"November 18, 2010, (sic–The House will come to order). We shall be led in prayer today by Lee Crawford, the pastor of the Cathedral of Praise Christian Center in Springfield. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones and pagers, and rise for the invocation, and for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Crawford."
"Let us pray, as we lift our hearts before life's throne. If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven forgive their sins and heal the land. Sovereign God in Heaven, as this august assembly convenes to deliberate to find ways to bring relief and healing to Your people all across this great State of Illinois, it is this day that I invoke Your blessings upon each of them. And I ask that You will lead them, that You would grant them Your wisdom to make the decisions that need to be made, that You would grant them your strength to stand during these tough times even when being opposed. Allow them to hear Your voice and to hear the voice of Your people, above all the many voices that they hear on a daily basis. Be with them this day. This we ask in all of these blessing in the precious name of Your Son, Amen."
"We shall be led in the Pledge today by the Lady from Montgomery, Representative Hannig."
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, 09600148.doc 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
"Roll Call for Attendance. The Gentleman from Jackson, Representative Bost, for what reason do you rise?"
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the recorded reflect that Representatives Coladipietro, Coulson, Durkin, Mulligan, and Myers are excused on the Republican side of the aisle today and I just love seeing you up there, by the way."
"And the Lady from Cook, Representative Currie, for what reason do you rise?" Currie: Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record show that Representatives Dugan, Colvin, and Fritchey are excused today."
"There are 110 Members present, a quorum is present, and we shall proceed with business. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to go to the Order of second Readings. Starting on page 2 of the Calendar and the first Bill we will hear is House Bill 1365, Representative Currie. Read the Bill Mr. Clerk.”
"House Bill 1365 has been read a second time, previously. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Currie, has been approved for consideration."
"The Clerk. Representative Currie." Currie: Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. We discussed this measure in State Government Committee yesterday and the measure was unanimously approved. This would deal with the issue of insurance in district service offices. What we're looking for is clarification of State 09600148.doc 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Law and the relationship between our district offices, other governmental entities, state governmental entities, and the Department of Central Management Services. This Bill does need additional work, but I would ask the Body please to approve this Amendment, Amendment 1 and we can leave the Bill on Second Reading and we are continuing our discussions with the department. I'd be happy to answer your questions and I'd appreciate your support."
"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Yes. Majority Leader Currie, on the property insurance plan referenced in your Amendment, it's my understanding, I know that my district office has carried property insurance for 25 years for fire, theft, et cetra, through a… an insurance carrier of our choosing. And I thought that was required, but I'm not certain of that. Is it your intent to give to all district offices blanket coverage under CMS?"
"We're trying to find out exactly what CMS does when another governmental unit, the EPA, for example, rents space in a… in a building that is not owned by the state and we had thought that CMS covered the property causality insurance. They now tell us that actually when they do a lease, when one of those state agencies does a private lease, part of the boiler plate says that the landlord has to provide the insurance. So, as I say, I don't want to move this Bill to Third. I would like to adopt this 09600148.doc 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Amendment, but what we really want to find out is whether we are being treated similarly.
"Okay."
"…to other State Government agencies by our Department of Central Management Services. We are continuing that discussion, but there's… for two years we have been trying to find out exactly what the relationship is between CMS insurance and our district offices and I think after introducing this Bill, I think we’re beginning to get a really good discussion going."
"Well, I commend you for that because I… we all know we live in a litigious society. I think these questions need to be resolved so that and not only a lessee but the lesser and perhaps in even our cases just what is the risk in our district office…"
"Exactly."
"…and I think this is probably long overdue and I thank you for it."
"Seeing no further seeing no further questions, the question is, ‘Shall the House adopt Floor Amendment #1 to Sen… House Bill 1365?' All those in favor should say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chairs, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Further amendments?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. No, leave it… leave it on Second… Second Reading. The Gentleman from Champaign, Representative Rose, for what reason do you rise?"
"Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker." 09600148.doc 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"State your point."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, in the gallery behind me, if the gentlemen will stand there, we are very privileged today… if I could have the Body's attention. Behind me is the Class 2A State Champion Golf Team, they're from Mahomet- Seymour High School. They're the proud Bulldogs from Mahomet-Seymour. That's my hometown and also represented by Representative Shane Cultra. Behind me… and Speaker can we have the Body's attention?"
"Can we have your attention, Members."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, behind me are members of the Class 2A State Championship Golf Team. Head Coach Nathan Mills, Assistant Coach Eric Andrache, players, Seth Trolia who happens to be my neighbor down the street, Seth, Adam Guth, Grant Dukeman, Jason Troyer, Andrew Lawson, Garrett Cox, Lyle Burns, Kyle Howard. Also with us today is our principal Marty Williams who, I wanted to say a brief note, will be retiring at the end of this year after many, many years of serving our community and also education in the State of Illinois in general. Ladies and Gentlemen, the state champion team. It was a two-day 637 total, won by a 14-stroke victory. This was our first Mahomet-Seymour High School State Golf Title. They were also the Champions of the 2010 IHS… SA Class AA Sectional and they had a 15-0 dual meet record. Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of Representative Cultra and I and the proud residents of Mahomet, let's give them a big welcome and congratulate them on their victory." 09600148.doc 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Welcome to Springfield. On page 8 of the Calendar, under Total Vetoes, we have Senate Bill 2499, Representative Farnham. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk. Representative Farnham."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to present the Motion to override the Governor's Veto of Senate Bill 2499, which this chamber passed in April with 113 'aye' votes. The legislation solves a problem in our state. School district U46, the second largest school district in Illinois that has over 40 thousand students in 13 communities finds itself in the unique position because of the way State Law determines funding for multicounty school districts. When applying for gen… general state aid through the Illinois State Board of Education, Kane County uses actual property value assessments for their applications, where Cook County uses estimated property data. Last year this created a 7.1 million shortfall in the budget for U46. This is a problem that's been facing U46 schools for over a decade and it's time that we take action to right the wrong. I appreciate the overwhelming support of this Bill from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers last spring, the Senate in March, and then here in the House in April. The Governor vetoed the Bill in July, the Senate overruled the Veto yesterday and today I ask for your 'aye' vote. And I appreciate the support from the other side in this… when we passed this Bill originally. Representative Ramey, I appreciate the support that you showed and the support that you're showing today. Thank you." 09600148.doc 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Representative, I guess the way I would characterize this is a… an adjustment in the way we calculate the local match or the local effort to use a more accurate reflection of… of the EAV as compared to what an estimate would have been. So, is that…"
"That is… that's correct."
"So, it will result, at the end of the day, in some… Elgin School District receiving additional money. I… what… do you know that number?"
"Money that it should've been receiving."
"I’m not… Absolutely. Do you know what that number is? Is it about 20? I… 20 million…"
"It's… it's approximately $22 million."
"About $22 million. I think that the point here though is that's $22 million that they would've received had the formula used the accurate number in an overlapping county.”
