Illinois House Floor Debate — May 5, 2010

Speaker Lyons: "Good morning, Illinois. Your House of Representatives will come to order. Members are asked to please be at your chairs. We shall be led today in prayer by Reverend David Upchurch who is with the Rochester Christian Church in Rochester, Illinois. Reverend Upchurch is the guest of Representative Brauer. Members and guests are asked to please refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones and pagers and rise for the invocation and our Pledge of Allegiance. Reverend Upchurch."

"Representative Annazette Collins, will you lead us in the Pledge."

"Roll Call for Attendance. Leader Barbara Flynn Currie."

"Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record reflect the excused absence of not a single House Democrat today."

"Representative Mike Bost, how we doing on the Republican side?"

"Thank you, Representative Bost. Mr. Clerk take the record. There are 118 Members responding to the Roll Call, we have a quorum and prepared to do the business of the State of Illinois. Representative Cross on House Resolution 1203. Mr. Clerk."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the chamber, can we bring the noise level down, please. Ladies and Gentlemen in the chamber, can we please bring the noise level down. Thank you. Leader Tom Cross."

"Leader Cross moves for the adoption of the Resolution. All those in favor say 'yes'; those opposed say 'no'. By the unan… unanimously adopted House Resolution 1203. Lisa, God love you, congratulations and thanks for honoring us by being here in Springfield. Representative Jim Sacia, for what purpose do you seek recognition, Sir?"

"Please proceed."

"Happy Birthday. Have a great, healthy, happy year. Representative Pritchard, for what purpose do you seek recognition, Sir?"

"Please proceed."

"Congratulations, Hinckley-Big Rock, proud to have you here. Representative Patti Bellock, point of personal privilege."

Speaker Lyons: "Welcome to the Capitol, glad to have you. Representative Tom Holbrook, you have been patiently waiting on a point of personal privilege."

"Thank you, Speaker. Point of personal privilege. I'd like to introduce to the House today and let's give us a warm welcome, to the Village Trustee Brian Wells and his wife, Jamie have joined us today in the… chamber up… behind me here. Welcome to Springfield."

"Welcome to the Capitol, glad to have you. Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Mike Bost, for what purpose do you seek recognition, Sir?"

"Please proceed."

"Thank you, Representative. Happy birthday. Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to move some Bills that are on the Supplemental Calendar #1 that was handed out to everyone. So, we'll be running down the Supplemental Calendar for the most part, not necessarily in perfect 09600137.doc 8  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 order, but we will be moving things. So, if you have a Bill on the Supplemental Calendar, heads up. I'll be asking you what your preference is on the moving of the Bill. Representative Lang, you have Senate Bill 377. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Hold that Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Representative Jehan Gordon, you have Senate Bill 2647. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Put that Bill on the Order of Third Reading. Representative Reitz, you have Senate Bill 2660. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Looks like we have Senate Bill 3460, Representative Hernandez, Senate Bill 3460. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Currie, you have Senate Bill 3638. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Currie, you have Senate Bill 3655. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk what's the status of Representative Currie's Bill, 3658? 3658."

"Leave that Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Representative Currie has Senate Bill 3659. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Chapa LaVia has Senate Bill 3683. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

Speaker Lyons: "Third Reading. Representative Currie has Senate Bill 3702. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. On the Order of Resolutions, Will Davis. Representative Davis, on the Order of Resolutions on the Supplemental Calendar, you have House Resolution 888? The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook on the Order of House Resolution 888." Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Resolution 888 affirms the Illinois House of Representatives support for participation of the… of Taiwan in the Nat… in the United Nations framework convention on climate change, and the International Civil Aviation Organization to increase their contribution to the global community. We had this in committee earlier today and one of the questions that was asked by Representatives was this in any way a slight, or a way to try to offend our countries and our state's relationship with the Republic of China? And the answer to that question is no. What I sense is that Taiwan is a country, it's a growing, emerging country, is always trying to figure out ways in which it can increase its participation in international endeavors and the global economy. So, that's the purpose of this Resolution. I'll 09600137.doc 11  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 be more than happy to answer any questions. And I ask for the adoption of this Resolution."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation. Is there any discussions? Seeing none, the question is, 'Should House Resolution 888 be adopted?' All those in favor signify by saying 'yes'; those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And House Resolution 888 is adopted. Representative Danny Reitz you have Senate Joint Resolution 110."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Joint Resolution 110 creates a host committee for the National Conference of State Legislature… Legislative Summit to be held in Chicago in 2012. And I'd appreciate an 'aye' vote."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation of the Resolution. All those in favor should signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Burns, Osterman, Leader Currie. Harry Osterman, Will Burns, would you like to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this, there's 118 Members voting 'yes'; 0 voting 'no'. And House Resolution… Senate Joint Resolution 110 is adopted. Mr. Clerk, read Senate Bill 3658."

"Hold that Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm starting on the bottom of Page 3 09600137.doc 12  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 under Senate Bills-Third Reading, Representative Franco Coladipietro, you have Senate Bill 1332. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

Speaker Lyons: "The Gentleman from DuPage, Representative Franco Coladipietro."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Should Senate Bill 1332 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Chapa LaVia. 09600137.doc 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Representative Chapa LaVia, would you like to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 117 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Will Davis, on page 4 of the Calendar, under Senate Bills-Third Reading, you have Senate Bill 2538. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Will Davis." Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 2538, as amended, is an initiative of the Illinois Community College Board, and what it does is that it changes the tuition fee criterion for those colleges that qualify for equalization… those community colleges that qualify for equalization grants. This Bill removes the requirement that colleges receiving equalization grants be within 85 percent of the statewide average for tuition and universal fees. The Bill, as amended, requires that those colleges eligible to receive equalization grants under the formula meet the requirement that the revenue received from student tuition is 30 percent or more of the total revenue for the college. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Roger Eddy."

"Sponsor yields." 09600137.doc 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Jack Franks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields."

"Representative, I've been reading the analysis and I'm not sure I understand exactly what this Bill does, because our analysis indicates that it removes the requirement for a community college to maintain a minimum required combined in-district tuition and universal fee rate per semester credit hour. Why… don't… Is that correct?" Davis, W.: "I heard a little bit of your question."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear very well either, what's going on." Davis, W.: "So, could you…"

"Ladies and Gentlemen… hold on, Jack… could we please keep the noise level down. We have a debate on a Third Reading Senate Bill. Thank you very much. Representative Franks."

"Thank you. Our analysis indicates that this Amendment removes the requirement for a community college to maintain a minimum required combined in-district tuition and universal fee rate per semester credit hour. Is that accurate?" 09600137.doc 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Davis, W.: "I believe so."

"Okay. Why… First of all, why would we do that? And how will it benefit?" Davis, W.: "Well, if I can just read a little bit of what I have in front of me here. It says, in the past year… past few years… five years, tuition increases at community colleges have risen at… risen at a much faster rate than at any time in the history of the Illinois Community College system. The reduction in state funding has necessitated much of these increases. Those colleges who qualify for the equalization grant, mostly districts, without a strong local tax base under the statutory formula must also meet a nonformula requirement, i.e., their tuition and standard fees must be within 85 percent of the statewide average of community college tuition and standard fees. This 85 percent caveat has forced an additional increase of tuition at some schools that qualify for their equalization grants. The ICCB Finance Authority Committee agreed that it wanted to continue with a tuition requirement but determined that the 85 percent of the statewide average was ultimately too high…"

"We'll give you another minute to continue the discussion."

"Thank you. I appreciate that 'cause now it makes much more sense to me. Because this will actually keep the tuition rates down if we do this. So, thank you for bringing this forward and thank you for explaining it. I was just confused and I was reading the analysis, but this Bill makes perfect sense and I intend to support it." 09600137.doc 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Representative."

"Thank you."

"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Bill Black."

"Representative Will Davis to close." Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments of the other Representatives and simply ask for an 'aye' vote. Thank you."

Speaker Lyons: "The question is, 'Should Senate Bill 2538 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no', the voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Brauer and Poe? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 117 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Frank Mautino, do you seek recognition? Playing with his button back there, okay. Representative Tryon. Mr. Clerk, Representative Tryon has Senate Bill 2795. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Mike Tryon."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Bill Black."

"Sponsor yields."

"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Should Senate Bill 2795 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? 09600137.doc 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Have all voted who wish? Representative Eddy, Representative Hatcher, Representative Rose, like to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 88 Members voting 'yes', 25 Members voting 'no', 3 Members voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Patti Bellock, you have Senate Bill… Out of the record. Representative Mell, you have Senate Bill 3084. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Representative Debbie Mell."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. This Bill closes a loophole where the most dangerous child sex offenders didn't have to… be put on the registry. And this now says that they do."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook, Representative John Fritchey."

"Thank you, Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, to get your attention for a second and this is… the Sponsor was very gracious… Speaker. This…"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, can we get your attention on the floor, again, please. Can we bring the noise level down. Representative Fritchey."

"Thank you. I… I want to preface my comments with the fact that the Sponsor and staff were very forthcoming in discussing this Bill with me. And there's what I consider to be a fatal flaw in this Bill. And I… you know, 09600137.doc 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 I don't want to attempt to kill the Bill, because I think it can be fixed, but there's a significant problem here and I want to make sure that people know what they're voting on when they do this. One of the aspects in this Bill would provide, and so the Body understands what this does, it retroactively goes back and requires sex offenders to be put on the registry. But what it also does is requires any individual that's at least 17 years of age who commits first degree murder of a child, of somebody under 18 years of age, to be registered as a sex offender. Several years ago I passed legislation, supported I think unanimously by this Body, that created the Violent Offenders Against Youth Act and the registry. What this recognized was that as a state we had a number of crimes that had no sexual component to them that required individuals to become registered as sex offenders. Now, we've seen time and time again the additional restrictions that we put on sex offenders in this state and if that's the policy that we want to have, sobeit, but these individuals are not sex offenders. This is a situation where you may have had a 17-year-old shoot and kill a 16-year-old. A heinous crime, of course it is, but not a sex offense. What we would allow people to do at the time was to go off the sex offender registry and go on to the Violent Offenders Against…"

"Representative, we'll give you another minute."

"Thank you, Speaker, I appreciate that. What this Bill would now do is take somebody that is not a registered sex offender that committed no sex offense and require them 09600137.doc 23  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 to be registered as a sex offender. They could then go and petition to prove that they weren't a sex offender and go on to the Violent Offender Registry. It's bad policy; there's no reason to do this. The Sponsor recognizes it; she didn't intend to do this. This was a drafting error that occurred. She had said that it will try to get… be fixed as a trailer Bill, maybe in the fall, maybe next year, I don't know that. I take her at her word, but we've all seen how things happen in this system. But please understand that supporting this legislation right now you'll be knowingly taking violent offenders and registering them as sex offenders and all the stigmas and restrictions that go along with them. We are going to take young offenders and potentially box them out of society for life by doing this. Again, I cannot be more clear. Representative Mell was very forthcoming with me. She did not know this was in there; she wishes it wasn't. The time is late in Session. I'm happy I'm not going to have to speak on these types of Bills anymore. But there's a significant problem with this Bill, Ladies and Gentlemen and it's one that deserves to be fixed. Thank you very much. Representative Mell, thank you for trying to work with me on this. I have a hunch I'm not going to be able to stop this Bill from becoming law, but please, if it does become law, try to work with the Governor's Office maybe through an Amendatory Veto even to make sure that this tragedy doesn't happen. Thank you."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Bill Black." 09600137.doc 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Black. We'll yield your time to Representative Fritchey. And I've asked several times this morning, Mr. Black, it's just one of those days when there's a… loud noise level. Ladies and Gentlemen, please can we get some quiet on the chamber floor. Bring the conversations down. Two minutes, Representative Fritchey."

"Thank you, Speaker. And let me run through this again. This is a very awkward situation procedurally. Ninety-five percent of this Bill is very good, but just very succinctly, we created a Violent Offender Against Youth Registry because we had a number of offenses that required you to register as a sex offender even though there was no sexual component to the crime. So, now an 18- year-old that kills a 16-year-old becomes a violent offender against youth and he has to register. And there's restrictions on that, but he is not, or she is not, a sex offender. What this Bill does by retroactively taking sex offenders and requiring them to register it also took this category of violent offenders and it would require them to 09600137.doc 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 register as sex offenders. They could then go through the system to petition to say I'm not a sex offender, I never was, I committed a bad crime. Please take me off of one registry and put me on to the other. What this Bill should do is say we are going to retroactively take sex offenders and put them on the registry, on the sex offender registry. We are going to retroactively take violent offenders against youth and put them on the violent offender registry, but it's not what it does. A drafting error was made, I don't believe it was intentional on anybody's part. The Sponsor recognizes it. She's the one and staff is the one that brought it to my attention, but this is not what it does. I'd like to see this thing be amended before Session ends. The Sponsor feels it's too late, it may well be. If we have faith in the system that we can fix this through an Amendatory Veto or through a tailor Bill sobeit, but I've fought against too many of these Bills for too long to a good conscious to not bring this up and not urge a 'no' vote on the Bill as long as it contains this provision. I hope that clarifies this somewhat, Representative."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from DuPage, Representative Dennis Reboletti."

"Sponsor yields."

"It… well, it… it does say that on the lifetime registration it would include the first degree murder of a child under 18. And I completely understand the Representative's frustrations since he… it was his Bill that did create the Violent Offenders Registry and… I'm more than willing to… to work with this and to take this off. I think it's also important to note that… that when they do get on the sex offender registry they get… to immediately petition to get off and to get on the Violent Offenders Registry."

"The genesis was a… there was a… there was this woman who came to my Senator and to me and… she also was on the news in Chicago, and her name was Mindy. And… she was abducted when she was seven years old; it was pretty horrific, her story. And then a few years later in… now she has a seven- year-old child and she just learned that the man who did this lives in her neighborhood and he isn't on any kind of a list or anything. So, that's kind of been the… the genesis of this. Yeah. She was it was… pretty horrific. She was raped, gagged, tied up."

"You know, I… you know, I understand the position. I… I would like to move the Bill and I… do a trailer Bill. I'm at full commitment with that. I… You know, this is also going to take…"

"We'll give you another minute, Representative Reboletti."

"Okay. Okay, okay, Representative."

"Okay."

"Mell, you wish to take the Bill out of the record? On the request of the Sponsor, Mr. Clerk, take that Bill out of the record. Representative Kevin 09600137.doc 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 McCarthy, on Page 4 of the Calendar, you have Senate Bill 3281. Out of the record. Kev, you got another one, Senate Bill 3404. Out of the record. Representative Moffitt, on page 3 of the Calendar, you have Senate Bill 459. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Moffitt."

"Representative Rose, your light is on. Is that from the previous discussion? Okay. Representative Franks, you seek recognition? Representative Jack Franks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields."

"Representative, why is this limited to tax liability less than $600?"

"Now, this only applies to state use taxes. Could you please describe what state use taxes are?"

"When… when you say out of state, is that an Illinoisan purchasing. Let's say I buy some furniture in Iowa and I have it delivered here in Illinois and I didn't pay sales tax in Iowa. Or is it the other way, an Iowan buying 09600137.doc 30  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 something here, made in Illinois and not paying the state tax and then we're asking the Iowan to pay our state tax?"

"Okay."

"That… that was my next question. So, the enforcement issue here is let's assume I want to buy something on eBay and I buy it from a… a seller in another state and I'm not paying sales tax on that. But if I were to buy it from someone in Illinois, I would be required to pay that sales tax. Is that the situation we're discussing here?"

"Okay. And what is the amount that we are projected that you believe that we will gain for the state on this amnesty program?"

"Gentlemen, the time has expired. We'll give you another minute, Jack to finish your question."

"Thank… thank you."

"Okay, okay. Well, I like how you're thinking. I think there's ways to bring more revenue into the state and give people incentive to pay that. So, I intend to support your Bill and I appreciate the way you've described it."

"Thank you."

"Representative Moffitt to close."

"The question is, 'Should Senate Bill 459 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Connie Howard. Betsy Hannig. Deborah Mell. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 117 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Dan Brady on a point of personal privilege."

