."
"State your point, Sir." 09600134.doc 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I'd like you to all welcome the fourth grade class from Lincoln School in Morton, teachers Mrs. Powers and Mrs. Lehnen. My daughter Megan is a part of this group. Please give them a… a nice Springfield welcome."
"Mr. Clerk, Adjournment Resolution."
Clerk Mahoney: "House Joint Resolution 118 offered by Representative Currie. RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that when the two Houses adjourn on Friday, April 30, 2010, the House of Representatives stands adjourned until Monday, May 3, 2010 at 12:00 noon, or until the call of the Speaker; and the Senate stands adjourned until Monday, May 3, 2010, at 12:00 noon, or until the call of the President."
"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Adjournment Resolution. Those in favor say 'yes'; those opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Adjournment Resolution is adopted. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."
"On the order of Agreed Resolution is House Resolution 1184, offered by Representative Cole. House Resolution 1186, offered by Representative Currie. House Resolution 1187, offered by Representative Yarbrough. House Resolution 1189, offered by Representative Pritchard. And House Resolution 1190, offered by Representative Myers." 09600134.doc 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 134th Legislative Day 4/30/2010
"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. Those in favor say 'yes'; those opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Agreed Resolutions are adopted. And now Representative Currie now moves that the House stand adjourned until Monday, May 3 at 12 noon, allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the House does stand adjourned."
"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction and reading of House Bills First Reading. House Bill 6862, offered by Representative Cross, a Bill for an Act concerning education. Senate Bill 3064, offered by Representative Turner, a Bill for an Act concerning business. This has been introduction and reading of House and Senate Bills. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned." 09600134.doc 61