"That's correct."
"So… this is a way to fix it and really kind of give them what they should've gotten had the accurate number been used. That's just all you're doing. You're making sure that they get that. It's difficult because it's a tough year to find the $20 million or $22 million, there's no question about that, but it is fair because it treats them the same as everybody else in the formula by using an accurate number." 09600148.doc 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Correct."
"Will… will there be an opportunity because it does take money from the appropriation line item… Have you checked with the state board to see if this is going to reduce the general state aid allocations to other school districts?"
"It shifts the money to where it should have been."
"Well, what I'm getting at though is…"
"So, in that sense, yes."
"Okay. Is there an opportunity or would you support an appropriation at some point that would make those districts whole again, if there are those opportunities in the spring with supplemental appropriations, because that's all really… This is causing an additional amount of money for that line item that's going to I mean, it's not a huge amount, but would you support something like that to make the rest of the districts in the state that might get a little less state aid as a result of this whole again?"
"I would support fixing the problem for the whole state."
"Okay. Well, that means the… the appropriation needs to be whole and that might mean additional money. But you don't know from the State Board of Education if the appropriation amount on the line item will handle this without prorating the rest of the state?"
"Yes. When you say prorating…"
"Well, there's an appropriated line item amount for general state aid."
"Right." 09600148.doc 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"This will cost 20 million. They estimate that number. Is there enough in that appropriation to handle this and still pay out the rest the state aid at 100 percent?"
"Yes."
"There is. The state board has said… Okay. Well I appreciate and I think this is the right thing to do. I voted for it originally. This is fair and I would urge everyone to support this fix. I just hope that later we can work on the appropriation so that if there is any reduction that everybody’s made whole.”
"I think that’s a great idea.
"Thank you."
"The Gentlemen from Champaign, Representative Rose, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Okay. Representative, notwithstanding the… my strong contention with your earlier statement that government is here to solve problems, I would think that many people would find that humorous. Do you know why the Governor vetoed your Bill?"
"No, I don't."
"In his address… in his letter, his Veto message and I quote, 'I cannot approve a measure that will boost general state aid to one district at the expense of all others.’ That is Governor Quinn's veto message. Later on it says, a second time here, ‘approving this Bill means that lowering the foundation level in every other school district in this state, which I cannot approve of at this time,’ end quote. 09600148.doc 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Representative, I appreciate your tenacity on this legislation, but I think that the other 117 Members in this Body would be well ver… advised to read the Governor's Veto message, and particularly those sentences I just quoted and realize that this is a zero-sum game and every school district that we have, this is money that could go to pay them. We ended June 30 owing schools $600 million and here is a priority preference for one single message in the State of Illinois… and one sing… single school district in the State of Illinois. This is not a partisan statement. I'm quoting from the Democratic Governor's Veto message. I think we would be all well advised to vote to… to support Governor Quinn on this and vote against this override. As… as much as I… enjoy working with the Sponsor, I just think it would be inexcusable the other 117 of us to do this. So, thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"What I think is inexcusable is that money that should have been going to U46 all along has been going to some… somewhere else. So, all this does is merely to appropriate the money where it should have been going all along."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Nekritz, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Representative do you have any idea which districts that 22 million is going to be… coming… where that 22 million is going to come from and where it's… and what other districts are going to be losing appropriations as a result?" 09600148.doc 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"It may not come from anywhere."
"Then it comes from where?"
"There may be enough money in the line."
"In the ex… existing…"
"General state aid."
"and there's enough money in general state aid by… I mean, I wish my school districts knew that because they're not getting paid because we don't have any money to pay them, so… and there may be sufficient appropriation, but I don't know that there's sufficient money."
"At the beginning of the year we just guess and it's a very small portion, this is.”
"Okay. And Representative, I'm… I'm going to support your Bill, but I just wanted to address the comment made by one of the previous speakers that we simply would increase an appropriation to hold the oth… other school districts harmless. And we can increase the appropriation; all we want we don't have any money to make those payments. So that's… I just wanted to underscore that. That's the difficulty we face generally in the eca… in the budgeting environment that we have right now and to just sort of indicate that we can solve this problem by holding other districts harmless I think is… is disingenuous at best."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Monique Davis." Davis, M.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will." 09600148.doc 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Davis, M.: "Representative Farnham, your belief is that the children in Elgin have been shortchanged by the State of Illinois and its appropriation over some years?"
"Yes, that's a fact." Davis, M.: "Why do you think that, why?"
"Because of the way the formula works for a multicounty district. Estimated value of property in Cook County has been used and never… never then made whole when the actual value comes in." Davis, M.: "Well, I have to go along with Representative Rose. When you look at what the Governor has stated that this Bill will result in Elgin receiving a greater general state aid appropriation, $22 million more, the district says this is a result of being shortchanged in the past, but according to the State Board of Education, this will have a ripple effect resulting in a larger appropriation of general state aid a lowering of the foundation level for fiscal year 2011. The Illinois State Board contends that this is a short-term fix to a larger underlying problem, and that supposedly the ISBE is currently working to address the underlying problem. My concern is, you know, being from Chicago there's a lot of changing short all across the district. You know, there’s one di… one school that's getting a great… a lot of resources, there are others that can hardly keep windows in the building. So, I mean, how can I vote for this and not be unfair to the districts I represent?"
"What this does is merely create accuracy. It's not taking from or giving to, it's actually just fixing a 09600148.doc 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 problem that is existed for 41 thousand children, families, and 13 communities and making it right. Which is, yes would we like a fix for the whole state…" Davis, M.: "Let me ask you this. Who created this inaccuracy? How was this created?"
"What?" Davis, M.: "The inaccuracy. How…"
"The statute. Yeah, it's a victim of the tax cap legislation." Davis, M.: "A victim of… a vic… I'm sorry. You said it's a victim of…"
"The tax cap legislation." Davis, M.: "So, let me ask you this. Will Chicago or any other school districts in the state lose dollars?"
"There may be enough money in the line to cover that." Davis, M.: "You said that… They'll lose money this year, how about next year? Mr. Far… Representative, my final question to you is, why do you think the Governor would… would write this kind of a Veto message? Why do you think he vetoed this Bill and why do you think he'd write this message that it would hurt other school districts and that we need to fix and solve a major problem rather than picking certain little communities to su… support and solve their problems and not solve all of our problems?"
"I can't answer why the Governor vetoed it. You know, I discussed it and I just can't answer why he vetoed it. I can tell you that I've got 3500 signatures of people, door- to-door in my district and that's just my district. This covers 13 communities and many… and… and quite a few 09600148.doc 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 districts. This is just my district, 3500 people who said this needs to be fixed." Davis, M.: "I know that it is not your fault; it is none of your doing. You're merely trying to solve a problem in your district and I have to admire you for that. So, I'm going to trust that this Body will recognize that it's not just Elgin hurting, that it's other school districts hurting. I'm going to trust this Body to feel that since we're going to fix Elgin's problems, we're also going to fix Chicago's problems, we're going to fix Ford Heights problems, we're going to fix Maywood's problems. We're not going to just pick out a few to help, we're going to help them all. So, with that, I would urge an 'aye' vote."