Speaker Lyons: "Welcome to the Capitol, glad to have you. Representative Ford, you have, on the Order of Senate Bills-Third Reading on the top of page 5 of the Calendar, Senate Bill 3531. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

Speaker Lyons: "Gentleman from Cook, Representative LaShawn Ford."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. Senate Bill 3531 is a gut and replace. This is the Bill that we called earlier this year and… we had concerns because it created a position. The position has been removed and the 09600137.doc 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Bill is agreed. I look for the movement of this legislation at this time and I ask for favorable votes."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation. Is there any discussion? The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Roger Eddy."

"Sponsor yields."

"The difference in this Bill, now, there's no position. Nothing in the Act mandates the department to hire an additional staff member. And that's exactly what… people on this side and people on that side recommended in order to support the legislation. And now I bring it back looking forward to your support."

"Not so much an agency, but there should be a…"

"Not a position. You don't need a position. CMS will monitor it."

"No."

"No costs. I took care of all that for us."

"Yeah." 09600137.doc 34  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"It was… at first there was like $80 thousand cost."

"Well, 96, you know."

"Well, that's gone now, Representative Eddy."

"That price is gone now. No cost to it at this time."

"Let me ask you. Are you asking me this because you want to support this, or are you asking me 'cause you're not going to support this?"

"Is this to support it? Am I going to be able to convince you to vote for it?"

Speaker Lyons: "I'll give you another minute on this discussion. Another minute, Roger… Representative Eddy."

"And I'm asking you, if I answer your question, will you vote for it?"

"Well, I'm not going to answer your question."

"There's no fiscal impact."

"That's what I want to hear. Now, I spoke with CMS and they told me that there will be no impact. And they can do this with the existing staff."

Speaker Lyons: "No one seeking further recognition, Representative Ford to close."

"I expect an 'aye' vote for this legislation. I mean, I worked hard. I did everything that the Republican Party asked for. And I guess we can always look for fault in legislation. And so, I mean, I could go on and on about why this is necessary, but I refuse to go on and on because we pass Bills all of the time in this chamber and we understand why this legislation is necessary. So, I look forward to everyone supporting this." 09600137.doc 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "The question is, 'Should Senate Bill 3531 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk… Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 76 Members voting 'yes', 37 Members voting 'no', 1 Member voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative McCarthy, you have Senate Bill 3537. Out of the record. Representative Ford, you have, on Senate Bill-Third Reading, Senate Bill 3547. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative LaShawn Ford."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. On a much easier note, this Bill is a Bill that's agreed also and it simply adds electronic text books to the technology grant."

"Further discussion? The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Roger Eddy."

"Sponsor yields."

Speaker Lyons: "The question is, 'should Senate Bill 3547 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Brady, Chapa LaVia. Representative Chapa LaVia, would you like to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 116 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 1 Member voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Dave Winters, on the Order of Third Reading-Senate Bills, you have 3619. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Gentleman from Winnebago, Representative Dave Winters."

"You heard the Gentleman's explanation. The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Winnebago, Representative Chuck Jefferson." 09600137.doc 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. I stand in support of this Bill. This Bill is going to actually create a lot of jobs and open up that part of the industry so that we can… we can continue to grow that area and make sure we are putting people back to work. So, I stand in support of this legislation."

"No one seeking further discussion, the question is, 'Should Senate Bill 3619 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Monique Davis. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 117 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Dave Winters, Senate Bill 3712. Out of the record. Representative Mike Smith, you have Senate Bill 3722. Out of the record. Representative McAsey, on the Calendar page 6, on the Order of Second Reading-Senate Bills, you have Senate Bill 1369. Out of the record. Representative Brauer, for what purpose do you seek recognition, Sir?"

"Please proceed."

"Welcome to Springfield. Representative Acevedo, on the Order of Second Reading-Senate Bills, you have Senate Bill 3136. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Randy Ramey, you have Senate Bill 3176. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Ramey, you have a Motion pending to table."

"The Gentleman moves for the Motion to Table Committee Amendment #1. All those in favor signify by saying 'yes'; those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And Amendment #1 is on the table. Anything further, Mr. Clerk?"

"Third Reading. Representative Sandy Pihos, on the Order of Second Readings-Senate Bills, on page 8 of the Calendar, Senate Bill 3180. Out of the record. Representative Frank Mautino, on Second Bill Order of Second Readings… Second Readings of Senate Bill, you have 09600137.doc 40  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Senate Bill 3215. On Second Reading, you want to move that Bill to Third? Out of the record. Representative Osterman, you have, on the Order of Second Readings-Senate Bills, Senate Bill 3401. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Rita, we have Senate Bill 3464 on the Order of Second Reading. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Rita on Floor Amendment #3."

"I'd like to adopt Floor Amendment #3. Number 1 and 2 we'll withdraw, or just leave it the way it is."

"Mr. Clerk."

"So, the enacted…"

"Adopt 3, yes."

"The Motion is to adopt Floor Amendment #3."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This… this has the underlying Bill with this and we put two Amendments to make three parts with this. One of it dealing with cell phone towers and the notification in unincorporated areas to notify the county board and the Representative and the Senator in that district. And the other deals with the pay phone industry to put in a subsidy to help some of these pay phones stay 09600137.doc 41  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 in existence especially in some of them high crime areas. I'd be happy to answer any questions."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation, no one seeking recognition, all those in favor of the adoption of Amendment #3 signify by saying 'yes'; those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Anything further, Mr. Clerk?"

"Third Reading. Representative Brady, on the Order of Second Reading, you have Senate Bill 3010. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"Third Reading. Representative Elaine Nekritz, you have Senate Bill 2168. Representative Nekritz, 2168. Elaine, you want to move that Bill to the Order of Third Reading? Out of the record. Representative Dan Reitz, on the Order of Second Reading, you have Senate Bill 2525. Danny Reitz. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

Speaker Lyons: "Third Reading. Order of Concurrences… Representative Jerry Mitchell, on the Order of Concurrences, on page 11 of the Calendar, you have House Bill 5633, 5633. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk. Clerk doesn't have to read it. We'll just go right to you, Representative Mitchell on the Concurrence Motion." 09600137.doc 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Mitchell, J.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I move to concur with Senate Amendment #1. Basically this is just a technical change that the State Board of Education needed. Does not change the Bill at all, still does what it should do. I recommend an 'aye' vote."

"You heard the Gentleman's explanation. Is there any questions? Seeing none, the question is, 'Should the House concur in Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 5633?' This is final action. All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no'. And the vote… And the House does concur with Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 5633. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Brandon Phelps, on page 12 on the Order of Concurrences on the Calendar, you have House Bill 6099. On the Motion, Representative Phelps."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 6099 is an agreed Bill and I'd like the Body to concur with Senate Amendment #1. Makes three changes, includes pavement into the definition of 'impervious service… surface' and an applicator for hire if a fertilizer contains vegetables. It doesn't have to be tested and if a local government passes an ordinance and it's more restricted before this law goes into effect, 09600137.doc 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 local ordinance supersedes law. So, I just ask for its passage."

"Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, 'Should the House concur in Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 6099?' This is final action. All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Bill Black. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no'. The House does concur with Senate Amendment #1, this House Bill 6099. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, on the Order of Third Readings, Representative John Fritchey has Senate Bill 3584. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative John Fritchey."

"Thank you, Speaker. I simply request an 'aye' vote."

Speaker Lyons: "You've heard the Gentleman's detailed explanation of Senate Bill 3584. Is there any discussion? Seeing none the question is, 'Should Senate Bill 3584 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Zalewski. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 09600137.doc 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Mautino, on page 5 of the Calendar, you have Senate Bill 3762. Out of the record. On the Order of Resolutions, Representative Crespo, you have Senate Joint Resolution 88. Representative Crespo."

"Thank you, Speaker, Members of the House. Senate Joint Resolution 88 directs the Board of Higher Education to establish a Higher Education Finance Study Commission. The commission study is to include, but not limited, to an examination of the history and means of higher education funding in the State of Illinois, a comparison of the productivity of Illinois higher education systems to other state systems and analysis of those practices."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation on Senate Joint Resolution 88. Is there any discussion? The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Roger Eddy."

"Sponsor yields."

"My understanding, Representative, this is a recommendation of the Illinois Public Agenda for College and Career Success."

"They're… they're looking at the adequacy and the equity of funding, compare similar institutions to make sure the funding processing system is equitable in a certain way. They're also looking at how we fund higher education in the state, look at other states like Ohio and Indiana that have actually done some work in that performance based funding, one of the issues, for example."

"The… it is due on December… December 1 of this year."

"Thank you very much."

"The question is… All those in favor of the adoption of Senate Joint Resolution 88 signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Sente, would you like to recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Senate Joint Resolution 88, there are 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. And Senate Joint Resolution 88 is adopted. Representative Don Moffitt, you have Senate Joint Resolution 105. Representative Don Moffitt." 09600137.doc 46  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the adoption Senate Joint Resolution 105 should vote 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Feigenholtz and Verschoore. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On the Amendment, there are 105 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. And Senate Joint Resolution is ad… 118 Members voting 'yes'… Thank you, Mr. Clerk. 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no'. Senate Joint Resolution is adopted. Representative Pritchard, you have, on the Order of Concurrences, House Bill 156. Representative Bob Pritchard 09600137.doc 47  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 on House Bill 156, on the Order of Concurrences, on page 9 of the Calendar. Representative Pritchard."

"Representative, we're going to have to take that out of the record momentarily. Check something with the Clerk. Representative Jehan Gordon, on the Order of Resolutions… Representative Gordon, you have Senate Joint Resolution 117. Out of the record. Representative Jil Tracy, you have Senate Joint Resolution 118. Would you like to… Out of the record. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, on the Order of Senate Bill-Third Readings, on page 5 of the Calendar, Senato… Representative Mautino, you have Senate Bill 3762. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Gentleman from Bureau, Representative Frank Mautino."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Mr. Clerk, on the… on that Bill, what's… what Amendments are on the Bill?"

"Mr. Clerk." 09600137.doc 48  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you and that's the form I'd like the Bill in. Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, Senate Bill 3762 is… with the Amendments is a gut and replace and it makes changes, but the idea behind this Bill is we are moving forward the payment of Medicaid claims to take advantage of the federal stimulus, the ARRA money. And the Bill has a number of factors in it. One being acceleration of payments. It will make the changes in the community mel… mental health billing formula. It maximizes our federal revenue. We're looking at about a $1.2 billion across all of these increased and expedited payments from the Federal Government. We changed the date in the Bill which will allow that, should the Federal Government go ahead and extend the period, we can receive these matches… enhanced matches for… We don't need additional legislation. And I do… for that purpose of legislative intent in here, would like to ask Representative Feigenholtz if she could state for the record the intent on Senate Bill 3762."

"Representative Sara Feigenholtz."

"Thank you… Representative Mautino, this legislation moves billing for Medicaid reimbursable community based mental health services to HFS effective July 1, 2011. During the 2009 Fall Veto Session, the General Assembly unanimously approved House Bill 1802, now Public Act 96-0868, which would ensure that effective July 09600137.doc 49  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 1, 2012, 100 percent of all deposits into the community mental health Medicaid trust fund, the 718 Fund, including FMAP would be used for the purchase of mental health services. This legislation represented an agreement between the Governor's Office, DHS, and community mental health providers. Would anything in Senate Bill 3762 change or disrupt deposits into and payments out of the 718 Fund as it currently operates and will operate effective July 1, 2012?"

"Representative Feigenholtz… and thank you for that question… it is not the intent of this legislation to disrupt how the 718 currently operates or will operate. And in discussions, I have asked the DHS Secretary Saddler and D… and HFS Secretary Hamos to confirm this in a letter with the community health providers, this has been done. We've had a meeting, all parties are in agreement, and I thank you for your assistance and actually for the law that created the 718 Fund. With that, I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, 'Should Senate Bill 3762 pass?' All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Lou Lang. Representative Lang, be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there's 118 Members voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Tracy on Senate Joint Resolution 118. Representative Tracy." 09600137.doc 50  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Out of the record. Mr. Clerk, what's the status of Senate Bill 49? The Supplemental Calendar #1."

"Hold that Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Mr. Clerk."

"Representative JoAnn Osmond."

Speaker Lyons: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Republicans have requested a caucus 'til the hour of 2:30. Democrats have a nice lunch. Stand to the call of the Chair. House will come to order. Mr. Clerk, on the Order of Concurrences, Representative Bradley has House Bill 4846. Representative John Bradley on House Bill 4846 on the Order of Concurrences." 09600137.doc 51  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a Bill that we passed out of here, I believe it was unanimous. It would allow fire protection district to… to change its membership from five to three. They have some problems with getting members in some of these districts. And there was a Senate Amendment that would let it go from seven to five or to three. So, that was the change that took place over there. The concept is the same. I'd ask for an 'aye' vote. Thank you."

"You've heard the Gentleman's explanation, is there any discussion? Seeing none, the questions is, 'Should the House concur with Amendment #1… Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 4846?' This is final action. All those in favor signify by voting 'yes'; those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 118 Members voting 'yes', no one voting 'no'. And the House does concur with Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 4846. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Bob Pritchard, you have, on the Order of Concurrences, House Bill 156. The Gentleman from DeKalb, Representative Pritchard."

"For concurrence, Representative."

"Representative…"

Speaker Lyons: "Again, we still have a little technical difficulty to be worked out on that, Representative Pritchard. We'll get back to you. The Chair recognizes Representative Bob Biggins for the point of personal privilege. Representative Biggins."

"Welcome to the Capitol, enjoy your day. We're glad to have you. Mr. Clerk, on page 4 of the Calendar, Kevin Joyce has Senate Bill 2494. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook, Representative Kevin Joyce."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 2494 will create the school choice program for the Chicago Public School district, for grades kindergarten through seven. The program is to be administered… administered by the State Board of Education, beginning the year of 2011-2012 school year. It'll allow parents, or legal guardians, who reside in the City of Chicago to transfer students to state recognized nonpublic schools within the city that the students attend schools that are deemed to be one… in one of the following two categories. Number one, the lowest 10 percent of schools in the district in terms of students meeting or exceeding 09600137.doc 53  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 state standards; and number two, the most severely overcrowded five percent of schools in the district with at least a 70 percent of those students in those schools being at or below the poverty level. The way this would work is a school choice voucher would be created and redeemable by a student's parent or guardian at the chosen state recognized nonpublic school. The voucher would be calculated… I'm sorry… by deducting the amount of the general state aid and poverty grant for CPS, which is based on today's numbers, would equate to $3,717. As far as implementation goes, in January of each year the principals of the lowest performing or overcrowded schools would have to notify the custodians of students that vouchers for nonpublic schools would be available in the next school year. The application process would be between March 1 and May 1, prior to the school year in which the voucher is to be used. The State Board of Education would issue the voucher no later than September 15. The custodian has until October 1 to present the voucher to the nonpublic school, and the State Board would be required to honor that voucher and pay the nonpublic school by December 31. Students participating in the voucher program would also be required to take the State ISAT test. Students will also be tracked in the State Board of Education's Longitudinal Data System. Students who participate in the voucher program would have to do this on a voluntary basis placed in a private setting by their parents or guardians. I'm sure there are a number of questions. I'd be happy to entertain them." 09600137.doc 54  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "You've heard the Gentleman's explanation. Questions? Representative Burke."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I rise to support this initiative, and we suggest that our former colleague, Mary Lou Cowlishaw, would often refer to the Chicago Public School system as the black hole. Let me provide you with the encyclopedia definition of a black hole. According to the general theory of relativity, a black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. It's called a black… it's called black because it absorbs all the light that hits it, and it reflects nothing. Maybe Representative Cowlishaw's description of the Chicago Public Schools was appropriate when considering the unfortunate, underperforming schools that this legislation would address. How can we continue to allow these so-called learning institutions to ruin generations of our constituents? This Bill would afford our young people a chance to succeed in life, to prepare for a future, to have the ammunition necessary to survive in what sometimes could be described as a brutally challenging society. Will we continue to fund these underperforming schools without check? Will we deny families the opportunity to decide what school would provide a chance at success? Just yesterday, I asked a colleague of ours her opinion of this Bill, and if she could support it. The response was a flat out no. And on further inquiry I asked if there was anything that could convince her that this was a good proposal. The answer was, when Jesus comes. I might 09600137.doc 55  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 suggest to her and to you, Ladies and Gentlemen of this Body, that Jesus doesn't have to come for us to do the decent thing. And to support this opportunity to save lives and provide a very basic right to get a decent educa…"

"Representative Burke, your two minutes are up. We'll give you another minute to finish your remarks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm reminded as we consider this legislation, Ladies and Gentlemen, a school in my district, that I visit very often, has converted a boy's toilet to act as a classroom. They had to cover the urinals with plastic bags in order to conduct class in that facility. Is that not a disgrace in the year 2010 that we should have to subject our young people to this type of environment? Give us a break, please, Ladies and Gentlemen. Do the right thing. Give us a… a break. Vote for this piece of legislation. It's good and it's decent. Thank you."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Roger Eddy. Two minutes." Eddy: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields."

"The… there's one other parameter with the overcrowded school. It has to be at least… an overcrowded school that has at least 70 percent of the students that go there fall at poverty rate or below."

"So, that's…"

"In the 5 percent most overcrowded."

"Well, all students would be eligible…"

"…for that voucher."

"If every single student that would be eligible for that voucher elected… their families elected or their guardian 09600137.doc 57  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 elected to participate, the best round about estimate would be 30 thousand students."

"Thirty."

"Representative, your two minutes are up. We'll give you another minute to finish your questions."

"Representative Eddy, the most that would be eligible would be 30 thousand students. There's, I think, plenty of classroom space in the nonpublic schools. The 30 thousand students would be the max… we think is the max that would actually be eligible."

"That's correct."

"That is correct."

"We’re going to… we're going to let it go, Representative, but we're still going to hold time limits 09600137.doc 58  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 for the individual speakers. You can imagine, I've got about 8 people waiting to speak, Representative. So, I'm giving you two minutes and an extra minute."

"If you'd conclude your remarks, Representative, we'd appreciate it."

"There is vouch… there is a vouch… voucher that would be issued to the parent by September 1."

"And the voucher would be turned in into the school."

"Then the voucher would be paid by December 31, from the state board."

"I'm sure we'll be hearing from you, again, when some of your colleagues give you their time Representative. Representative Fritchey, two minutes."

"Thank you, Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields." 09600137.doc 59  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Representative Joyce, you and I have had discussions on this issue and I've heard from countless amounts of my constituents. One of the items that keeps getting raised time and time again is that the implementation of any program like this will take resources out of the Chicago Public School system, but as I understand it, based on my conversations with you, essentially to simplify a complicated process, if a family opts to take the voucher and leave the system, what would essentially happen is the state aid portion of that educational cost, approximately $6100 or so, follows that student. However, what… what's the total cost in Chicago of educating a student right now?"

"Currently, today, it is estimated that per pupil's funding in the Chicago Public School system is around $11,500."

"And so the portion that's not state aid comes from basically local funding through CPS. Correct?"

"That's correct."

"So, you would approximately have, let's say roughly, $4900 that would stay within CPS that doesn't leave with that student, but remains in the system to be used for students that are still within the Chicago Public School system. Correct?"

"At a minimum. I would argue it would be much more."

"All right. So, what you would essentially have is more money serving a potentially smaller pool of students and that money could then be allocated to an additional 09600137.doc 60  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 resources for those students that are within the Chicago Public School system?

"Correct."

"So, we now have a situation where those students opting to take the voucher, to go and see their parochial, another school, have the benefit of the state money following them, and those students who are in the Chicago Public School actually have additional resources, over and above what they would have today."

"That's correct. If you take what's left over and multiply it by the number of kids that take the voucher, and then divide it by their number of kids remaining in the school district, that's how much you're adding per pupil spending."

"So, overall, and I don't want to beat this down, but… so, we have… we have more money per student remaining in the system."

"That's correct."

"Thank you. To the Bill, Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, in… in the time that I've been here we've seen a number of arguments for and against a voucher system, and what it would do to the Chicago…"

Speaker Lyons: "We'll give you one more minute, Representative."

"Thank… thank you, Speaker. And what it would do to the Chicago Public School system. I think that the reality tends to be far different than the rhetoric. I have been a strong supporter of improving our educational resources and the funding for education this… this system… this issue, 09600137.doc 61  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 obviously, doesn’t get to the overall issue of how we fund our schools and to what level we fund our schools, but it does get to the issue of taking those children that are in the underperforming and overcrowded schools and giving them a chance that they would not have otherwise. It also focuses on taking no resources away from those children that remain in the Chicago Public School, and arguably we have the additional resources available to those kids that remain. I think that it's interesting that to the extent that there is some opposition or reluctance to this from Members, predominantly on the other side of the aisle but on both sides of the aisle, the same opposition has come from people that have wanted a voucher system in the past, and they've wanted a voucher system for kids who are with… within Illinois, within Illinois school system, but now that we have a voucher program specifically targeted at those children that need it the most, there seems to be an opposition. All I ask is that we give those kids the same chance that we want for all of our kids. Thank you."

"Representative Monique Davis, two minutes." Davis, M.: "First, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know why we have only two minutes?"

"Those are the rules of the House that we've been using throughout the Session, Representative. We give you two minutes and an extra minute. We got a lot of people that want to speak to the Bill. So, I'll give you two minutes. If you need a third…" Davis, M.: "Okay. Well, it's the first time I've known that we had a Bill and you had two minutes. That's all." 09600137.doc 62  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "If somebody wants to yield your time afterwards, they can yield you their time, Representative." Davis, M.: "Let me state that I believe my colleagues who are supporting this Bill are well-intentioned. I think they want to provide an alternative to children who attend underperforming and overcrowded Chicago Public Schools. The rhetoric about your program is attractive. Vouchers purport to offer long-suffering public school children with the possibility of attending better schools, but there's nothing in this Bill that tells us anything about the so- called better schools. I think it is extremely unfair to take a group of children, who are mostly living in poverty, and say to them you're only worth… you're only worth half of what the other children in Chicago are being educated with. Thirty-seven hundred dollars, is it half or less? Most of the Catholic schools that are in existence today, their tuition is 6 thousand, 7 thousand, 5 thousand. We have seen documents today. Now, it amazes me that the press in Chicago, that the people in this Body, all admit there's a problem with Chicago Public Schools. And our only solution is to give a few of them, from the lowest performing schools a little voucher for three thousand and some hundred dollars. What about the special ed resources that should be available to them? We know we're talking about little black children. We're talking about little brown children. Those are the children who we are saying are not as worthy as other kids who will get…”

Speaker Lyons: "Representative, we'll give you one more minute." 09600137.doc 63  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Davis, M.: "…as other children who will get 6 thousand and 7 thousand dollars for their education. What kind of education will these children get? And when you say they'll be dollars left for the system of those who remain to be spread around, you don't say how it's going to be used. Will it stay in the schools where you took the children out, where you said those schools were failing? We are doing a terrible injustice. The Constitution of the State of Illinois, Section 10, I believe its Article… Article 10 or Section 10, we are supposed to educate our children with a free public education. We are attempting to destroy public education for some children and when we do that, when we do that, we deny all of them an opportunity to be of the best that they can be. It is so unfair. And I know many of you don't think it's unfair, but you're not doing it to your children, you're doing it to mine."

"Representative Yarbrough, two minutes."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Gentleman yield?"

"Sponsor yields."

"Representative, is this still a pilot program?"

"Well, it depends how you define 'pilot'. It's a pilot program in the sense that it's focused on a certain group of individuals within one certain school district who have been… the great majority of these schools have been on the state and federal watch list for the last 9 years in a row. So, yes, it's focused on a pilot. Is there a sunset? No there is not a sunset. All right." 09600137.doc 64  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Tell me, is there anything in this Bill that mandates anybody doing anything? Do these parents have to do this?"

"Absolutely not."

"And I think I heard you talk to someone else about who would administer the program. To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. You know, when I came down here, I read something that Hubert Humphrey said and he talked about the moral test of government. He said the moral test of government is how we treat those who are in the dawn of life, those who are in the shadows of life, and those who are in the twilight of life. We've got an option here to take care of two groups of those people, and while some of my colleagues say this Bill doesn't take care of everybody, it certainly is addressing somebody. Now, the only boar… the only Bill I see on this board right now that will help these children in these low performing schools is this Bill that's in front of us now. I'm really disappointed that more of my colleagues that have brown and black children in their districts aren't… don't have their names on this… on this Bill. I've never supported vouchers. I've been leery of charter schools, but people, we've got to do something different from what we've always done. If we continue to do what we've always done, we'll get the same results. Please vote for this Bill. Thank you."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from McLean, Representative Brady for two minutes."

"Sponsor yields." 09600137.doc 65  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"That… that wasn't the case. Actually, the original Bill that came over from the Senate had a reporting requirement but not a sunset according… that… and that's still in the Bill, by December 31… December of 2015. That reporting requirement is still mandatory back to the General Assembly, back to the Governor."

"No, it's not a sunset, and I… Representative, I… first of all, I want to say thanks because in your first comment there are a lot people that work very hard including members of our staff, members of your staff, members of the Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago Public Schools, and really I was open to a sunset. I could not figure out how we could put a sunset by making it available to kids to go to one school and saying here we're going to try to help you, take you out of this failing school, and then if it sunsetted in 4 or 5 years, bringing them out of that school and bringing them back to the school that they were trying to get away from. So, I didn't think it was fair to do that. And you know, I'd love to come with some way to try to make this, you know, where you could actually 10 years 09600137.doc 66  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 from now just come back… or 5 years from now and look at the studies and say, yes, it worked or didn't work. If it didn't work, if it didn't make a difference, if… if it didn't impact anybody's life, then I'd be the first person to say let's repeal this. And I…"

Speaker Lyons: "Two minutes have expired. We'll give you another minute to continue the conversation."

"I took your time, I'm sorry."

"Your time has expired. Representative Nekritz, two minutes." 09600137.doc 67  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields."

"Representative, does… does the legislation contain any requirement for the… the nonpublic schools to take all students?"

"No. Wh… what the legislation requires is that if a school would like to sign up as a nonpublic school serving these children that have vouchers that they want to turn into the school they will be accepting…"

"Okay."

"…all those that they have room for."

"So, disabled students, students with limited English proficiency, students of maybe various religions, students with parents of… who are… the children of same sex couples, and students with behavioral issues, all… none… those are not protected under this… under this legislation."

"None of them are discriminated against in this legislation, nor would they be…"

"But they're not protected under the legislation. And there are… I mean, there are some protections for race, color, and national origin, but not other… but not other categories, is the way I read it. So…"

"Well…"

"And the amount of the voucher is how much, right now?"

"Well, it's… it's a calculation as we all know, the state funding formula is very complicated, but it was done by this year's numbers. It would be a total of $3,717…"

"Okay." 09600137.doc 68  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"…approximately, but the voucher, if the tuition was cheaper, which is the case in many schools, unlike a previous speaker had stated, like my own kids, their tuition is $3,150…"

"Would that…"

"…at their private school."

"…would that be sufficient for any… any of the secular private schools in Chicago?"

"Well, I think they're some that are… that are all over… are on different patterns, but I have kids at Montessori, I have kids at a private Catholic school, and those are still covered underneath the… they're both underneath $3,700. So, that's… that's my… what I can speak to. And I know on your question of will they accept everyone, I think, Sister… you know, that most of the schools that have said… have put out letters saying we will accept all…"

Speaker Lyons: "Representative Nekritz, your two minutes expired. We'll give you one more minute."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Ar… Article 10 in Section 3 of our Constitution does require that… that public money be used for public purposes, and it specifically mentions anything that… we're… that no level of government is to provide aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, blah, blah, blah… that has a sectarian dominat… denomination, whatsoever. I do have concerns about the constitutionality of this Bill, and… and whether or not we… we are using public money to promote sectarian purposes. So, I'd… I'd urge a ‘no’ vote." 09600137.doc 69  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Representative Suzie Bassi. Two minutes, Representative."

"Sponsor yields."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Representative, we'll give you another minute."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook, Representative Fred Crespo. Two minutes, Representative Crespo."

"Thank you, Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Sponsor yields." 09600137.doc 71  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Representative, congratulations. I know this is not an easy Bill to work on, and I think you've done a commendable job, but I just heard you say a little while ago, in answering one of the other questions, that schools who like to sign up. So, do you know how many schools are going to be available parochial or private schools for these children to go to?"

"Well, base… based on my conversations with the various groups that have private schools, well more… there's plenty of capacity within the private schools that are out there in the City of Chicago, that are willing to participate in it, from Lutheran schools to Jewish schools, to Catholic schools to Montessori schools, there are… there is more than enough classroom capacity and willingness on the private school, nonpublic school part… to accept these children."

"But it hasn't been mapped out, where you look at a particular public school and see how many options you're going to have within let's say a one-, two-, or three-mile radius. Some schools might have more choices than other schools."

"I have a map that, you know, you're more than welcome to look at."

"But we haven't done that, yeah."

"I have…"

"Let me ask you, Representative, what's the average tuition rate for these private parochial schools, do we know?"

"It's… it's averaged to be about $3200 a year." 09600137.doc 72  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Okay. So… how much?"

"Thirty-two hundred dollars a year."

"And what's the range, minimum?"

"That's the average."

"I know, but what's the range, do we know?"

"I'm told it's up to 4500."

"Okay. So… so, let's say for the sake of discussion here, that there is a school that's $4100, the student comes in with a voucher of $3700. What happens with the $400? Will the school forget that, or will the parents be responsible to come up with the $400?"

"Well, in most cases, in all private schools, there is financial aid available to all these families and I would say that in more than 90 percent of the cases here, they would more than ex…"

"Representative Crespo, we'll give you one more minute."

"To the Bill. I think there are a lot of questions and we unfortunately only have time to ask some of the questions and concerns that we have. There will be cases where the voucher will not meet the needs to pay for the tuition, uniform, and books. So, you're going to have folks who are going to benefit, who might be able to make… pay the difference, and others won't. We will be discriminating against the poorest of the poor. I think we all care about our kids, some would favor the voucher, some would say we need to look at a comprehensive approach. I would suggest that if we're going to do something, let's do what's right, or let's make sure we do it the right way. I 09600137.doc 73  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 would hope that they had spent more time in working on this Bill, unfortunately they won't and I suggest that we either vote 'present' or 'no' until we… we work on this and find a better solution for our schools. Thank you."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from DeKalb, Representative Bob Pritchard."

"Sponsor yields."

"Certainly do. Unfortunately, they get to put them in another school within that district and under NCLB those… those provisions, unfortunately, has left some children behind. And unfortunately, those good schools had filled up very quickly for those students and for those parents of those students. And there is not the room within the Chicago Public School system, in those quality schools as witnessed by many of the high competition to get into those schools and the reports of… of complaints from parents of not having the ability to get into those schools."

"In… in this particular case, yes."

"Absolutely not. There's no in… assurance. We can't… I'm not trying to regulate parenthood here." 09600137.doc 74  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"That… that could be one problem. I can't… I don't think it's fair to put that blanket analysis on every single parent of every single kid that's in this situation. But I'll tell you what, if we pass this Bill we'll find out."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook, Representative Ken Dunkin. Two minutes, Representative."

"Thank you Mr. Speaker. You know, out of all of these schools that's on this list… Ladies and Gentlemen, can I have your attention? Four of these schools are in my district and many of you are familiar with my district. I go from roughly Old Town, Cabrini Green, the rough street area of Chinatown, south loop, downtown, but I also go to sixty-third and Cottage Grove, sixty-fourth and King Drive. I go a little bit west of the Dan Ryan. So, I literally go from the Gold coast to the soul coast in my district. And on the soul coast of my district, I have four of these schools. Four schools that are at the bottom 10 percent in the City of Chicago. They're at the bottom, the lowest. All this Bill simply attempts to do is give parents an option. There's no mandate. There's no requirement. There is no new funds to be extracted, really, from Chicago Public Schools systems, but a small percentage. And do you know what happens when those kids don't graduate, or when… excuse me… when they graduate and they are not able to 09600137.doc 75  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 read, write, or think critically. In 2 to 5 years, they end up coming to Pontiac, to Menard, to Vandalia, to Statesville Penitentiary. That's where they go, if they don't know how to read or write. Well, they become a part of the permanent underclass. All this Bill does, merely, is give kids' parents an option. Now, I'm like most of you here. I want the Educational Foundation ra…"

"Representative Dunkin, we'll give you one more minute."