"I… "
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from DuPage, Representative Reboletti, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Representative, you talked about the fact that Cook County estimates their tax bills. Why… why is that?"
"There's a difference in when the tax bills go out."
"They… they just came out, if I'm not mistaken. Do you know what the Cook County Assessor's Office assesses commercial and residential property at, as compared to the rest of the state?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't hear what you said."
"I said, do you understand what Cook County assesses their property at compared to the other 101 counties? The EAV, the equalized assessed valuation." 09600148.doc 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"I don't know the exact figures. I know they estimate it because tax bills in Kane come out in June 1 and in Cook County after."
"It's… it's my understanding that Cook County assesses their commercial and their residential property at about half of what the rest of the state assesses their property at. Are you aware of that 'cause the people in DuPage County are aware of that? So, not only do you estimate your tax bills in Cook County, you don't even asses it at what the other 101 counties are assessing at. So, maybe that's where some of the shortfall is coming in because maybe that portion of Cook County isn't paying their fair share."
"No. No, that's not the reason."
"That's not the reason?"
"No."
"So, if you're only paying about 16 percent EAV and the people in Addison are paying thirty-three and a third, there's a pretty big difference there. That might be able to make up some of that difference."
"The reason that it’s wrong or that this occurs is because they have to guess the value at the time and it's always wrong."
"I… I'm not sure why Cook County is guessing and my understanding is that the… the rest of the assessors aren't guessing, the other counties aren't guessing. So maybe we need to reform the Cook County Assessor's Office and the way things are done in Cook County to maybe make things 09600148.doc 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 more fair across the state since the EAVs are not the same as the other 101 counties."
"Seeing no further questions, the question… seeing no further questions, Representative Farnham moves that Senate Bill 2499 do pass notwithstanding the Veto of the Governor. All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 80 'ayes', 29 'noes', and 1 'present'. And the Motion, having received a Supermajority, Senate Bill 2499 is hereby declared passed notwithstanding the Veto of the Governor. On page 2 of the Calendar, under the Order of Second Readings, we have House Bill 1420, Representative Lang. Out of the record. Representative Nekritz, we have House Bill 1516. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1516 has been read a second time, previously. Amendment #1 has been… offered by Representative Nekritz, has been approved for consideration."
"Representative Nekritz on Amendment #1."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The… as… as many of you know and we can deba… debate this on Third Reading, but it is a gut and replaces we… the State of Illinois has been awarded a $1.2 billion grant for… from the Federal Government to improve rails… passenger rail service from Chicago to St. Louis. In the past, the pro… the rail programs that have been administrated by the Federal Railroad Administration the FRA, have allowed the state to 09600148.doc 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 submit the bill to the FRA and then they are re… then the… those bills are paid by the Federal Government. The FRA has recently informed the state that we are… that they’re switching that to the model that they use… that the Federal Highway Administration uses, where the bills have to be paid by the state and then reimbursed by the Federal Government. We have no mechanism to do that in the state and so this legislation creates the… the funding source and the funds to allow us to take advantage of that 1.2 billion."
"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor of the Amendment yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Representative, I appreciate your explanation yesterday in committee and certainly appreciate IDOT bringing me some follow-up information which made this much more clear to me. Just one or two questions, if I might, about the Amendment. When we put money into this high speed account which then could be, become the repository of federal funds for high speed rail, under the way it's structured would it be subject for an executive sweep of those funds? And I don't… I don't think we can specifically prohibit that, but as you know, what we went through for so many years it's a concern that many of us have. That if there's several million or in this case a billion dollars in a fund for a particular purpose, who's to say eight months from now, whoops, that money gets swept out of there for ordinary 09600148.doc 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 contingent expenses and we're no better off you know, even though you're creating this, we… we may be… no better off six to eight months from now."
"Representative, I don't think that that's possible. I… I think if we were to convert those funds to a different use other than the purposes designated in the grant, that we would forfeit the grant and I think that, that would be quite foolhardy on our part."
"All right. In other words, and I think that gets back to the Pittman-Robinson funds that a previous administration swept and the Federal Government said you can't do that and you did it and you have to repay it. So, I would assume… and I think you're right… I would assume that the Federal Government would not sit idly by and let us use high speed rail grant funds for ordinary and contingent expenses. So, we have that safeguard. Now…"
"We do and Representative, again, these are funds that… that we've contracted for and the… there's been performance and we owe that money. So, that would be another strong dis…"
"Okay."
"…disincentive for… for sweeping."
"Well and I think that… I think you're right and I think that creates a safeguard that we're all interested in. My… my second and final point is to the Amendment. The Amendment in no way attempts to specify what the high speed rail corridors will be in the State of Illinois. That is yet to be determined, correct? The reason I ask…" 09600148.doc 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Again, there'd be… Well, I… The amendment certainly does not specify…"
"Okay."
"Where the high speed rail corridors go. Correct."
"Because I think one of the high speed rail corridors, I mean, they've mentioned to Chicago to St. Louis through Springfield, I happen to think and I think Governor Quinn feels the same that a high speed corridor from let's just say from Chicago to Champaign where we could access the talent at the University of Illinois would be a critical factor. So, we're not limiting our choices by this Amendment whatsoever."
"We are not and in fact this allows us in future grand applications to I think you know continue to be in a position to take advantage of the funding opportunities for passenger rail in the way that we have with highways for decades."
"And when also we're… we're not locking ourselves into as I suggested to you yesterday, for true high speed rail Illinois must address the question of having more at grade railroad crossings, many of them unmarked, except by the old cross buck. They are not gated, they're not lighted, and you just simply can't put a high speed rail on a rail line that has hundreds of those old outdated at grade crossings particularly in rural areas, and I assume that will be part of the study as to the route and how those crossings will be addressed and I think this is a while I maintain it's been a little bit overhyped it is going to happen, it should happen and this is that first step. 09600148.doc 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 There's still a number of things to… to work out and to study, but this is a good positive first step. I congratulate you for bringing it forward and I certainly stand in support of your Amendment."
"Thank you."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is 'Shall the House adopt Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 1516?' All those in favor should say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. Further Amendments, Mr. Clerk?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Call… Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1516, a Bill for an Act concerning finance. Third Reading."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Nekritz."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I… the same explanation holds and I would ask for your support."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1516?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Ramey. Ramey. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 109 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill having received the Constitutional Majority is hereby declared passed. Representative Riley, we have House Bill 1644. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk." 09600148.doc 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"House Bill 1644 has been read a second time, previously. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Riley, has been approved for consideration."