"…just to all of us is, 'What's the worst that could happen here?' The worst that could happen here is that a kid will get educated, irrespective of what school they go to, if they take advantage of that option. I'm asking you, especially my downstaters, who this won't affect at all, my suburbanites who this won't affect at all, to help me and my other colleagues, and our respective district give families an option, a mere choice so they can have a brighter future, until we get our act together to deal with the real question, in this state, and that is raising the educational foundation level, and coming up with a serious and comprehensive education reform package that all of us can live with, and so it won't be this great dichotomy in this state when it comes to education. But for right now, I'm pleading with you, I'm begging you, help me help kids in my district become educated like many of you and your kids."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Lake, Representative Ed Sullivan." 09600137.doc 76  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "Representative Jim Sacia. Two minutes, Representative."

"Two minutes yielded to Representative Roger Eddy."

"That's correct."

"That's correct."

"Roger, I'll give you another minute."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Suzanna Mendoza. Two minutes." 09600137.doc 79  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I rise in strong support of this legislation. We have failed generations of children because for decades Illinois has failed to reform education in this state. Parents in these poor, overcrowded, and failing schools only have one choice, and that's the choice to send their child to a poor, overcrowded, and failing school. What kind of a choice is that? How many parents in this chamber would or have sent their kids to one of these schools, not a single one of us. Why, because we'd never do that. And no parent should ever have to. We'll deal with these failures one way or another, we already do. When we fail them in their younger years, we fail them through the… we deal with them, I should say, through the criminal courts for decades on end. The evidence for school vouchers is there. Out of 19 studies conducted in cities and states where school voucher programs have been created, 18 of them find significant improvement in public school performance, suggesting that this competition works. Giving parents a choice means giving schools a new incentive to improve, namely the fact that these parents can take their students and the dollars to support their education elsewhere. Some say that we're giving up on public schools if we support vouchers. I'd counter that nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. Florida has a similar voucher program to what this Bill would create, and in the 10 studies that have been conducted on the impact of the voucher policy on public school performance, all 10 studies 09600137.doc 80  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 have found that providing school vouchers has helped improve Florida's worst public schools. Let me repeat that, folks. All 10 studies have found that providing school vouchers has helped improve Florida's worst public schools. Rarely, in social science…"

"Representative Mendoza, we'll give you one more minute."

"Thank you. Rarely, in social science are the findings so consistent. Students benefit merely from having the option to use a voucher, even if they choose to remain in a public school because the competition for students has forced those schools to improve. Give these kids a chance to learn. Most will fail if we do not intervene now. We will have made a choice to give up on another generation because our intervention without it, nothing will change for them. Nothing and let's not pretend otherwise. My district, folks, it has parochial schools that are struggling to stay open because of low enrollment and yet my neighborhood CPS schools are busting at the seams. Some schools hold classes in reconverted bathroom or janitorial closets. It's absurd. Kids are being bused out of their neighborhoods, having to deal with gang boundary issues and safety concerns all the time. How is this a better option for them than being able to walk a few blocks to a parochial school in their own neighborhood. I say, let parents decide what's best for their child. Give them an option. Give them a choice. Parents whose kids go to private school pay taxes. So…" 09600137.doc 81  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Representative Mary Flowers. Two minutes."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I have a Sun-Times article here dated May 2, it says the kids deserve a better education. The research on vouchers is inconclusive. Some kids do better, but many see no changes. A study released last month on Milwaukee's large voucher program found that voucher kids do no better, according to the Sun-Times. It says voucher kids do no better. Ladies and Gentlemen, my question is, who hired these teachers to teach our students? Were they qualified? When you walk into the bathroom and the urinal doesn't work, who was supposed to fix it? Where is the money going to go to when these children are forced to go to a private school and the tuition is $6 thousand? The fees for the schools is $400 and there's no transportation to get the children back and forth. And when the students fail, who's going to be there to lift up that parent, who must work three part-time jobs to make end meets? Who's going to be there, Ladies and Gentlemen? I agree with you, Representative Bassi, we failed the children because we knew that the State Board of Education was not doing its job. We knew that the Chicago Public Schools was not doing their job. When they had inadequate teachers, not all teachers, because we've had teachers to come down here and testify that they went into their pockets to spend their money to educate their children. They bought coats. They bought clothes. They bought food. Only to note…" 09600137.doc 82  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Representative Flowers, we'll give you one more minute."

"Every time I tried to pass legislation to deal with the inadequacies of what was going on in the school, Representatives, I was pushed back. My child went to the Chicago Public Schools. I know exactly what was going on. And every time I came before this Body, asking for help, it fell on deaf ears. So, if you think this is going to be the answer, you are sadly mistaken."

"Representative Lang. Two minutes for Leader Lou Lang."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen. First let me say that I applaud the efforts of Senator Meeks and Representative Joyce, and all the Sponsors. Their motives are pure. Their desire is the desire of all of us, to improve education for kids in Illinois, and we know that our education system isn't what it ought to be. I read with great interest one of the major Chicago newspapers, a couple of days ago, that pretty much said if you oppose this Bill it must mean you're in the pockets of the teachers' unions. I didn’t hear any comment about teachers here today. This has been a good and rational debate about kids. You can disagree with this Bill and not have it have anything to do with teachers' unions. You could just believe in a strong public education system. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a sacred responsibility to educate kids and we haven't done it well. We have a sacred responsibility that we have failed, but it is our responsibility. Shirking it off to others is not our 09600137.doc 83  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 responsibility. We have… our job is to uplift public education. If there… if there are bad schools in the city and other places in the state, instead of taking the best and brightest out of those schools and moving them to other schools, making those schools even less good than they were before, so that those who can't escape those schools have a worse school to stay in, let's find the money to send an army of teachers to those schools and improve them. Let's not let people escape those schools; let's improve those schools. And so, we have a responsibility that we're… we've failed; we all acknowledge that. Maybe instead of a voucher Bill for some kids, we ought to dismantle the entire public school system and find a way together to revisit it, and to find a way together to improve public schools all across the State of Illinois so that those kids in Mr. Dunkin's district don't have to suffer the way they are today. Our res…"

"Lou, we'll give you another minute."

"Thank you. Our responsibility is to uplift. Ours is not to do anything else. If we want to work together and improve and create a revolution in public education, we can do that together even with the scant resources we have. We can bring people to the table and do that. This… this, while well-intentioned and certainly will improve the education for the few, will hurt the education for the many. We have a responsibility under our Constitution to educate public school kids. To educate public school kids, our first and most sacred responsibility and to take public dollars, no matter how well-intentioned, to send them off 09600137.doc 84  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 to private schools, when there are other students that need our help that would remain in those public schools is, in my view, a dereliction of our duty and voiding of our responsibility. Let's not give up on the kids that are in our public school system; let's make it better for them. And I don't believe this Bill does it. I would urge 'no' votes."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Art Turner. Two minutes, Representative Turner."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Assembly. I couldn't have said it better than Representative Lang, but let me just give a little history. And first of all, Representative… Mr. Speaker, can I ask, what is the status of this Bill?"

"Mr. Clerk. Status on the Bill."

"I guess the question that I'm asking, is this Bill on Extended Debate or is it on Short Debate? It's on Extended Debate? Mr. Parliamentarian? No, he took it off. Eddy… Representative Eddy asked to have the Bill taken off of Short Debate."

"Well, we… Representative Turner, we're letting this thing go. I'm giving everybody two minutes and an extra minute if needed."

"Representative, I need more than two minutes to talk about this and I respect everybody else saying that two minutes, but I'm the guy that has the 10 worst schools in the State of Illinois in my district. So, it's my district 09600137.doc 85  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 you're talking about bussing these kids to wherever they're going to go with their vouchers and if I… could… if you would just bear with me. I know it… I need more than two minutes just to say what I want to say."

"I'll give you two minutes, Representative and an extra minute. How can I go back to everybody? There's 17 other speakers."

"I don't expect you to go back, Representative."

"Okay."

"I'm just saying…"

"We'll give you two minutes, Representative."

"Okay. Let me first of all give you just a little history, that years ago there was a guy, the late Joe Kellman. Joe was the founder of Better Boys Foundation. The Better Boys Foundation was where I first started working when I was a teenager. Joe was the guy that founded Corporate School of America. His thing… because public schools were so bad and he used to meet with me on a regular basis saying, you got to do something about public schools, businesses ought to be running it. And so, this… the public school system created or allowed there to be called the Corporate School of America. The Corporate School of America was a school that was run by corporations, all the business executives and they came in… and the school's located on Sacramento Boulevard… it stayed open for about four years. And the whole intent was not to spend anymore money than was currently being spent on schools and kids in the Chicago… Chicago Public School system. Five years later, it was… the school failed… I 09600137.doc 86  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 won't say failed… for whatever reason they shut down. The public schools of Chicago could not take those kids back because they did not meet the standard qualifications of all the other kids in the school. In fact, the founders of the Corporate School of America had to pay for these kids to get remediation to be sent back into the Chicago Public Schools. This was the corporate school; these are business guys that say that they know how to run schools. A few years later we created local school councils. And I had a big debate in this chamber about local school councils and we said… and in fact, I always looked at it as the Chicago Board's way of abrogating its duties in terms of not educating our kids. So, we created these local school councils and said if the parents are involved, they can run the schools. And I said, that does not work in poor communities where the mothers of the children of the schools that I represent start… those mothers are… in many cases, not all of them, some of them are high school dropouts, have three and four kids by the time they're age 20 and now, we have these parents deciding who the principal of the school's going to be. These six parents, many of whom do not have a college…"

"Representative Turner, continue."

"Many of whom do not have a college degree and then say we're going to let them choose the principal. They're going to be the ones that are going to run the school. They're going to figure out budgeting. And so, for those proponents of local school councils, they came in and said, well, guess what, Art, we're going to train them. So, we 09600137.doc 87  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 gave them all ki… I can't tell you the millions of dollars that we spent trying to train these parents. And the dichotomy of it was, is that once your kid graduated from that school, you could no longer serve on that council. So, we trained somebody after six or seven years where they have some understanding of budgets and maybe understand education, not a college degree, but now they can no longer serve on that council and we start all over again. And you wonder why the schools are not performing where they should be performing. So, along comes charter schools and I sit up on this floor and said I support charter schools. I think it's a good idea. And I know, one of my colleagues, we had a big debate here and everybody loved it. Everybody thought it was great, but those charters, and let me say this, I have more charters in my district than anywhere else in the state. And right now, those charters are saying… and most of them it is true… you can count, maybe one have failed…"

"The Chair recognizes the Gentlemen from Fulton, Representative Mike Smith for two minutes."

"Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I yield my time to Leader Turner."

"Leader Turner."

"Those charter schools, many of whom have a 100 percent graduation rate right now, have kids that are going on to college and I've visited a few. I was just at one the other day. I visit all of them. I also visit those underperforming schools, and let me say that… say this. I have an organization in my community that's working with 09600137.doc 88  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 four of the ones right near my home and we have volunteered. We go in, we have a tech center and those kids come over because we're working with the teachers and we're starting to see some improvement in those bad schools. Whether I'm saying this about charter schools, they are working. The jury is still out, but there's parental participation, kids are graduating. You can go in there. Kids are sitting and they want to learn. And I've often said that, well, let's see what they're doing in charters and put it in the Chicago Public Schools. This… you don't have to be a math science to do it. And I know that the unions didn't support it and in fact, now there's unions in the charter schools and all of that's good. I didn't argue whether a teacher was unionized or not, but I said let's see what works. And let me go further by saying I had two kids… I have two kids who went to public schools. My wife and I had this debate when the kids were firstborn. As an elected official I said I'm sending them to the neighborhood school right down the street, one of the 10 worst performing. My kids went to preschool edu… they went to preschool. At age three they were in preschool. We owned a children's clothing store and I used to stand in the store and watch the mothers that came in with their three-year-old, their four-year-old, their five-year-old who was not in preschool and often scratched my head and said, my son could wind up marrying that kid down the street. There's a big disadvantage in terms of this kid, my kid having preschool and that kid did not. If we want to do something, let's mandate preschool education for all 09600137.doc 89  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 kids. Let's put the money in preschool and move from there. But the point I'm making is they didn't go to that school. My wife won out. They got in a magnet school, magnet school. They got on the bus. The bus picks them up at a quarter to eight, school starts at 9. I live…"

"I'll give you another minute, Representative."

"Yeah. I got a few people that said they're giving me their time. I'll share their names with you. But I would get on that… I would put my kids on the bus at a quarter to eight, school starts at 9. I could drive to the school in 10 minutes. So, when I wasn't in the Legislature, they got to ride with dad. And the education they got in that 10 minute ride with dad was a much more informative education than that one hour bus ride, riding around the city. If we're talking about giving kids vouchers, let me add this, too, because in this same area where you want to help these kids, there's only one Catholic school still there. One Archdiocese school and I've talked to Father John, and he says, yeah, he's got a hundred spots. There's 500 kids, but he's got a hundred spots. So, that means the others are going to have to ride the bus. Are you going to provide these kids with a breakfast roll to eat while they're trying to take this bus ride to get to that school which is an hour or two hours away? No, we're not talking about doing that. We just want to give them the voucher which will pay for their tuition. It's the wrong thing to do. And instead of putting my kids on the bus, I drove them there because that 10 minutes education with their dad was much better than what they were learning on the bus…" 09600137.doc 90  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes Representative Chuck Jefferson for two minutes."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to yield my time to Art Turner."

"Two minutes, Art Turner."

"These kids riding that bus for an hour, hour and a half, it makes a big difference in their life. You should be able to walk to your neighborhood schools. When we created these magnet schools, I said then that it makes no sense we keep skimming the best off, sending them elsewhere and everybody else… the kids who may want to do better, they don't have anybody, they don't have a peer to look at to say I want to do better, I want to be little Art. I want to be as smart, too, you know, I want to try to do better. That… that was taken away because little Art wasn't there, he was down at the magnet school. No complaints. He loved the magnet school. He did very well there. Got accepted into Magnet High School, Whitney Young. The other one was set for Lane Tech. This was when Michael Jordan was coming out with a pair of shoes every month. You know, a State Reps kid can't afford a pair of Michael Jordan shoes every year and I told my wife, we're not sending him to Whitney Young. One of the top 10 schools in the city. We're going to send him to Providence St. Mel, private school, they wore a uniform, khaki pants, white shirts and leather shoes and that's what charters are doing in terms of uniforms. It's already been said that uniforms do make a difference, but no, we didn't send him there, we sent him to a private school that, by the way, 09600137.doc 91  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 costs $6,500 if you want to send your kid to that private school. I don't believe the voucher is going to cover that to send that kid to Providence St. Mel. The issue is, deal with the schools that are there. We've got some models right now that are working. This voucher is a… sounds like a great idea, but let me tell you, for the kids who you're talking about bussing out and I have to say this because I also have an educator in the family, my late sister-in-law was a principal at a school who moved to the suburbs, took her kids out of the public schools in the city and who moved to the suburbs. Let me tell you the battle she had with those suburban school teachers who this was a new anomaly to them. They hadn't seen these two little kids from Inglewood and thought that there was, you know, these kids are hyper, something's wrong with them. Want to put them in a special class and set them to the side 'cause they just didn't seem like normal kids. Those kids now both have college degrees because their mother insisted that there was nothing wrong with them and she…"

"Representative, I'll give you one more minute."

"Okay. She knew what to do. I can go on and on and share with you these examples. There are a number of people that are opposed to it. Our schools need improving. I'm not here saying that I don't want my schools to do better. I still live in my community. I live in the district. The law says we have to live there, but I did that by choice. I didn't… and I'm not leaving. I'm going back to that district now, but if you want to help those kids in my community, you're not going to help them by 09600137.doc 92  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 giving them vouchers and telling them you can get on the bus and ride two hours away and some of you hear about the violence in the city and what goes on there. It's a challenge even for the kids that are bused in that ride… on charter… at charter schools. Giving the kid the vouchers is only going to help a small few, but that is not the solution. I'm here to tell you today that if we're going to do something, let's mandate early childhood education, let's mandate adult education. I think the schools should be open where when the parent drops that kid off, especially, these mothers that are not working, there ought to be a door where they bringing their kid in, there ought to be another door for that parent, where she or he goes and sits down and we can teach them about family values; we could teach them about home economics, how to raise a kid, how to take a $5 and make it a meal for a week. These are…"

"The Chair recognizes Representative Golar for two minutes. Representative Golar, two minutes."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm referring… giving my minutes to Representative Turner."

"Representative Turner."

"These are the things that are going to make a difference in our community. Let's provide breakfasts for these kids. Don't put them on a bus. A two-hour bus ride, they're not going to do their homework. Two hours to go, two hours at the end of the day. Why… That's a disadvantage to these kids. If you want to help them, help them at home. Help them in their communities, improve the 09600137.doc 93  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 schools in their area. Chicago Board, get busy. Do what you're supposed to do to make education available and equal for all kids. Let's not take the cream of the crop, skim it off. Let's not take the worst of the worst and send them away. Yeah. Many of our kids, they say, are considered just… you've got the special ed component… Let me put my glasses on here. Yeah. There are… the answer as I said is that let's address the need for the majority. Let's not keep skimming them off. Let's not skim off the best and let's not skim off the worst. Keep them all together. When I went to school, that's where we went. You had college kid, you had the broke kid, and you had the regular, all in the same building and believe it or not, over a four-year period of time there were kids who changed because… just because of who their seatmate was, who their colleague was. This is the wrong thing to do. It's a simple solution. And to the Archdiocese, I want to tell them, maybe if we sell a few of those gold chalices, we could have kept some of those schools open in our community. I think those buildings should have been available, but it… they're not there now and I don't want to send my two hours away to talk about getting a better education. Let's educate them at home. Let's vote 'no' on this Bill. And at the proper time, Mr. Speaker, I call for a verification of this Bill."

"So noted, Representative. The Chair recognizes the Lady from DuPage, Representative Senger. Two minutes, Representative." 09600137.doc 94  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"The Chair recognizes the Lady from DuPage, Representative Patti Bellock. Two minutes." 09600137.doc 95  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from DuPage, Representative Randy Ramey. Two minutes."

"Sponsor yields." 09600137.doc 96  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Just a reporting requirement back to the Legislature."

"A reporting requirement back to the Legislature in 2015. There's also a requirement for all of the students that elect to go to a nonpublic school to take the same test, the ISAT test that they were required to take in the public school."

"There's, you know… Representative Ramey, there's been multiple studies. You've heard commented by from all of the different Representatives about what one study may say, what another study may say, you know, I think you measure the Bill on a long-term pro… a long-term basis to see how kids have gotten educated and where they've gone from there."

"The sunset date was never in there in the first place."

"It was a suggestion."

"No, that's not true at all."

"Yeah, but it's… it's totally untrue."

"This is actually, according to the Illinois Education Association, the worst of the worst schools, the schools that can't… that couldn't get any worse."

"If the kids, you know, our end of it is if the kids are for a reason… they would be treated like every other kid in that school, and if they were not… if they were failing they'd probably be held back, if they were…"

Speaker Lyons: "Time has expired. One more minute, Representative Ramey."

"If there were disciplinary action… disiplin… disciplinary actions needed, then those would be applied the same way they'd be applied to any other student in that school."

"Are they currently enrolled in a private school?"

"No, they will not."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Jim Durkin. Two minutes."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Cook, Representative Will Burns for two minutes."

"Thank you… thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. With all due respect to the Senate Sponsor and House Sponsor of this Bill, I understand that they support this initiative. I believe they are good people; they're trying to do the right thing, but the Bill that we should be debating right now is House Bill 174. I supported House Bill 174 last year in committee, and the reason I did that is that because I believe that the words of our Constitution are plain. The state has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education. This state has the responsibility of creating 09600137.doc 100  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 an efficient system of high quality public education institutions and services. And the reason why the schools are failing throughout our state and the City of Chicago 'cause I want to point out they're not just failing schools in Chicago, they're failing all over the state. The reason why they're failing is because we have failed them. We have consistently failed to live up to our responsibilities under our Constitution. We're supposed to have the primary responsibility for financing public education, yet in the last 20 years, the high-water mark for state financing of public schools was only 39 percent of the total cost of education. The State Board of Education estimates that our foundation level should be set at $7,992 per pupil. It is currently in the last fiscal year, $6,119 per pupil, off by nearly 25 percent. The Governor's introduced budget set that level at $5,711 per pupil. A tremendous reduction in what we know we should be doing to support public education. So, we fail the public schools, we fail the children in those public schools, and then we say take $3 thousand and go some place else. We need to live up to our responsibilities, Ladies and Gentlemen. For that reason, I'll be voting 'no'."

"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Ford."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. I rise in support of the legislation because I know for a fact that in our society about 10 percent of the people make $250 thousand a year. And because of the social injustice… the social injustice has divided our state and our society for too long. The social injustice provide options for 09600137.doc 101  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 some people that others just don't have the options, like to go to private schools because they can afford it, like to go to Harvard, Yale, or… or like my daughter does to St. Giles. But she has friends that their parents wish that they could go and send their kids to Catholic schools, but they just can't afford it. Even if we pass House Bill or Senate Bill 174, our kids will still suffer. I could care less about House Bill 174 until it proves that it's going to improve schools. So, House Bill or Senate Bill 174 does not guarantee anything for these kids, and every day we come up with new Bills. That's why the Consti… Illinois Handbook gets bigger and bigger all the time because we're trying to improve it. So, I'm telling you today that this may not be the perfect Bill, but it is a step in the right direction. And every kid deserves a break. Every kid is looking to get out of the ghetto by any means necessary. So, I… I have no faith in the Chicago Public School and I'm very proud to say that. And everyone here continues to talk about all the problems that our school systems are facing but yet we don't want to give some kids an opportunity. I say vote for this Bill because every kid deserves a break and that's what this Bill will provide. Thank you."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Representative Berrios. Two minutes, Representative."

"I'd like to yield my time to Representative Mendoza."

"Two minutes yielded to Representative Mendoza."

"Thank you, Representative, for the yield. I just want to go back to what I was saying earlier and address 09600137.doc 102  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 some of the… the previous speakers, who I have the highest respect for. With the issue of private schools and the funding going to private schools, I mean, let's be honest here. Parents whose kids go to private schools pay taxes. So, fairness predicted that they should also see some benefit from their taxes. If their local CPS school provided a quality learning environment, then great; they'd be seeing some of that benefit, but in these cases, that this Bill is looking to target, CPS has failed these taxpayers and their children miserably. And so I see no harm in giving parents a choice. Folks, this is one of the most important Bills that we will ever vote for in terms of education. And going back to what some of the previous speakers have talked about with House Bill 174, let me remind you, I voted for House Bill 174. I have been a consistent supporter of House Bill 174, but I also support this because I can chew gum and walk at the same time. We can deal with two very important issues and support them both. When we talk, and we've heard some comments about having to bus children far away from home and people don't want to do that. You know what, that's what this is all about. This Bill is about giving people school choice. If you don't want your kids to leave the school that they're currently at, guess what, nobody says you have to. Keep them where they're at. But if you would like a choice for a better educational choice for them, great, we're going to give it to you. Move them to an area where they can be. The parents are willing to transport the kids, more power to them. The children in my district right now, and 09600137.doc 103  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Representative, you should know, these schools, some of them are in my district. They're incredibly overpopulated, the kids get bused out, they should be able to stay at home, go to a good school down the street for them and be able to learn. Let's not fail them. Please, I urge you, and I implore you, give these kids a chance."

"The Chair recognizes the Gentleman from Lake, Representative Eddie Washington. Two minutes, Representative."

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the Bill. You know, I'm glad that we're having this debate, and then I… I'm sitting here wondering what comes after… what comes after this? I always believed that it was better to have something and not need it than need it and not have it. And I always believe in competition. And I think that if some of us think that other schools can do better than public schools, then that's… that can be, you know, an iffy kind of a situation we really don't know. And I don't know how many children will be helped. I think the Sponsor said we were talking about some 30 thousand children. You know, I'm wondering how many of those 30 thousand can actually even take advantage of this because the number of schools that Mr. Turner has said were closed and other things, transportation challenges, the lack of food. This is not a one size fit all, and it's definitely not a perfect initiative. That is not. But I… I thank the Senate Sponsor, because what he did is bring together, how long do we continue to wait on us to do better? I mean, how long do we sentence people to be chronic failures in schools 09600137.doc 104  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 that have never gotten to the test scores and the things that they should. And it makes us look at the teachers and how they're protected when they're bad teachers, and how many hoops and loops you have got to go through to extract them out of the district of teaching our children. I know I have a position on this Bill and I'm going to wait for the final comments of it, but I… I thank the Senate Sponsor. I thank him for his con… continuity in caring about the children of the State of Illinois. And I thank you all for this spirited debate."

Speaker Lyons: "The Chair recognizes the Lady from Cook, Representative Mulligan."

"Our last two speakers will be two persons whose name were used in debate, Representative Dunkin, Davis, and then Joyce to close. Representative Dunkin, your name was used in debate."

"Thank you, Mr… thank you, Mr. Speaker. I sincerely appreciate that the leadership that's gone into just bringing this issue up. I was really never a proponent of vouchers, and I actually look at this Bill as an opportunity for… simply for a parent to help educate her… his or her child. With so many of those schools being in my district, you know, it's embarrassing and it's sad to see exactly… well, actually… most of us in my class, class 09600137.doc 106  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 of '03 Representative Joyce, Representative Eddy, and a number of other classes, we had one of the largest classes in this 2000, the first 10 years. We've been here about eight and a half years. The kids who started in kindergarten and first grade in these worse schools in Art Turner's district, Representative Collins' district, my district, and others, they are graduating from eight grade, into what? Within two to five years, maybe six, they are going to the penitentiary. That’s what happens when you come… when you come from… from nothing almost. This is the bottom 10 percent of the entire City of Chicago. If there… if a building is on fire, you don't run back in the building, do you? This is an opportunity for us to do the right thing. It merely gives parents an option. Recently, there was a study done on this Bill, on this very Bill, and in some of our districts you'd be very surprised what the results were. In Representative Esther Golar's district, it said do you support school choice for those Chicago's… for those in Chicago's worst schools, 91 percent said yes. In Representative Sente's district, would you support school choice for…"

"One more minute, Mr. Dunkin."

"…would you support school choice for those in Chicago's worst schools, 86 percent. I can go on and on about a number of our colleagues here; 90 percent in Chapa LaVia's district, 91 percent in Mitchell's district, 91.3 percent in Representative Burns' district. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not the answer in totality, but this is the Bill that's before us right now, and it all… all it 09600137.doc 107  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 does is it gives some of the poorest kids an opportunity to do, maybe, to do a little bit better. Until we can get our act together, and come from number 48 to number 1 or number 2 in America, in how we fund public education. So, vote 'yes', vote 'aye', just to get this… these kids and these babies an opportunity to succeed. I would encourage an 'aye' vote for now, and let's vote for House Bill 174 the next time."

Speaker Lyons: "Representative Monique Davis and then Representative Joyce to close." Davis, M.: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And with all do respect to Representative Joyce, first, I'd like to say that the current trend in Chicago is closing schools under the renaissance 2010 plan. The voucher program will decrease Chicago Public Schools enrollment. Vouchers will accelerate the school closure process in the City of Chicago. I think it's only important that I share with you who the proponents are: Catholic Conference, Agudif, Israel, concerned Christian Americans, Archdiocese of Chicago, Freedom of Religion. The opponents are: Chicago Teachers Union, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Education Association, School Management Alliance, Illinois State Board of Education, LUDA, Large Unit District Association, Illinois High School District Organization, American Association of University Women, ED-RED, LIND, SCOPE, Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Citizen's Action, American Civil Liberties Union, the Laborers Midwest Legion (sic-Region), AFL-CIO, and AFSCME. I'm really proud to be supported by and in agreement with 09600137.doc 108  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 the group of opponents who support public education in the State of Illinois. How much longer… how much longer can we forget about our responsibility of providing a public education for all children and stop nibbling around the bits with charter schools here, vouchers there, magnet schools here, and ignoring the majority of our children? The majority of our children need our support, and this Bill does not answer that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"…Joyce to close."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. You know, I've been coming to Springfield either to watch the Legislature or as a Member for the last 31 years. As a child, I would travel down here and my father would go to work, I'd work as a Page in the months of May and June, but for the past 8 years, I've had the great honor of representing the people of the 35th District. Together all of us here have witnessed many legislative battles, as Members of the Illinois House of Representatives, and we've been entrusted with an awesome responsibility, and I know this is a tough issue for all Members here. And I want to thank all of you for giving me your time and your ear. You've been willing to listen, and you've allowed me to state my case for the legislation that is before us at this moment. This Bill is simply an attempt to help the children of the poorest performing and most overcrowded poverty stricken schools in the City of Chicago. It simply would create an opportunity for a child to attain an education that his or her parents or guardians choose for that child. This is not an attempt to bust the Teachers 09600137.doc 109  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Unions, and it doesn't cost the state any more money, or take money from any other school district. Before I close, I'd like to take all of you on a journey. I'd like you to go back in your mind, go back in time to when you first decided to pursue a career in public service. For some of you, it's over 30 years ago, for others it's less than a year, but whatever the case, think back to the way… to why you ran for office. Was it for a pension, I doubt it. Was it to protect the leadership of a union, I doubt that. Actually, in all cases, I believe each and every one of us here got involved and try to make a difference in the lives of our fellow man. For me, and my journey, I watched many Members of the Illinois General Assembly over the years work tirelessly to help others. As a matter of fact, I believe that applies to most, if not all, in this room. I watched… speaking of House Bill 174 and House Bill 750… I watched Dawn Clark Netsch, in the State Senate and later as a candidate for Governor, put her career on the line for kids and for education. She wanted to change the funding formula in the State of Illinois. She wanted to make sure that every kid could get the same education regardless of where they live. You know, and then I watched in 1997, Jim Edgar on this very floor, the Governor of the State of Illinois, passed the very Bill out of this House that Dawn Clark Netch ran for Governor on, and that he beat her on. He changed his mind. He helped pass it. Unfortunately, it didn't become law. Today, I watched our Leaders, Tom Cross, Mike Madigan, get involved in an issue to try to help kids in the State of Illinois, in particular, the City 09600137.doc 110  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 of Chicago. I've watched Reverend Senator Jim Meeks put his name and reputation and leadership forward on this Bill, and it's brought us together to this place. We're on the same journey. Imagine we're on a bus and we're driving along, and we're on this highway trying to find some solutions for the kids in our state, kids in the City of Chicago. And we look out the window and we see these kids drowning. Do we stop the bus? Do we get out and try to save as many as we can, or do we keep going on the promises of what may come tomorrow? I thank all of you very much, and I'd appreciate an 'aye' vote."

"I want to thank all 117 of you for your very spirited and respectful debate. Representative Turner has asked for… Art. Turner's asked for a verification. So, Members push your own switches, please. The question is, ‘Should Senate Bill 2494 pass?’ All those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Gordon, Hernandez, Watson. Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this Bill, there are 48 ‘yes’, 66 ‘no’, and 2 ‘present’. Mr. Joyce. Mr. Joyce."

"Postpone, please."

Speaker Lyons: "Mr. Clerk, put this issue on Postponed Consideration. Representative Frank Mautino in the Chair."

Speaker Mautino: "On Supplemental Calendar #1 appears Senate Bill 3514. Read the Bill."

"Third Reading. Place that Bill on Second Reading. Take the Bill out of the record. Mr. Clerk."

"On Supplemental Calendar #1 appears Senate Bill 3514. Mr. Clerk, and read the Bill."

"Representative Currie on Floor Amendment #2."

"Thank you very much, Speaker and Members of the House. This Amendment would borrow $4 million to make our currently required pension payment… pension payment in the coming fiscal year. Nobody likes the idea of borrowing at this level…"

"I would ask that the House bring the noise level down, give proper attention to the debate before you. Staff, please take your discussions to the back of the room. Majority Leader Currie."