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Riley on Amendment #1."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. House Bill 1644 essentially amends the Local Mass Transit District Act and creates the Southeast Commuter Rail Transit District. And this district is ess… is essentially a district consisting of 11 south suburban communities that have gotten together and basically established a pact whereby they can be the caretaker, if you will, for the southeast service line. Metra has submitted an application to the Federal Government at this time after doing a long exhausted study and essentially this district, the constituent members, and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, the council of government, wants to show the Federal Government that they are all in agreement and want to establish this district. And I would request 'aye' votes for this… for this good plan."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Franks, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Representative, I apologize. It's the first, I'm learning of this provision and our… my analysis doesn't say anything. So, I just… I want to ask you a few fundamental questions…"
"Sure." 09600148.doc 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"…about this district. Would this district have eminent domain powers?"
"Yes, it would."
"Okay. Would this district also be a new taxing body?"
"They would have those powers. Similar districts have been created that really have not, you know, invoked their taxing powers, but they would… a referendum would have to be passed before they would do anything though."
"So, what would they do? So, right now they have the ability by a referendum to become a taxing authority and they would have, via creation, the ability for eminent domain, but I presume they will need taxing authority first 'cause they'd have no way of purchasing or… or taking the land. But would this entity do?"
"One of the things that they have already done is they have established intergovernmental agreements for development around the area. They also want to show the Federal Government and they want to show Metra, who's a partner in this submittal, that they're all of the same mind. A lot of these surrounding communities are looking at developments like transit oriented developments and so forth. They also want to show that they are willing to come up with local resources for any of the projects like, you know, the improvement of a station. You know, they want to show that they're willing to do that."
"Do they need to be this type of entity to do that? Could they do that, I guess, more in an informal basis? What concerns me, quite, frankly, is we already have the most taxing bodies in the country in Illinois and this is a 09600148.doc 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 potential additional taxing body with additional powers of eminent domain. And I'm just concerned that instead of reining in government this would be an expansion of government. So, is there another way to do this where we wouldn't have these additional powers?"
"Representative Franks, I understand of what you're saying but a couple of things. You know, in committee there was a mention made about this essentially being a paper district which is what it is. I mean, one of the things that you want to do especially with this federal new starts program is to show the Federal Government that… for example, if they had sent in the application and there was no knowledge that any of the constituent communities, any of the communities on the periphery of the line, and certainly the councils of government were not behind this program then the feds would have no reason to think that everyone was behind it. This has been going on quite some time and again, what it is, is a set of agreements showing that all of these communities want the line. They want the development that's going to take place along the line. I think you're familiar with the south suburban region and we really need this project. So, I would not look at it as necessarily a means to levy new taxes. I would look at it as a means of collaboration for a… an area the metropolitan area that's been sort of… gotten short shrift for a long time."
"I respect what you're trying to do. I'm just having trouble getting passed creating another level and… and you're saying they're already doing it right now. If 09600148.doc 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 they're already doing it right now, can't they just form a consortium on their own and have it under the auspices of a local municipality even, if they wish to do so, to put all their names on a letterhead if you're trying to show unanimity and uniformity and everybody in it together. Do we really need to create another potential taxing body to prove this?"
"Representative Franks, again, since 2005 all of these entities, the 45 communities that are part of South Suburban Mayors and Managers and all of these other entities have felt that this is the way. And this is the way to do exactly what you're talking about is to create this district."
"Okay."
"And… and there've been public hearings, the people have come out. They're all part of it. I mean, there's absolute… there's absolutely been no objection to any of this and it's been in the sunshine so long that it's bleached. So, that's exactly what they're doing by creating this district."
"I'm going to listen to more of the debate and I appreciate your answers."
"Thank you."
"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy, for what reason do you rise?"
"Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will." 09600148.doc 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Representative, just a couple of quick questions as follow-up. Does this give the board the authority to levy?"
"It would give them the authority to do that, but again just like…"
"Well that's all. That's all. I mean, I just need to make sure we get…"
"Yeah. Okay."
"It does."
"Yes. Yes."
"I think… and they can levy. It says may levy .05 property tax and that's the authority to levy. I think that they have that authority. The second part and I think the important part of that levy, they can make that levy, I think, the way we read the Bill, without a referendum."
"No, I think it would be a front door referendum."
"No. I really… I really don't believe that… that I… I'm not saying you don't think it does that, but I believe the way this is written they would be allowed to levy that without a front door referendum."
"Well, Representative, again, that's part and parcel of what, you know, these districts can do. I… I'm just, you know, willing to tell you that, again, as I was telling Representative Franks, this …this district, this idea has been around a long time and I'm sure they would do nothing that would be untoward to any of the constituent communities in that area."
"Well, and I don't question their intentions. I don't honestly, I don't question whether this is good for that 09600148.doc 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 area. I just think it's important for the Members of the Body to know that this gives them the authority to levy…"
"Excu… excuse me, Representative. I can't… Mr. Speaker, I can't hear. I can't hear his response."
"Can the Gentlemen have some peace and quiet."
"Sorry, Representative, go ahead."
"I just think it's important that Members of the Body realize that a vote for this is a vote for creation of… of a board that has the authority to levy, number one and secondly, according to the written and the testimony in committee they can do that without referendum and it's just important people know that's what this does. I think the other part of this that is important they also might issue 40 year bonds. That's… you want to address the bonding part of this, 40 year bonds are… that's a little longer than we're used to."
"Well, that was part of the provision. I… you know, to be honest with this particular project, you know, I really can't see this district… this district issuing a bond for that longer period of time."
"Well, Representative, I… this is on Second. Obviously, there'll be more debate on this. I think it's important though that people understand that the two points, the authority levy and without referendum. Thank you."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Nekritz, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a lengthy discussion about this in the Railroad Industry Committee yesterday. This is a pretty simple straightforward concept and… and 09600148.doc 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 this particular entity, as I understand it, needs to be established in order to… because the state is not going to be able to put… invest any capital, invest any ongoing resources in this because of the… the budget situation we're in. So, they are looking for and a statement by the state that, yes, we support this coming together of the municipalities for transit in the south suburbs. And it really is I think for, you know, for the folks that are coming together it's really nothing more than that. They're not really looking for taxing authority, but they are trying to fit into the existing structure that is… that already is in law. So, this is, I think, really important as a statement by the state that, yes, we do want to see this new start in the south suburbs move ahead, we want to give the… these municipalities every opportunity to go after every source of funding that might be available to them because, again, the state can't step up and help them and by… by passing this, we would allow them to… to do that whether it’s a public-private partnership, whether it's federal money whatever it is, they need the flexibility and they need the structure to be able to do it. I would ask for your support."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Knox, Representative Moffitt, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Representative, just for the record and a clarification. Will this create any jobs temporary and permanent?" 09600148.doc 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"It will create temporary and permanent jobs. Jobs that are congruent with the eventual development and jobs that would be part of any other peripheral developments like transit oriented development and those kinds of things."