"Thank you… thank you, Speaker. Borrowing is nobody's first choice. Borrowing is not a great idea, but I think 09600137.doc 112  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 it's better than any other alternative. An alternative would make… be to make $4 billion worth of cuts in budget for the coming year and I don't think there's a Member on this floor who is prepared to jump off the plank and do that. So, I propose with this Amendment to do something very similar to what we did a year ago, and that is borrow the resources that we need in order to meet our commitment to the pension systems. This particular proposal comes from the Governor's Office and what it would propose is that we do two kinds of… of general obligation borrowing. One would be regular, go to the market, get the cash and give that money to the systems. The second would be to go to market with general obligation bonds, and give the bonds to the systems. In order for that to work, we would have to have clearance from the Internal Revenue Service, and this Amendment proposes that we would not do it unless the Internal Revenue Service said that it was okay from a tax perspective. So, here's the offer. Let's find a way to borrow the money we need to make the pension payments. I'd be happy to answer your questions, but I think that this is really a… a responsible alternative given other bad choices."

"The Lady moves adoption of Floor Amendment #2 to Senate Bill 3514. On that question, the Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."

"Yes. With you in a moment. I would ask the Members of the House and the members of staff that are in the aisles bring your conversations down or move them to the back of the room. Mr. Black."

"Indicates that she will."

"It would be… it would be bonding. And the bonds would be registered, they would be rated, they would be ready to go to market, but… and they would go to market, but instead of just going to the market with half of the bonds, they would go to the pension systems directly. So, the pension systems would get half of the proceeds in cash from the sale of the bonds, and they would get the other half in the form of bonds themselves."

"They would have total flexibility to do as they wish. So, if they thought it was in their interest to sell it tomorrow, they could do that. If they felt it was in the pension system's best interest to hold on to it, they could do that." 09600137.doc 114  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"It is not a private placement. Everything would go to market; registered, rated, but then the bonds themselves would go to the pension systems, half of them. The other half would be turned over in cash to the systems."

"The bonds that were sold in the general market, the money that it would… that sale brought in would be turned over as a cash transaction to the systems."

"The other half, the systems would then hold the bonds, and then they could choose…"

"…to do with them as they wish."

"Oh, oh."

"That is correct. That is correct."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy." 09600137.doc 115  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"She will. And again, I would ask the Members of the House to please bring the conversations down, and Representative Boland, Mr. Shaw, would you please move from the front aisle. Mr. Eddy."

"I'm going to see what happens with Amendment 2 before I make any decisions. We're addressing Amendment 2 now."

"It is… it is back loaded, but that's because the pension obligation notes we did in January are not back loaded, and if we were to adopt this methodology, we would, in fact, have pretty much even payments during the entire 8 years counting the payments that we are required to make in the next fiscal year and the one after."

"That's… that's exact… exactly the reason, Representative." 09600137.doc 116  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"But if… it is fair that we would pay somewhat higher interest over a longer period, but because we are required to pay off the pension obligation notes that we let in January in this coming fiscal year and the year after, and given that we are not in rosy fiscal health this…"

"…seems to be a more sensible way to go."

"Well, actually, it's… it… it's actual bonds. They've got the bonds; it's not IOUs. They can sell the bonds tomorrow, they can hold on to them. They're regular, registered, rated bonds. They're real. They're earnest."

"They're the same instrument but one has been turned into cash and the other is held as bonds with the pension systems having the opportunity to sell… to do with them what they will. But the value to the systems…"

"…is as a good. It's great." 09600137.doc 117  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Sure."

"I assume they would only sell them if they got good value."

"Well, the rationale is to go to market with a stronger… from a stronger position because… because bonds that are used to pay pension debt are not considered quite as strong as those that might be sold in order to provide jobs or improvements in the infrastructure. So, this…"

"…is a way of getting really good value for the… for the bonding that we intend to do."

"They are regular bonds. It's just that the one group has been sold and the cash goes to the system…"

"…the other have not been sold…"

"…and the system has them…" 09600137.doc 118  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"The Gentleman will be granted additional time."

"In my opening, I addressed that issue. The issue is that the Internal Revenue Service may not give us clearance for our tax status to do it this way. This Amendment is contingent upon approval from the Internal Revenue Service."

"It could take a while, but on the other hand, they can also ask… act quite quickly when they… when they choose to, but it could take a while."

"We could sell the first half tomorrow because nothing… nothing in that one half group is contingent upon anything the Internal Revenue Service might say to us."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Franks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to speak to the Amendment, and I'd also ask for a Roll Call vote on the Amendment."

"Your request has been acknowledged and will be granted. There will be a Roll Call vote."

"I rise in opposition, a strong opposition. I'm very concerned about what I'm seeing happening here in Springfield. This is part of a plan, basically, to strip the Legislature of its power. What this will do is, I think it's an attack on our constitutional responsibilities as Legislators, because this is part of a plan to give the Governor the ability to do what the… with the budget as he sees fit. This plan would basically give the Governor a blank check to be able to move moneys around. No, I understand what that is. But what this is, is a big portion of that to allow him to become a benevolent dictator and for us to give up all of our responsibilities that we were elected to do. Now, this is a bad reason for this… for this. This portion of it. Now, last year, when we borrowed for the pension bonds, we were told it was an emergency and we had to do it. Well, last year was an emergency, but now this year it looks to me that it's a habit. Now, what other reasons… well, we've got into the horrible position that we are in, the break of the fiscal man-made disaster that every one of us is responsible for, is because we continue to borrow and continue to spend. When did we change our policy in this state? That we would 09600137.doc 120  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 borrow for operations, that we would basically mortgage our future to pay for today's grocery bills. Everyone knows that this is a bad idea. I'm looking at the budget ideas that we've been given, and what I see, after getting an op… some information today from Ec and Fisc, showing that our revenues have plunged, staggering declines in state revenues, and what's our solution? Well, heck, we're just going to spend more money. We're just going to borrow more money. There is absolutely not one centile of responsibility demonstrated at all. If we allowed families to do this, they would go straight to bankruptcy. We are spending ourselves into oblivion. Now, we're seeing… we're talking about handing out pork money from last year, where people are asked to say what million dollars do you want released this year from the pork moneys from last year, instead of cutting those pork moneys and putting that money toward the pensions or toward education. We haven't spoke… spoken about the budget, we haven't talked about cutting the excesses, we haven't talked about changing the system. What we want… what you're telling us to do is to continue to borrow and spend and descend this state into a fiscal oblivion. You have to vote 'no' on this. We need to spend time in Springfield…"

"Turn the Gentleman's mic back on, be granted an extra additional minute."

"Thank you. Forget the… the arbitrary date of May 7, of this absurd date, to try to get out of Dodge so we don't do our job. Let's stay here and do the people's business. Let's spend the next month, whatever it is, going line by 09600137.doc 121  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 line on the budget. Vote 'no'. Let's do our jobs. Let's stand up for the citizens of the State of Illinois. And I did ask for a Roll Call vote."

"Representative Currie to close."

"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. It certainly is fair what the pervious speaker said, that state revenues have fallen precipitously, and they have fallen precipitously primarily because we are in a great recession. We are in the worst economic times since the Great Depression, and yes, borrowing is not a great thing to do, but I would argue that it is the only thing for us to do unless the people in this chamber are prepared to raise taxes, and so far, you have not been, or make significant cuts in state spending, $4 billion of cuts in state spending. I don't believe there's a person on this floor, a person in this chamber who's prepared to go that route of a $28 billion general funds budget, you're going to cut 4 billion? Show me your list. You've had all Session, and you haven't. You haven't said here's where to make the cuts, so I would argue… I would argue that our responsibility to the pension system is such that this is the only way to go. I urge your 'yes' vote on Amendment 2 to Senate Bill 3514."

Speaker Mautino: "The Lady has moved adoption of Floor Amendment #2 to Senate Bill 3514. There has been a request for a Roll Call. So, all in favor vote ‘yes’; opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Carberry, Feigenholtz, Fritchey, Joyce, do 09600137.doc 122  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 you wish to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, take the record. 43 voting ‘yes’, 73 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’, Floor Amendment #2 is declared lost. Mr. Clerk, further Amendments?"

"Representative Currie on Floor Amendment #3."

"Thank you very much, Speaker and Members of the House. This is a similar proposal, but not identical. This would borrow a similar amount of money to pay our pension obligations, but it would do so just by going to market, just as we did last year. So, the methodology is different from what you saw in Amendment 2. It is what you approved last year. It just says let us borrow what we need to make our pension payments this year. This makes our pension systems whole. The issue is the same as it was in Amendment 2, in that the state is broke. We need $4 billion and I would argue that this is the better methodology to get us there. I urge your 'aye' vote."

"The Lady moves adoption of Floor Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 3514. On that question, the Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy."

"She indicates that she will."

"The amount's likely to be the same. Whatever is certified by the pension systems, as the required contribution, will be the cap on the amount of bonds that are left, but the difference is that in the earlier Amendment, we gave the pension systems half in cash, half in bonds, this would give the pension systems the entire amount in cash."

"That’s right."

"And this is what we did last year. This is the more traditional way of doing bonding for pension purposes."

"January."

"Well, my understanding is that under this measure they would have to be sold by October and financial experts advised me that this is probably a pretty good time to go to market with short-term borrowing, as this is. This is 8-year borrowing, not a day longer, and we think that this can be a pretty good sale." 09600137.doc 124  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"No, they're identical."

"Yeah. As I said… I said earlier that… that we will only bond the amount that the pension systems certify as what is required under the law for our contribution this year. We use a higher possible amount because they haven't yet certified, so we don't know."

"Earlier certification was 4 billion. We anticipate it will be a lower number and this Amendment is premised on the notion that we only sell up to that number, but we don't have that number yet."

"And… and that’s in order… exactly as in Amendment 2 to smooth out payments because of our responsibilities from the January pension obligation sale."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Franks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to request a Roll Call vote on Amendment #3, and I'd like to speak to the Amendment." 09600137.doc 125  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

Speaker Mautino: "Proceed. And your request has been acknowledged and will be granted."

"Thank you. This Amendment is just as bad. If we really believe that we need to work on our budget and to get spending under control, we cannot continue to ignore the reduction in revenues, the real staggering amount of reductions in revenues and then continue to spend at last year's levels. We must be willing to cut. We must be willing to cut. We have to do our job. By continuing to borrow, all we're doing is perpetuating a broken system that will soon implode and bankrupt this state. Also, be aware that the assumptions used are highly unlikely ever to occur. Last year, when we were… when we did the short-term borrowing, there was an actuarial numbers used assuming eight and a half percent return. Those returns have… will not materialize, they have not materialized. If we saw what happened a few years ago, when the stock market tanked, and which really caused a lot of our pensions to become further underfunded, the reason that it… it stayed so low is because of what they're trying to do here. These pension holidays, this is what this is. There is no principal payment for 2 years. We cannot continue to underfund the pensions. We need to acknowledge our obligation and pay as you go. Further more, borrowing here will hurt the retirement systems because they will have a lower return on their investments because there will be no principal paid in. This is a death spiral, folks. You must vote 'no' on this Amendment. If we continue to borrow 09600137.doc 126  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 this, you will regret it, your children will regret it, and your grandchildren will regret it. Please vote 'no'."

Speaker Mautino: "The Gentleman from White, Representative Phelps."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"She indicates that she will."

"Leader Currie, just for clarification. Where do the unions and the retirement systems fall in on this?"

"They testified in committee in favor of this approach as against the approach that was in Amendment 2."

"Thank you very much, Leader."

"No one seeking further recognition, Majority Leader Currie to close."

"Thank you, Speaker. Just three points. First, that 8 percent return is over time, an 8 percent return, not the return you anticipated in the middle of a great recession. Second, I've said it before and I'll said… say it again, we've been here in Session since January, today is May 5. You… no one has come to me with a list of $4 billion in cuts that the Members of this chamber agree to. No one has come forward; no one has brought me a proposal to raise revenue sufficient to avoid those cuts that everyone or at least 60 people can agree to. There is no appetite for a tax increase. There is no appetite thoroughly to destroy the social safety net that keeps the vulnerable and fragile citizens of our state together. I think we don't have an alternative that is better. I think we would be wise to support Amendment #3, so that we can maintain our 09600137.doc 127  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 obligations to our retirees to the pension systems in the only way apparently we know how. I urge your 'yes' vote."

Speaker Mautino: "The Lady has moved adoption of Floor Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 3514. There is a request for a Roll Call. So, all in favor vote ‘yes’; opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Berrios, Fritchey. Mr. Clerk, take the record. 61 voting ‘yes’, 56 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. Floor Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 3514 is adopted. Representative Currie for a Motion. Clerk, would you take this Bill out of the record. Representative Currie for a Motion."

"But… why don't we just… why are we not sending the Bill to Third Reading? Thank you, Speaker. I have a Motion. I move to suspend the posting requirements so that Senate Bill 3721 may be heard in Energy & Environment, House Resolution 1166 in Environmental Health, and Senate Joint Resolution 72 in Human Services."

Speaker Mautino: "Seeing no objections, all in favor vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. 'Yeses' have it. And the Motion is adopted. Mr. Clerk, place Senate Bill 3514 on the board. What's the status of that Bill?"

"Third Reading."

Speaker Mautino: "Out of the record. On page 3 of the Calendar, under Senate Bills-Third Reading, appears Senate Bill 107. Mr. Clerk, place that Bill on the board and at the… at the request of the Sponsor, please move that Bill back to Second. What's the status of the Bill?"

"Representative McCarthy on Floor Amendment #5."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Amendment #5 is a very technical Amendment. It goes into page 62 of the Bill, and it adds the words 'on this Amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly' on to the line that has already talked about the regulations of the FCC. This Article, Article 21, 22 of this Act, it'll also add this Amendatory Act. So, I would ask for the Amendment to be adopted and then moved to Third Reading."

Speaker Mautino: "The Gentleman moves adoption of Floor Amendment #5. All in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'yeses' have it. The Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk, any further Amendments?"

"Third Reading. And read the Bill."

"Representative McCarthy." 09600137.doc 129  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I'm very, very happy and proud to bring Senate Bill 107 before the Body today. I'd like to first of all just start off by mentioning some thank yous. First of all, to all the Members, especially the Members of my Telecommunications Committee. I think they all came to this argument with a good spirit and brought many, many issues forward, many of which are in this final product. There are a few that are not, but the vast majority are in the final product. I'd also like to specify and thank the Illinois Commerce Commission for their help in developing the language so that they can implement the changes that we want to make under Senate Bill 107. Also, the Attorney General's Office who's been helpful since the start of the process about three months ago. The IBEW Local 21 especially who has worked with people on both side of the aisle so we could come to a conclusion that they were going to be supportive and they have been and I want to thank them for that. The Governor's Office as well. And all of the different phone companies that have weighed in on different issues that have affected this telecommunications rewrite. We have small companies, we have middle-sized companies and we have large companies and, as I said in committee yesterday, we have many more phone companies in this state that I ever imagined when I first started this process. Yesterday we had a very long comprehensive hearing on the… on the Bill in our… in our committee and it was a very reaffirming experience. The testimony and the witness slips showed that it was almost universally 09600137.doc 130  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 supported. We do have two people who still register as an opponent even though some of their suggestions had… that came out during the process we have added to the Bill. And they basically got down to just one… one exception and we will explain that later on as we go through the Bill. The… I certainly… if you listened to any of the testimony yesterday by many of the business groups across our state, they talked about how this is such a step in the right direction for Illinois. We are kind of known across the country as a very overregulated state and now we are making a big step forward. We will still have more regulation, I'll be up front with you, we'll have more regulation than a lot of states. Some of the Members, myself included, would've liked to seen us even go further, but every group that testified there spoke of the fact that, while we could've gone a little bit farther, the progress we made through this Bill will change the sign on Illinois. Instead of saying, do not invest here, if you are a telecommunications business, or even other large manufacturing businesses and retail businesses. They came forward during the testimony and they said because of the lack of broadband investment in our state and the lack of serious interest in putting more broadband investment in the state, the… they were holding back on some development there. So, we're going to see people from all across different industries step up and I think help us address the unemployment status in our state. Many of the witnesses yesterday, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants, they said 09600137.doc 131  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 changes are… changes like these are the changes that let them go forward and let them create jobs for the people of our state. And I think there was a very strong consensus in the room that if we're going to get out of this, especially our terrible unemployment problem in the State of Illinois, the private businesses of our state are the ones that are going to lead us back. And with this… with this Motion today, Senate Bill 107, I think we're giving a signal to those businesses that we are serious about this. We want businesses to invest here. We want to provide good jobs for the people of our state. We don't want to accept anymore that we're close to last in unemployment and just say, well, that's just the way Illinois is. Illinois is that way for very specific reasons. Some of the reasons are like the overregulation of our telecommunications industry. With this Bill, we're going to move away from that and I think we'll see a lot of new investment and new jobs the result from this process. While I'd tell you about we took a lot of regulation away, we made sure that things that were necessary for the Illinois Commerce Commission and through their input and through the work of the Attorney General's Office, I want to tell you that it is still, the ICC will still… will maintain the regulations for the just and reasonable standard, when they're talking about noncompetitive business opportunities. They will still be in charge of the Universal Service Fund. That's a fund that helps us bring telephone service to our rural and underserved areas. They're also… they worked on us as far as improving the abandonment of services with input from 09600137.doc 132  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 the AG and other groups. Instead of having a basically a 60-day process, we will now have a 90-day process. And whether you are a competitive electing provider or a standard provider, you still have to go to the ICC when you want to take service away from an area and have to be approved in order to do that. We also talked about notification for rate changes. One of the victories that I think the AG's people think they achieved is that now it has to be set on a prior bill. There's all kinds of different qualifications before, but now it clearly says that a prior bill before the change is made so that the citizens of our state will be able to see this and they will, you know, be able to know that their rates are changing if they want to opt into a different service. The… they also made sure that it was secure that the Commission still has authority over the… ITech and the 9-1-1 funds. And the ITech is for hearing impaired people that they will be under that fund. The… we also, in the electing provider statutes, said that both of those funds would be paid by VoIP providers, that's the Voice over Internet Protocol. So many of our people… over 600 thousand people have their home service through VoIP through Comcast alone. So, this is a very much a growing… a growing population, and I do want to compliment Comcast. They actually pay these fees today voluntarily, both the 9-1-1, the USF, and the ITech fund. In our Bill, we mandate that the ITech fund and the 9-1-1 fund is paid by VoIP providers, actually by the people that use that service. The annual report that was removed under prior versions of the Bill was put back in 09600137.doc 133  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 and they also added on the fact that the… some of the groups wanted to have the problems per 100 lines. They thought that was a very good statistic that you could look at quickly and kind of get a judge of how a company is doing in a certain area. The… I talked about VoIP service. We've had… we said from day, one those of us that were at the lead of the discussion, that we did not want to regulate VoIP services and I know that Section 804… it makes it very clear that that’s our intent not only today, but going into the future. We spoke about the fact in Section 804 that we, of course, can't say that a future General Assembly can't do anything, but we made it clear that if we wanted to move down that line, and I hope we never do that, but if we did want to move down that line it would come back through the General Assembly. We, of course, did not give away the General Assembly's right today or in the future to come back and look at that issue if we wanted to. The rules for registration on VoIP, if anybody is concerned that we're going back to overregulation, they only have to do four things. They have to give you the name of their company that they're registering with our Secretary of State. They have to give you the address of the company. They have to give you a phone number that you can reach for their resolution process. They already have to have the resolution of… so if they have problems, they already have to have that in statute this resolution process, they have to give us an 800 number for that. And they have to tell us what area that it… their company is serving through their VoIP 09600137.doc 134  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 process. That's important for the ICC to know when they're looking to see how well an area's served they want to get these reports back from the VoIP providers and the VoIP providers have not only promised that, but there's a new not-for-profit out there called Connect Illinois that was authorized by our Federal Government and that information cannot be accessed by the ICC today. They have to apply to Connect Illinois to get it. The cable companies came up, signed a letter to myself and Senator Bond and I believe Representative Bost saying that they would not only not object to that information being shared, but if there was a problem getting it from Connect Illinois because of federal statutes, they would give that information directly to the ICC. So, I think that they did step up when we asked them. The only other thing for VoIP registration is that they do have the right to ask for it to become confidential and proprietary and that's… they're running a business and I think that just makes common sense that they'd be able to do that. One of the problems that I learned about during this process was pumping. Pumping is where smaller comp… well, not necessarily smaller companies, but phone companies sign on with like 900 numbers, chat line things, and direct their phones through a certain local exchange carrier that has very high intrastate rates. By the end of this Bill, except for the very small incumbent local exchange carriers, there's about 20 of them in the state who have less than 35 thousand lines, they are the only ones that are exempted from this and they're exempted from this basically because they've never had a problem with it 09600137.doc 135  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 that we can see. The ICC has no dockets out against them. They do have dockets out against some other phone companies here. So, what this is, is when you make a phone call and it goes into…"

"Go ahead and…"

"I'm… almost done here."

"The Gentleman be granted…"

"I've taken a lot of abuse here, Mr. Speaker, I wish that… Is there a Sergeant of Arms somewhere in the building?"

"Sorry about that. I didn't see that the clock was running. Go ahead and bring your remarks to a close and we'll go on to your legislative intent."

"I'll try. But… but these access charges they are very, very important because some of these… your call going out, and the way it works like, not in Illinois because both Veri… or not in the Chicago area because both Verizon and AT&T years ago changed their intrastate rate so it would mirror their interstate rate. The interstate rate is controlled by the FCC so we know it's a legitimate rate, but we do have some of these companies that we looked at that their interstate rate is about half to three-fourth cents per minute, but their intrastate rate is as much as five or six cents. So, they're definitely taking advantage of people who are calling from within our boundaries. So, the same call from Nashville, Tennessee, would have less than a penny per minute while if they called from Moline down to Mt. Vernon it could be as much as five or six cents a minute. So, by putting in the Bill that all of these 09600137.doc 136  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 rates will be mirrored I think we will solve that pumping problem just like that. The electing providers, very quickly, and I think that any of you that are going to be walking door to door in this upcoming fall would want to point out that we still, in Illinois, are going to have what we call the safe harbors. These are for people who want to stay in the main lines that, you know, the old land-line business. These are three programs that we're not only extending for the three years of the Bill, but we're also guaranteeing the price from January 1, 2010 will stay the same price for the next three years. There's a basic plan which basically has your line and 30 calls a month. There's an extra plan, has your line and unlimited calls and then there's a plus plan that has your line, unlimited calls, and two vertical services. Vertical service is the most… the most popular one is voice mail, but you might have caller ID, you might have call forwarding. You get to pick the two out and that's for less than $20 a month, excluding federal taxes. The basic plan is less than $10 a month. So, if you're looking to tell your community members something that may be able to help them, I know CUB does a good job of getting this out on the street, getting information out about the plan, but I think we, as State Representatives, can also do our part when we're in community meetings to talk about these plans. And all of them are under $20 at a very good, a very good plan. Hey, I, at last want to say, I have had… I have had the utmost… the guy who moves the previous question is talking so be quiet. But I've had the utmost in 09600137.doc 137  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 cooperation with my Minority spokesperson, Representative Bost, and I want to thank him publicly for that. And Representative Bost is giving me the signal to wrap this up, so I know you guys are all interested. You can read your analysis, but… So, I will slow down now and let Representative Bost make a statement."

"The Gentleman has moved passage of Senate Bill 107. For the purposes of legislative intent, Representative Reitz."

"I had several questions for the purpose of legislative intent, but I think you covered them all. But first, what is the purpose of this Bill? You get to talk some more."

"You know you don't have to answer that."

"Thank you, Representative Reitz. Senate Bill 107 updates Illinois's telecommunications policies. The fundamental purpose of the Bill is to eliminate outdated regulation to level the playing field and provide regulatory certainty for private sector telecommunications technologies, including broadband and wireless services. With these changes, the state will have a better chance of retaining jobs and creating new jobs by attracting more private sector investments in broadband."

"You stated the fundamental… a fundamental of this Bill is to create certainty for the private sector. How does this Bill accomplish that purpose?"

"Thank you. As I mentioned Section 804 before, but first and most importantly, the Bill creates a new Section that establishes the parameters of state regulation of broadband services. This new Section, 13-804, provides 09600137.doc 138  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 that the ICC has no authority to regulate the rates, terms, availability, or any other aspect of broadband services, interconnected VoIP services or wireless services, except to the extent that state regulation is expressly permitted and consistent with Federal Law, FCC regulations or our video law. This is a key component of job retention and creation because IP based broadband technologies and services are the fastest growing segment of the communications industry and one of vital importance to Illinois consumers and businesses. All right, second, the Bill abates a recent ICC regulatory order mandating certain levels of DSL broadband as a condition in a recent competitive classification case involving AT&T. Because the ICC's recent regulatory order is inconsistent with the policy we are adopting in Section 13-804, the Bill provides that this requirement shall no longer be continued, conducted, or maintained. I understand that some might disagree with abating an order of the ICC; however, the ICC order contradicts current law. The Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007 required AT&T to provide wireland broadband to 90 percent of the households in the telecom service territory by December 31, 2008, on a statewide basis. AT&T has done that; they're over 90 percent. The ICC order required AT&T to provide 90 for their houses in each service area rather than statewide. So, we believe that was in conflict with the public law."

"Some have suggested if AT&T is not required to comply with the ICC mandatory broadband build out requirement that customers outside of the Chicago metro area will be left 09600137.doc 139  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 without access to broadband service from AT&T and other providers. Is that one of your concerns?"

"Thank you, Representative Reitz. I understand that's your last question. No. According to the facts developed during the review of this legislation, I can tell you that there is no broadband coverage gap in AT&T's service territory. First, Wireline is not the only Internet broadband technology. Broadband wireless like 3G and 4G and fixed wireless are here to stay and getting faster every day. Second, the local phone company, like AT&T, is not the only provider of Internet broadband service. Many providers and many technologies compete and provide consumers and businesses with a wide variety of choices and alternatives."

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? The Gentleman from Jackson, Representative Bost."

"Give the Gentleman additional time."

"Further discussion? The Chair is going to use the… will be using the timer at two minutes. The Bill is on Short Debate. Our order will be Representative Colvin, Beiser, Crespo, Eddy, Mulligan, Harris, Soto, Black, Nekritz, and Davis. Representative Colvin."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and briefly and to the Bill. Several months ago when, and it may have been in January, when I heard that we may have a telecommunications rewrite Bill, and being a Member of that committee I couldn't immediately help but to think about my own mother who like many in my district have other communication options. She has a cell phone and she has Internet service, but 95 percent of her communication is on her landline phone. And she uses it to communicate with her friends, her family, she uses it talk to her doctor, to order goods over the phone, she absolutely depends on it. And through all of the discussion over the last several months I never let loose of the idea of my mother going without that phone service and the thousands of others who depend on landlines throughout the State of Illinois. I want to thank Representative McCarthy for his hard work on this Bill. 09600137.doc 142  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 And I also want to thank the Attorney General of the State of Illinois who sat at the table in these negotiations and made sure that we had very strong consumer protections in this Bill to deal with those who still absolutely depend to rely on landlines. These safe harbor packages that were built into this legislation are critical for this Bill moving forward. Yes, Representative Bost is correct that this is a jobs Bill. Every Chamber of Commerce in the State of Illinois slipped and testified in support of this Bill. Big labor, big business did the same thing and that's a good thing moving our Bill forward, but creating that critical balance between business and those folks who absolutely depend on those other services is absolutely critical to the success of moving forward. So, I simply want to rise in strong support of the work of the Telecommunications Committee, the Sponsor of the Bill, Kevin McCarthy who did a tremendous job and I urge everyone to…"

"Representative Beiser."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. I rise in strong support of this Bill because it does two things. It promotes investment, private sector investment in broadband and it also helps to keep and create jobs. The previous speaker mentioned jobs and the unemployment rate in the State of Illinois. We're almost 4 percent above the national average so jobs are key. Two studies, one by the Communication Workers of America and another one by a group called Connect… Connect the Nation, shows that when you invest in broadband it creates anywhere from 95 thousand to 09600137.doc 143  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 a 105 thousand jobs, significant amount of jobs. One thing is certain and that is that the states have done this type of telecom laws attract more private investment in broadband and it helps create jobs. It's shown that time and time again. We're trailing other states in this race to attract the broadband investment, and it's because they have adopted modern telecom laws a few years ago and we have not. This Bill brings us in line with what other states are doing. This Bill sends a clear message to the telecom industry that the State of Illinois is serious and is open for business in creating jobs. Competition will flourish with this Bill. Competition means investment and investment means jobs. This is good public policy. It's a smart Bill. It has support from business and labor across Illinois. Let's send a message to the people of… that… let's send a message that Illinois is interested in economic investment in jobs. I strongly urge an 'aye' vote."

"Further discussion? The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Crespo."

"Thank you, Speaker. I just want to take a moment to congratulate the Sponsor. I know this wasn't an easy Bill. Representative McCarthy, you take on these tough Bills all the time and from now on I guess I'll call you the great facilitator. This is really good. I also want to give a thanks to some of the providers: Comcast, AT&T from Hoffman Estates for being receptive and working with this group. This is a really good Bill for our state's broadband infrastructure. Not only will it create new 09600137.doc 144  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 jobs, but it will make sure we retain the jobs that we currently have. But the most important thing I think is that it enables us to move from the Fred Flintstone era to the Jetson era. So, I think it's a good Bill. I ask for your support of this Bill. Thank you."

"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy."

"Well, the commitments are under the 2007 Video… Video Law and the commitment was that 90 percent of their, in the AT&T case, 90 percent of their service area. Now Verizon just sold out… I know a lot of your areas are more Verizon areas… they sold out to a Frontier Company. In part of the approval process and we do have a Section in the Bill that I didn't get to, but we have a saying that nothing in this legislation can change any of the agreements that were made when that sale was approved by the ICC. Okay. But in that Verizon area, through CUB's intervention and I think the AG's intervention, they have a commitment that it has to be 85 percent of their area. So, between the 90 percent and the AT&T footprint, and 85 percent in the Verizon, now Frontier footprint, I think we 09600137.doc 145  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 are getting, you know, close to that point where we will have, you know, coverage, hard-line coverage. We actually have coverage today as far as when you would include wireless and things of that nature. Now, there will be some areas that just don't make sense businesswise to run landlines to it, but as I said earlier these wireless technologies that are a little bit slow today compared to hard-line technologies are getting better all of the time, we all know that from our iPhones or Smartphones or whatever they call them, and so I think we do have that to look forward to. And every one of the business groups that testified talked about the fact that with less regulation it gives companies more incentive that they can… would be able to recoup their investment. So, I think those areas that aren't served with a landline or a hard-line to their area have a better chance after this Bill. There's not a guarantee because we don't want to go in and tell companies that we know better about their business than they do. That's how we got Illinois in trouble in the past, but… but I think they have a chance…"

"I'm sorry."

"Grant the Gentleman an extra minute." 09600137.doc 146  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"The answer is yes under the Verizon order; you're correct."

"Thank you, Representative."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? Representative Mulligan."

"Indicates that he will."

"Well, that was, you know, part of our legislative intent. So, I do… I'm happy to put that on the record, but I'm always concerned about the possibility of reducing or eliminating jobs. I can assure you that this Bill does not have that affect. Representatives from the IBEW initially expressed some concerns that the Bill could see job cuts and after several meetings between the unions, Senator Bond, and myself, Senator Bond being the Senate Sponsor, the IBEW is satisfied that changes to the Bill will not impact the IBEW Local 21 core, installation, and maintenance jobs. In fact, I have a letter from AT&T dated May 5, 2010, addressed to Mr. Castor."

"Grant the Lady an extra minute."

"The Lady has asked to remove the Bill from Short Debate and the request will be granted."

"I… I join with Representative Bost saying he looks forward to putting a real solid 'yes' on this. We went into this process and we made it very clear to everyone involved you can not guarantee the unguaranteeable. I think my committee members are, you know, they don't want to hear that expression 'cause I've used it so many times, but we can guarantee the way we've been going up 'til now has been nothing but losing jobs. And when these… these… the national corporations are looking for places to put call centers and everything, they don't look at Illinois. After this Bill they will start looking in Illinois. So, we have a chance to improve these things. We can't tell you exactly, I can't tell you what the Dow Jones is going to be the next 100 days so we can't guarantee it and we can't demand that's what we tried to do in the past, try to tell companies how to run their job… run their company and it… and it's…"

"…turned out that Illinois is the highest unemployment in the state. So, we do know this. This is the… AT&T that you're talking about; they're the largest 09600137.doc 149  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 union employer in the state. While they've lost close to 50 percent of their landlines, that core business, those employees are only down 30 percent, so I think that's a pretty good statement that they've made."