"Do you see this as an economic development tool to add to Illinois trying to improve our job situation or…"
"That's exactly what I see it doing. A great economic development vehicle for an area that, again that needs something like this and again, it shows the collaboration between many communities in the south suburban region. And the important thing, you're talking about a region that not only needs the economic development, we have the longest times to work of any region in the Chicago Metropolitan area. And I just think that this would be a great vehicle for both."
"Now, this… it's my understanding it's a local effort, a local obligation. This does not in any way increase any financial obligation for the State of Illinois. Is that correct?"
"That's correct."
"And when you look at this as part of the total passenger rail system, do you think this improves and enhances our passenger rail system?"
"It… it definitely does. Right now there's really a need for that area to have a transit system. This would go essentially from downtown all the way out to the creek, out near Balmoral Park. And it's just a tremendous development, tremendous opportunity." 09600148.doc 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"I think it's the way we should be going. Local communities coming together saying we'll step up to the plate, we want to be a part of the system, we want to improve it, we want to go for jobs and all those things considered and not obligate the state. Instead of coming down here and asking for money, instead we just want to… ourselves, to do better. So, I think it's a good piece of legislation. Thank you."
"Thank you."
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Miller for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker to the Amendment. Most of communities in this Amendment are… are represented by me. We've been dealing with this issue in the southeast rail for a majority of the time I've been down here, almost eight years. When Metra put its plan together, when former Representative Hamos formed the Mass Transit Committee and it always seemed when my… the leader of this coalition, Mayor Don De Graff would come down and explain to the General Assembly the… the need for this southeast rail coming through the City of Chicago, going through Dalton, South Holland, and Alta Creek to provide jobs and transportation. So, it seemed like there'd always been delays in us trying to get this rail on par with other transit systems. So, when it was decided that these communities would come together as a leap of faith and say look, we are unified, we all believe this is a good project and it's much needed in our community. As Representative Moffitt just said, this will bring jobs and transportation 09600148.doc 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 to our system. It does provide similar economic interest as any other community and any other authority that is granted by the State of Illinois. It is a statement to the state… to the communities… from the communities to the state saying we want the same thing, we believe in it and we'll come together and provide a kind of economic engine in the support we need whether it's on a state level or a national level. This is what it does, this is what it is, and I urge everybody to support this."
"Seeing no further questions, the question… seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House adopt Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 1644?' All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment's is adopted. Further Amendments?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1644, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Riley."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You've heard the debate. You've also heard that this is a tremendous economic engine for an underserved region. We have dealt with this for quite sometime. And I would ask an 'aye' vote to help the development of the southeast service line and the south suburbs of Chicago. Thank you."
"So the question is, 'Shall House Bill 1644 pass?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those 09600148.doc 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? This requires 71 votes. The Clerk shall take the record… record. This Bill, having received 71 votes, 39 'no' votes, and 0 'presents', shall be declared passed. The Gentleman from Knox, Representative Moffitt, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I could have the Body's attention. I'm pleased to introduce someone from my district. It's Makenzie Williams and she is one of two fifth grader… students and we recognized some DARE students yesterday. She couldn't come, but she was one of the two students that won the design a poster contest with a drug free theme and… and so she's one of the two winners. She's here with her DARE officer, Galesburg police officer John Woolsey and her parents Dan and Julie Williams. They're behind here on the west side. Would you stand and would you welcome them to the House of Representatives, over here."
Speaker Turner: "Representative Harris, on page 3 of the Calendar. On page 3 of the Calendar we have House Bill 1720, Representative Harris. Read the bill Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1720 has been read a second time previously. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Harris, has been approved for consideration."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What this Amendment does is it would allow a hospital in my district to expand to another building that's just outside of its current campus. They would have to go through the entire certificate of need authority. I would appreciate your favorable 09600148.doc 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 consideration because this will not only help them expand their pediatric services, but it will also take a large building that was built in my neighborhood, but then has sat vacant since the collapse of the housing market, and have it return to a positive use instead of being a vacant building and a loitering place for gang members, drug dealers and whatnot."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill… I should say… adopt Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 1720?' All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment's adopted. Further Amendments?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1720, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Harris."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is the same issue we spoke about. This would allow an existing hospital which has been in my neighborhood for 46 years to purchase an abandoned building that's just a shell that's been sitting just a little bit outside their campus and expanded under their current license and they need this change as any hospital would in Cook who wants to expand to be included un… under the license so they can apply for a CON. I'd be happy to answer any questions." 09600148.doc 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Franks, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Thank you. I… this Bill, what you're trying to do is to avoid having to get permission from whom?"
"Right now, I believe, in Cook County by statute… hospitals outside of Cook County may add buildings outside of their campus without having to change statute. This one's outside the 250-yard limit. This… the physical structure is outside the 250-yard limit from their main building; therefore, they would need this change in statute to apply for the CON. They would still have to go through the CON process."
"But is this through the Health Facilities Planning Board?"
"Could you repeat it? I could not hear you."
"Would this be through the Health Facilities Planning Board?"
"They would apply through the Health Facilities Planning Board for a CON, but they need this change to even make the application."
"Doesn't that seem over… overly burdensome to you for an existing hospital that's been there for, I don't know, how many years, you say?"
"For 46 years."
"For 46 years to have to jump through these procedural hoops?" 09600148.doc 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"I've not been here for 46 years and didn't write the original law. I would have written it differently, but it's where we are today."
"Thank you and I appreciate what you're doing, I just… I tell you the laws that we have in this state are an absolute joke when it comes to health care. The Health Facilities Planning Board has no business, it being in this business, because what it does is restrict competition needlessly. We need to scrap and start over and repeal the Health Facilities Planning Board Act and allow institutions, like the one in your area that has been there for 46 years, to continue to do what they're doing and to serve the public without having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to be able to get permission cause all this is, is a moneymaker for the Health Facilities Planning Board so they can file their certificate of need application at a time… what they try to do is set up restrictions on health care. So, I think this is a symptom of a much bigger problem facing the state and I hope that we're able to address that in the upcoming General Assembly."
"Seeing no further questions the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1720?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is 09600148.doc 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 hereby declared passed. Representative Currie on House Bill 1366. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1366, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. This measure is… is proposed in order to clarify State Law. Generally speaking, if a government unit rents from another government unit, the lessee is exempt from property taxes. There's a lot of confusion in the statute and the effort here is just to clarify that if you're renting from a governmental un… unit and you are yourself government, like a district service office or part of the environmental protection agency, that you would not be required to pay property taxes. So, I'd be happy to answer your questions. As I say, this is clarifying since the current statute is extremely unclear. I'd be happy to answer your questions and I'd appreciate your support."
"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Yes. Majority Leader Currie, is there a specific governmental entity that this will apply to?"