"They've also transferred a lot of their employees to other things."

"We all want that."

"Further discussion? Representative Harris."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield? Representative, since I was not able to be on that committee and to hear the debate, I just had two questions I'd like to clarify for my constituents."

"Please." 09600137.doc 150  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"The first has to deal with the change in the time frame in which repair requests have to be made. Could you explain why that was lengthened from 24 hours to…"

"The 30… the 30 hours."

"…the 30 or 40?"

"They just thought that was a more reasonable amount of time. Say something happened, the… you report it at 9:30 in the morning. That gives them into the next day, about half of the workday on the next day and they… people thought that was reasonable. So, we went forward with that change. And the union was also concerned with the mandatory overtime that was an issue in their contract negotiations and we were told that this extension by six hours would reduce some of that."

"And are the penalties similar to what they are now or have those changed, if they don't meet those obligations soon?"

"The penalties are very, very, very similar. They're… I can tell you exactly where they are in the Bill if that will help you, but there are credits due for missing appointments. It goes up by the amount of time you miss the appointment. If it's within the day, then it's just a percentage of what your monthly bill is. If it's between two days and three days, it's actually a third of the month that you would get the credit back for not showing service."

"Thank you. Thank you, Representative. And another question to follow up. I wasn't quite sure of the answer that one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 09600137.doc 151  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 had regarding the commitment to extend broadband service to 90 percent of the state. Is there a separate commit…"

"Ninety percent of the AT&T service area. That was negotiated under the Video Law of 2007. The 85 percent was the recent purchase just approved like a week and a half ago. At the ICC, they made a restriction on… it was Verizon now it's called Frontier… that they have to meet an 85 percent in their area down there And it's funny because…"

"Is there a time frame that they must complete that within?"

Speaker Mautino: "Time is expired. The Gentleman will be allowed to answer."

"I don't know the time frame. On the ICC order I don't have the time frame in front of me, but I'll definitely get it to you."

"Further discussion? Representative Soto."

"Will the Sponsor yield? Thank you, Speaker. Yeah. My only question is, Representative, seniors have asked me about a… their simple landlines; that's all they want. Are they protected in this area? Will they continue to have a simple landline?"

"The basic plans are guaranteed for the full three years of the Bill, plus a late change at the request of CUB and the AG, if… sometimes in the past how we have extended the deadline on some of these rewrites that we don't want to handle it like it… say for one reason or the other when 2013 comes we don't feel that we are ready to do it again. 09600137.doc 152  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 If it's extended, it's very clearly stated in the Bill, that those price freezes continue as well."

"Okay."

"And that was something AT&T didn't want to give, but we forced that on them."

"Okay. So, again, and my question is, will they be able to have their plain landline? So, you said it's yes?"

"Yes. They can get a landline with unlimited calls for around $15 a month. Then there's… I looked at my daughter's bill yesterday, 'cause I don't have a landline anymore, but on her $9 bill there's 4.50 in taxes, so I figure the $15 one would probably have five or six dollars in taxes, federal taxes, not ours."

"Okay. Okay. 'Cause they were a little nervous about that so… so, I just want…"

"It is guaranteed."

"Okay. Thank you, thank you. You've answered a lot of the questions that I had, so you've already satisfied my concerns. I just want to commend you and everyone who has worked with you on this wonderful piece of legislation that I will be supporting and I also urge this General Assembly to support. Thank you."

"Thank you very much."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."

"Further discussion? Representative Nekritz." 09600137.doc 154  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Indicates that he will."

"Representative, I understand that… that one of the other carriers in the state… with regard to the broadband issue… one of the other carriers has an agreement that's in place with the state to provide DSL service in 85 percent of their service territory besides AT&T. That Frontier, with an agreement from the state based on, you know, some prior work that was done, they have to provide 85 percent coverage in their service territory for DSL?"

"And I apologize to Mr. Harris that I don't know the time frame, but I will get that very quickly. But that was one of the things that the ICC came to us and said make sure you put a Section in there so that any of the agreements we have with them would not be affected by anything in this Bill. So, it's Section 90, if you want to look in the Bill."

"Okay. So… but… so, we've done that for one… one of the carriers has agreed to do that, but there is no other requirements in this Bill for other carriers to do that?"

"Correct."

"Okay."

"No, that's not in the Bill. That's an agreement between the ICC and the company."

"No, no, I understand, but I mean, I guess… I guess what I'm… what I'm thinking is that it's possible to get this done and we haven't done that in this Bill. And it's my understanding that in Indiana where… which… you know, according in the jobs committee or the Jobs Task Force 09600137.doc 155  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 we've heard time and time again what a Mecca Indiana is for broadband technology and yet it's, I understand that… that they don't… they have no requirement for DSL coverage in their state and they really don't have very good coverage at all. So, I'm just concerned and I think that we, as a Body, need to keep an eye on that as we move forward to make sure that when we're told trust us there will be build out that we… that that actually happens because I… I don't think it's happening in other states, it's my understanding and I… and I, you know, we… I think it's something that we need to watch for."

"You know, part of the National Broadband initiative that came out of Washington and what established that non- profit that I talked about earlier, Connect Illinois, was to look at that in all 50 states. You know, I think that they've made a very serious commitment to say this is a very important issue and we want to have, you know, broadband to a hundred percent of our areas of our state and we do have it at some point now. Now, it's wireless; it's not the best in the world, but…."

"But it's also… it's also like 50 percent…"

"It's also what?"

"Turn the Lady's mic back on, be granted an extra minute."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's also my understanding that wireless is signif… is quite a bit more expensive than the DSL coverage. So, I… you know, again, I applaud the work that you've done. I think this is good, but if this is just something that we're really going to have to keep 09600137.doc 156  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 an eye on and be diligent about in making sure that… that the state is being covered with an affordable broadband and not just relying on the more expensive wireless."

"I agree, and that's why we made a point at making sure that that Connect Illinois information is available to the ICC so that they can report to us in their annual report to the real depth of broadband investment that's going on in our state."

"And then… and then we would have the ability then to come back and modify the legislation, if we feel like it…"

"We always have the ability."

"…if it's not working."

"You know, I would hope that the market regulation, I would hope that the fair market encourages these companies to do that and I have faith in the market. I think it's going to move forward like that and, but we do have a chance to come back."

"Yeah."

"We don't take any of our rights away to come back."

"Well, I mean, there's a reason we have a Commerce Commission, because the market doesn't always work well in these utilities. And so, again, I just would… it's something we have to watch for. Thank you."

"Thank you."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? Representative Will Davis." Davis, W.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Indicates that he will." 09600137.doc 157  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Davis, W.: "Representative, first of all, I want to let you know that I'm in support of the legislation. We have worked with companies like AT&T for years, since I've been down here and their efforts to try to improve communities in a number of different ways. One of the questions that I have for you and we talked a little bit about this is that my ongoing concern is making sure that, as measures like this come into play, that when you think about communities like the ones that I represent which are generally not the wealthiest communities, I want to make sure that they… that they have access, that they are in line to receive equal access to these services that will come as a result of this rewrite. Is there anything that you can say to speak to how they plan to roll these things out to make sure that it's spread evenly across the state?"

"Well, as I mentioned when we just talked quickly the… it's not in this Bill, it was in the Video Bill of 2007 as far as the mandate for the area that you and I represent, the south suburbs. That's part of the AT&T footprint so that they have a 90 percent build out throughout their footprint, so and they're ahead of that right now. So, as we talked about with U-verse, unfortunately there's sometimes it's parts of communities and not the full community, but they have assured me that as they go forward and as they go back to corporate to get these investment dollars to expand broadband in these communities, Illinois is going to be in a much better shape after this Bill to attract that investment as opposed to it is today." 09600137.doc 158  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 Davis, W.: "Okay."

"Today they invest what they have to put in here in order to justify the services that, you know, the customers they have, but they don't do the extra stuff. After this Bill, we hope that the economy continues to improve and they will be inclined to do the extra stuff here in Illinois." Davis, W.: "Great. And as was mentioned by one of the previous speakers, that this was a jobs Bill. So, is there anything that you can say to speak to what we may anticipate relative to jobs or job…"

"The Gentleman will be granted an additional minute." Davis, W.: "Thank you."

"You know, all we can do is rely on the history of what's happened in the other states. And in the other states, they've seen it not only grow jobs in the telecommunications industry but also affiliated industries because it… the broadband deployment has a greater concentration there and they've been able to see job growth. If you talk to Indiana, you talk to Texas, Florida and Michigan are two other states that did… modernization legislation in the last five years and they've all seen job growths in that industry." Davis, W.: "Ladies and Gentlemen, briefly, to the Bill. I think what's important here is that as companies like AT&T come to us asking for our vote on measures to help them to be able to do business better, particularly here in the State of Illinois, one of the things that we must demand, 09600137.doc 159  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 that we must ask from them is to make sure that job opportunities become available. While I understand that they work with unions and that under some circumstances current employees will be retrained to do other types of work, but we also…"

"You may finish your statement." Davis, W.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that there will be some job opportunities that will be created by this and we must make sure, particularly in our low-income areas, areas where… that have the highest unemployment rates, we have to make sure that job opportunities are created and made available to people that live in communities like this. So, I stand in support of the Gentleman's measure and making sure, and I encourage all of you to stand with me to make sure that AT&T does the right thing by making sure that it creates that type of investment in our communities. Thank you."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? Representative Jakobsson."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of my questions have already been asked, so I'm not going to repeat them and I won't ask the Sponsor of the Bill to have to repeat his answers because I think we heard so many of the good things that are happening with this Bill. And has been said more than once, several times here this evening, it's going to create jobs and we certainly know that jobs are needed in this economy, they're needed for our state. And in addition to the jobs, I think we need to recognize the expansion of broadband and the… not just for personal 09600137.doc 160  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 communications and personal use, but the importance that it plays, the important role that it plays in health care, industry, in education all the way from K-12 through higher education and well, probably even works in pre-K. So, I want to thank the Sponsor for all the hard work that he's put on this and urge an 'aye' vote. Thank you."

Speaker Mautino: "Further discussion? Representative Froehlich."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Sponsor yield?"

"Indicates he will."

"Representative, now I understood you to say there's no specific job creation requirement in the Bill. Is that also true there's nothing specific about the amount of investment in broadband that would be required?"

"The amount is not in this Bill. It was in the Video Bill of 2007 as far as that 90 percent commitment we were talking about."

"Yeah."

"And then the 85 percent commitment is an agreement between the ICC and that Frontier Company."

"Do you know why CUB and AARP are opposed? Did they give you any indicator?"

"Part of it is that they did not agree with the AG's decision to go along with the abatement of that court proceeding. The… I think the AG is in the best position and the AG's Office agreed with it, the company, of course, agree with it because they want to get out from under it, but when the AG agreed with it, that was certainly good enough for me. I know that she's, you know, she's been a 09600137.doc 161  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 very fine consumer advocate and would not have said that this was the right thing to do at this time if it wasn't. So, they… they chose to differ with her on that."

"My last question. Why did the AG stay neutral on the Bill? Is she still neutral?"

"I think that's their traditional…"

"Okay."

"That's the best you could hope for…"

"All right."

"…and so, I feel that I'm very happy with them being neutral."

"Thanks for your clarification."

"Thank you, Paul."

"Our final speaker is the Lady from Cook, Representative Flowers."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Gentleman yield?"

"Indicates that he will."

"Representative, you may have discussed this and it was noisy and I couldn’t hear. Can you please tell me what is the consumer protection that's in this legislation?"

"Well, for those… for those who still choose either stand-alone lines or if they choose one of those safe harbor packages that I said all of us should probably tell to our constituentiences, they could have…"

"Tell… tell me about the safe harbor packages 'cause that's the part."

"I mean with safe harbor, there's three different packages. One is for very low level, you know, people who have very low need; that's a line and 30 calls. That's 09600137.doc 162  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 called the basic plan, 30 calls a month, all right. That's less than $10 a month. Then the next is extra plan. The extra plan is a line with unlimited calls and that's in the 15, 16 dollars a month plus federal taxes, as I said earlier. Then there's a plus plan and the plus plan is a line with unlimited calls and two vertical services. Now, vertical services are your choice of like call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, voice mail… voice mail, in fact, is the most popular. But you get to pick two of those and that's less than $20 a month guaranteed not only for the three years of the Bill because a big area of Chicago, which I know you represent, was going to lose that… those packages in approximately October of next year. Now, they will have them for the entire three years of the Bill and if we continue this Bill, we changed some wording right at the… like the last hour that said if we extend this Bill like we have in the past, we've, you know, pushed it down the road we say, if we do that, these price guarantees will stay for the consumers of our state."

"And what about the bundling? What about the Internet, the telephone, and the cable service?"

"That… that’s under the market regulation part so that, that's up to the individuals that they can, you know, find a contract for that."

"Will those prices… will the prices for the cable and the Internet also go down?"

"Well, we hope because there'll be more competition. There's nothing… there's nothing guaranteeing it going down 09600137.doc 163  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 or going up, but we're hoping by the increase in competition through market regulation and through these…"

"Grant the Lady an additional minute."

"I have faith in competition that competition will bring down the price."

"Well, it appears to me that competition has been raising the prices, so I'm just wondering if there's anything in this that will bring those prices down and…"

"Well, I think it's going to have to be actions by… if you get into one of those bundled packages, then you're going into the unregulated atmosphere. Okay. More and more of our… our citizens are doing that. They're doing that before this Bill, you know, was ever even brought forward. They're leading, you know, if we think that… that, you know, the penalties and the regulation is so important, that's not what the people on the street tell us because they're all leaving going to these other bundles. Most of those bundles are pretty attractively priced. Now, when you get to the end of it, I mean, it's up to your responsibility as a consumer. If you have a year guarantee and it comes to the end of the year, I would suggest you call those companies, threaten to leave, and you'll probably get an extension of that price."

"Thank you, Representative."

"Thank you."

"Representative McCarthy, would you like 30 seconds to close?"

"I don't want to… I don't want to push my luck, but… I just want to say that those of you who thought the 09600137.doc 164  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 opening was long today, Representative Bost will tell you it was much longer yesterday when I went over every single thing in the Bill. But I do want to thank the 14 Members of our committee who studied this stuff very well, who listened to the business groups who told us this is a good Bill that will bring jobs, will bring investments to the state. And I appreciate your support. And I would ask for an 'aye' vote on Senate Bill 107."

"The Gentleman moves passage of Senate Bill 107. All in favor vote 'yes'; opposed vote 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Chapa LaVia, Gordon, do you wish to be recorded? 117… Mr. Clerk, take the record. 118 voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present', Senate Bill 107 is declared passed. Mr. Clerk, committee announcements."

"Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."

"Representative Lang moves adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. All in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'yeses' have it. And the Resolutions are adopted. And now, allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk, Representative Currie moves the House stand adjourned until Thursday, May 6 at the hour of 10:30 a.m. All in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'yeses' have it. And the House does stand adjourned. Representative Mendoza."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we head out, if everybody… I could just get your attention for one minute. We forgot to talk about Cinco de Mayo and today is Cinco de Mayo which is a very important Mexican holiday, but it is not Mexican Independence Day. I know people think it is; it's not. That would be September 16. Cinco de Mayo celebrates a victory over the French in 1862 in the Battle of Puebla. For those who don't know, the French invaded Mexico under Napoleon's rule during the United States Civil War. The French were defeated. They were crippled to the point where Napoleon was unable to supply assistance to the confederate rebels allowing the U.S. to build one of the greatest armies the world has ever seen. This grand army 09600137.doc 166  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 137th Legislative Day 5/5/2010 smashed the Confederates of… at Gettysburg just 14 months after the Battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War. The Americans, in turn, assisted Mexico in driving out the remaining French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico City. And that's why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo because we beat… the Mexican's beat the French. And so, we celebrate this night… we celebrate tonight. Please come out to the party. The Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus will be hosting tonight from 5:30 to 8:30 at 701 West Washington, 701 West Washington, 5:30 to 8:30. We'll see you there."