"Well, it would apply to any government entity that today is being taxed on property. Ordinarily, the idea behind property taxes is that if you're government you're not making a profit and you don't owe them. But there is 09600148.doc 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 confusion in this statute as to whether if, for example, the EPA were to rent in a… in the Evanston City Hall or from a school district, whether they, in fact, would be exempt from the lease hold tax. Today, if that government unit at the school district or the Evanston City Hall or the Thompson Center rents to a for-profit entity, obviously, that entity would owe property taxes, but if there's a division of the Department of Public Health in the Thompson Building in downtown Chicago, they shouldn't have to pay property taxes. Similarly, if they were renting from, you know, the school board in Des Plaines, they shouldn't have to pay property taxes. So, the effort here is just to clarify that if you're a governmental unit and you are renting from another governmental unit you don't owe property taxes."
"All right. That… that's what I was having confusion on. So, in other words, it's only if a lease exists between two public entities?"
"Yes."
"Not that you lease a privately owned building."
"Exactly."
"So, if a government entity leases part or whole of a building owned by another government entity then, for clarification, the new lease is not… the new leased building is not subject to property tax."
"Precisely."
"Thank you very much."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1366?' All those in favor 09600148.doc 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 109 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 1 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitution Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Currie, on the Order of Third Readings, we have House Bill 1410. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1410, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. We have imposed upon ourselves and upon all the employees of the Governor's agencies and the other Constitutional Officer's agencies a gift ban but sometimes there's confusion about exactly how you value a gift in the context of a ban and I don't think we can comfortably do that legislatively. So, all this measure does is to say that both the Executive Ethics Commission and the Legislative Ethics Commission have the authority to define by rule how to value and what counts as a gift under the current statute. I'd be happy to answer your questions and I'd be grateful for your support."
"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you. Would the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Leader Currie, what… has there been problems that… was there a genesis to this, some things have happened?" 09600148.doc 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"There had been a lot of questions that Members ask. For example, if somebody… if somebody is given a high price ticket to a charity benefit but is there for a glass of wine, is the value of that gift the glass of wine, is it the actual cost of the ticket or is it the… what would actually be given by the sponsoring entity in terms of the dinner price. So, people just don't know the answer and this happens to Members of the Executive Branch as well. If you got a… a ticket to some event, okay, the face value of the ticket is X, but what if the person that gave it to you had to buy through a third party seller and paid three times that amount. Well, does the member or does the member of the executive agency report the face value or the ticket broker value. And the… answers, I don't know that there are easy answers to those questions, but we're getting a lot of questions from our Members as are the Members of the Executive Ethics Commission and instead of trying to resolve all of these issues by more and more statute, it seems sensible to give them the authority to… to promulgate rules."
"So, they're not going to do it necessarily case by case. What they're going to do is come up with a rule…"
"Rules exactly."
"…that will apply to… Exactly… but…"
"Exactly."
"…but rather than statutory given that flexibility."
"Exactly." 09600148.doc 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"And again, the Legislative Ethics Commission, Executive Ethics Commission and I think the Auditor General would be the reforming rules… the forming bodies?"
"Right. So, the idea is they would adopt rules and as I say, the peop… we've been asked questions, our Ethics Commission, same is true with the Executive. People on the commissions have been talking about the lack of clarity and this seems to be the best solution to the problem."
"Well, thank you very much, appreciate it."
"Seeing no further questions, the questions is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1410? All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 5 of the Calendar, and we're going to go straight down the Calendar, on the Order of Third Readings, we have House Bill 1422, Representative Lang. Representative Lang. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1422, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Lang."
"Thank you. Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday we had a wonderful and warm Death Resolution for Joel Brunsvold. This House Bill would rename the DNR building in the memory of Joel Brunsvold. And I would ask your support for this Bill." 09600148.doc 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1422?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. Voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having receiving the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. We have House Bill 1444, Representative Lang. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1444, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Lang."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is actually a repeat of a Bill we passed before. The Governor had made an Amendatory Veto to it that was not in compliance, so we put it in a new Bill. And this would create the Chronic Disease Nutrition Advisory Commission. It's a good piece of legislation. It was originally designed to study HIV and now we're going to add some other chronic diseases to it. I would ask your support."
"Seeing no questions, the question… the House… the question is, 'Shall the… I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates he will."
"Rep… Representative, I certainly have no difficulty with the objective of the Bill but is this in fact not a new program that we would put into the department?" 09600148.doc 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"This is a commission that would advise the department in how to best incorporate nutrition as part of the chronic disease management strategy. I don't think this is any large bureaucracy or major expenditure, Representative."
"Did anyone indicate how much money… I know this is subject to appropriation. Did anyone give you any idea what it… what that might be, a million a year, ten million a year?"
"Unfortunately, I do not have that information, Representative, but… based on the activities that are planned for this commission, I just don't think it's going to be a very sizable sum of money."
"All right. Thank you very much, Representative. Mr. Speaker, to the Bill. I… While I was not running, I couldn't help but notice some of the negative TV commercials that ran during the last campaign. So, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference what you vote for down here it'll be twisted into something that you're against or something that you were for that you should've been against. So, it doesn't make any difference, I guess, in the long run. My concern, as I leave here, is that we do have a tendency to pass a number of things and this is a very well-meaning proposal by a Legislator I have great respect for and unfortunately, I know a little bit about chronic disease problems having fought one for about 45 years. But we're in such a state of fiscal disarray that to create commissions, create boards, create new programs, when we all know we don't have the money, subject to appropriation this will probably never be appropriated in 09600148.doc 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 my lifetime. So, it's a commission that we will create. Even though it's a well meaning, probably could be put to good use, I… I'm at the point now where, and it's easy for me to say since I'm not on the ballot in the future, I just can't in good conscience continue to vote for things that are subject to appropriation, that perform a service not currently being performed. When we get to the point where we fund what have and eliminate some things we don't need, I just don't think it's wise public policy to continue creating new commissions, new agencies, new services and make it subject to appropriation when everyone on this House Floor knows, down deep, we don't have any money and it will not be subject to appropriation and will probably never be appropriated in the first place. I intend to vote 'no'."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1444?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote… all those in favor should vote 'aye'; all tho… the voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there's 74 voting 'aye', 36 voting 'no', 0 'presents'. And this Bill having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On the Order of Third Reading, we have House Bill 1450, Representative Franks. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1450, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading." 09600148.doc 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Franks."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and the Members of the General Assembly. We spoke about this Bill yesterday. This is one that will redo how we do leases in the State of Illinois. This will allow… this will require, actually, the procurement policy board to re… to review leases that are in excess of 10 thousand square feet or $100 thousand or more on annual rent. This will give them the power to reject leases that aren't in the best interest of the State of Illinois. This… the Bill genesis is what happened earlier in the year when the General Assembly objected to the Governor agreeing to allow the Department of Aging to spend over $530 thousand on a… lease that wasn't necessary. I think this is an important safeguard for our state and we really need to be reviewing these larger leases. I'd be happy to answer any questions."
"Seeing no questions, the question is 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1450?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Will Davis on House Bill 1453. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1453, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading." 09600148.doc 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Davis." Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I certainly want to thank our Department of Transportation Secretary, Hannig as well as the Governor's Office for supporting this change. This change is a technical change to the business enterprise program statutes and this legislation provides IDOT the option of applying dual goals on state-funded projects in which other state agencies have already… already have the capability and can implement these types of split goals such as the Capital Development Board and Central Management Services. IDOT already has the ability to apply split goals on goods and services and nonconstruction and vendor… and vendor related contracts but not on construction portion of contracts. So, and again, this is an effort to provide split goals which will be separate goals for women-owned businesses as well as ethnically owned mi… minority businesses. I will be more than happy to answer any questions."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1453?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. Voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Currie, we have House Bill 1457. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk." 09600148.doc 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"House Bill 1457, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Currie."
"Thank you very much, Speaker. Five years ago when we began work on the Capital heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, the Capital Development Board granted a waiver from the requirement that all contracts be divided up between prime and subs. The requirement instead was that the prime contractor selected would not be selected until having identified all the subs that would work under him. We have found this to be a very effective, cost effective and efficient program. For various reasons, we still haven't finished fixing the H fact system in the State Capitol. There were requirements about… the Americans with Disabilities Act changes to the structure and some Fire Marshal concerns about stairwells, so the project isn't over but the waiver comes to an end this year. This measure, House Bill 1457, would extend the same waiver for another five years so we can continue making sure we get the work done effectively and cost-efficiently. I'd be happy to answer your questions. And I'd be grateful for your support."
"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Representative, can you explain to me how this contract works. We are now in an era where copper prices are once 09600148.doc 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 again reaching record highs. There's a great deal of copper in HVAC work. Does the current contractor… is the current contractor able to reopen the contract to account for higher costs next year or the year after that?"
"Well, we don't know because the bid hasn't happened. As I say, the waiver… the exemption ends in November. Now, I… and I, Representative I misspoke. This would extend it for six years not five and obviously, if we can't afford to do the work, we may have to extend it over even a longer period, but the issue here is just how that letting happens."
"Maybe I'm not reading this correctly, but it seems to me from just reading the analysis that the prime and the subs may be able to simply roll a contract over for the next six years. By rolling over I mean that they would still be the prime bidder even though there may be an opener for higher costs. I don't read in this where it has to be a new bid process where a new company would come in and say for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth year of the contract I bid one, two, three, four different amounts. Now, I… maybe I'm just reading this wrong, but it appears to me that it's giving some very preferential treatment to the existing contract… contractor."
"I do not believe this is an extension of the existing contract. Instead it provides for a waiver of the waiver that is currently in place for the current contra… contract. Under that waiver, a prime contractor could submit bids after identifying each of the subs and a new contract could be let. That… that's my understanding." 09600148.doc 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Okay. So the waiver… I guess, let me try to focus on that. The waiver of a requirement might enable the prime contractor to continue the work pending a bid. So what requirement are we waiving? Are we waiving the requirement that all new bids be submitted?"
"No, no, no. What we're doing is… without the waiver, you would have a prime contractor and you would have specified subcontractors each of whom would then be given a contract. And what we've done for the last five years here is give the Capital Development Board said, for purposes of this contract, we will have one prime and when the prime identifies the specific subs then the prime can go ahead and bid. My point is that it's worked well. We're still dealing with the heating ventilation and air-conditioning system. For a variety of reasons, there were delays and those who've been working with CDB and with this building are of the view that has been effective and cost- efficient."
"Okay. So there… there's… I guess my confusion is there is no guarantee that the current contractor will have a contract for the next four or five years. That depends on…"
"Right."
"…performance, evaluation, and bids."
"That is my understanding."
"Okay. All right fine. Thank you very much."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1457?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting 09600148.doc 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Boland. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 107 voting 'aye', 3 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 5 of the Calendar, we have House Bill 1510, Representative Mautino. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1510, a Bill for an Act concerning finance. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Bureau, Representative Mautino."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 1510, the Amendment became the Bill. This is the language agreement between the Department of Transportation and the Comptroller's Office. It will allow the Comptroller's Office to continue paying the bills to the contractors for the projects that they've done. There was an audit finding that basically said the local government projects were grants, as opposed to their terms that they use in the Comptroller's Office and so the Comptroller had to quit paying the local providers. We have the money; it's been sold. These are your local road projects that each Member submitted last year. This will allow those payments to continue to be made. I'd be happy to answer any questions."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1510?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? 09600148.doc 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Hannig. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Mautino, we have House Bill 1617. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1617, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Bureau, Representative Mautino."
"Thank you, Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 1617 creates the Ottawa Port District and establishes its powers. And this has been a request of the City of Ottawa. There are 14 port districts out there. This will be a good economic development tool for the Ottawa which is a area of great promise and growth. We have some projects that are looking towards this Port Authority, the Heritage Harbor. We have the… our airport's program Skydive US… Skydive Chicago, one of the largest in the country and the city simply asks for a creation of this district. I know of no opposition. Any bonding authority or authorities contained within the Bill must be done through front door referendum. And I ask for an 'aye' vote."
"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you. Frank, I think we talked about this and… and you just reiterated the fact that… that I think this, unlike some other authorities, does require front-door referendum. There are…" 09600148.doc 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Absolutely."
"Okay."
"Front door."
"Tha… thank you."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass house Bill 1617?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? This Bill requires 71 votes. Representative Brauer. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there's 77 voting 'aye', 33 voting 'no', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Mautino… I'm sorry. Representative Currie, on the Order of Third Readings, we have House Bill 1716. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk.
"House Bill 1716, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. This is a trailer Bill to the Nursing Home Care Reform Act that we adopted in May. Two technical corrections. First, there was an incorrect internal reference which is corrected under this Bill and second, there was a question in the language about when 'light intermediate' nursing care should be staffed at the same ratio as general intermediate care within nursing homes. And what this language change reflects is the actual agreement among the parties. I'd be happy to answer your questions." 09600148.doc 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Lang, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for legislative intent of the Sponsor. Will she yield?"
"Indicates she will."
"Thank you. Representative, Public Act 96-1372 required the Department of Public Health to promulgate rules for certain IMDs certified under the Nursing Home Care Act. Will the technical change made in this Bill impact the staffing ratio requirements for these facilities?"
"It will not. The staffing ratios for the IMDs in this measure won't be impacted until the rules promulgated by the Department of Public Health are implemented."
"Appreciate your answer."
"Seeing no further questions, the questions is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 1716?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Gordon. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are, 99 voting 'aye', 11 voting 'no', 0 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Riley, we have House Bill 2022. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 2022, a Bill for an Act concerning civil law. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Riley." 09600148.doc 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. House Bill 2022 grants the City of Country Club Hills quick-take powers for the purposes of building a road or other public improvements to serve one of its TIF Districts. Essentially what this road is it traverses the subject property which is south of an existing shopping center and it mitigates traffic congestion on one of the major thoroughfares with East Crawford Avenue, but it also affords quite a bit of… well, it affords the ability for public safety vehicles to traverse the subject properties. And I would ask for an 'aye' vote."
"The Gentleman from Crawford, Representative Eddy, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you. Speaker, will the Sponsor yield?"
"He indicates he will."
"Representative, basically, thi… this will provide Country Club Hills quick-take authority over certain property and I think it's to… improve what is it I-57; I-80 area."
"It's… yeah, it's near… it's… well, it's right to the west of I-57, I… I-80 and they have a TIF District there. They've already built one development, a major… well a regional shopping center. This is a property that's just south of there and they just want to be able to connect the properties to, you know ameliorate traffic on, as I say, a major thoroughfare to the east. But they also want to be able to traverse that property with public safety…"
"What… What?"
"…You know, vehicles, police and fire." 09600148.doc 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"What… what's the classification of the property now? Is it residential is it what are we changing?"
"This is all commercial."
"It's all commercial."
"That's correct."
"And… I'm assuming there have been negotiations and… and there's been…"
"Yes. As you know, sometimes locally these kind of things can be somewhat contentious. There's, you know, absolutely no… opposition to this. Matter of fact, the joint venture who owns the subject property, you know, they're all in favor of it."
"Well, I think the opposition comes from the owners of the property still that they're not ready to sell, but there… there's obviously some support for it and you think it's something that enhances the better good because of what it does for that corridor. I appreciate that. I just want, you know, everybody to be fully aware that this does grant quick-take authority to a local… to a governing body. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 2022?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 71 voting 'aye', 37 voting 'no', 2 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Hello 09600148.doc 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 pod. On page 5 of the Calendar, we have House Bill 5635, Representative Rose. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 5635, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. Third Reading."
"The Gentleman from Champaign, Representative Rose."
"Thank you. Mr. Speaker, this is a requested of the City of Charleston. This is a TIF extension similar to the ones we do here routinely. All the applicable taxing bodies are in support. School districts have filed a letter in support. Community college. All the taxing bodies have filed in support. So, we've done these routinely and I've… the local communities have met the requirements of this chamber to do so. So, I would ask for our support."
"Seeing no further questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 5635?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Burns. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 103 voting 'aye', 7 voting 'no', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received, the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 5 of the Calendar, we have House Bill 6908, Representative Currie. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 6908, a Bill for an Act concerning transportation. Third Reading."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. This would create a special license plate for purposes of the 09600148.doc 54 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. And this would be used for active and retired law enforcement officers and their families, surviving mem… family members of the deceased law enforcement members and we already have in place the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. And as you know, no special license plate can take effect unless there are at least 850 plates that have been applied for. In addition, the Secretary of State's Office is made whole because the additional charge for these plates would mean the $15 goes to the Secretary of State and $10 goes into the Police Memorial Foundation Fund. I would appreciate your support for this measure that's designed to honor the fallen heroes and heroines of the Chicago Police Force."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass House Bill 6908?' All those in favor should vote 'aye' all those opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are, 100 voting 'aye', 10 voting 'no', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. We're ready to move to the Order of Senate Bills-Third Readings on page 6 of the Calendar. And the first Bill we'll do is Senate Bill 2800, Representative Reitz. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 2800, a Bill for an Act concerning professional regulation. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"The Gentleman from Randolph, Representative Reitz." 09600148.doc 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 2800 will just extend the sunset for the Medical Practice Act until November 30 of next year."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass Senate Bill 2800?' All those in favor should vote 'aye' all those opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are, 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Mitchell on House… Senate Bill 2843. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 2843, a Bill for an Act concerning education. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Lee, Representative Mitchell." Mitchell, J.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, this… this is a situation that is very near and dear to my heart. Again, it's to put together a task force to work on the prevention of sexual abuse of children. The people on the Elementary and Secondary Ed Committee had the privilege of hearing Erin Merryn speak on this matter. This is was a young lady that was raped and sexually assaulted on two different occasions, once by a family member and once by the uncle of her best friend. And she never had any training whatsoever on what to do in that situation and who to respond to. So, the task force is going to try to get together. These are all people that 09600148.doc 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 have a high degree of… of interaction with small children and they're going to try to put together a curriculum that will probably be inserted in the health curriculum in schools to try to prevent these kind of problems. So, I would urge an 'aye' vote and be happy to answer any questions."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House pass Senate Bill 2843?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 0 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Thank you, Pod. Representative Feigenholtz, we have Senate Bill 3044. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 3044, a Bill for an Act concerning liquor. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Out of the record. Representative Holbrook, we have Senate Bill 3342. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 3342, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading."
"The Gentleman from St. Clair."
"Thank you, Speaker. Senate Bill 3342 allows 40 year bonding. It's something the Senate passed out unanimously. The committee passed it out unanimously. I know of no opposition. This is for the Bi-State Development Agency or better known as Metro. Glad to take any questions." 09600148.doc 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Seeing no questions, the question is 'Shall the House pass Senate Bill 3342?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 85 voting 'aye', 25 voting 'no', 0 'presents'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority is hereby declared passed. On the Order of Second Readings-Senate Bills, we have Senate Bill 2878. Mr. Tryon. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"Senate Bill 2878, has been read a second time, previously. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions filed."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Tryon."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senate Bill 2878 is imma… eminent domain powers granted to the Village of Johnsburg so that they may obtain a piece of property to build a Metra station and a rail yard. Metra has been trying to site a train station on this piece of property for the last eight years, and had a contract with the willing seller. Because of the time that… Is it on second? Okay …because of the time that it took to get things through the Federal Government, we… this piece of property went into foreclosure. I brought this Bill last year, we approved it. And there was some difficulties getting things done in the time frame and with the description that was passed and therefore, it comes back. This Amendment here is going to essentially add the time difference that it takes for Metra 09600148.doc 58 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 to complete this. And I would move this to Third. And I'm sorry, I thought we were on Third."
"Clerk, move the Bill to Third Reading. And read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2878, a Bill for an Act concerning civil law. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from McHenry, Representative Tryon."
"So, let… so, let me just complete this Bill here. What happened is the property after Metra had a contract went into foreclosure and the bank sold it to another seller who knew at the time that he bought it that Metra was… had a contract and wanted to acquire this piece of property. And since that purchaser has bought the property, Metra has been unable to obtain an agreement on a price and… and a seller cannot have a… There's no what?"
"Representative Tryon moves for the adoption of…"
"Okay." "Speaker Turner: "…Senate Bill 2878. All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'… vote 'no'. And the voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 84 voting 'aye', 25 voting 'no', 1 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On the Order of Senate Bills-Third Readings, page 6 of the Calendar, we're going to do Senate Bill 3775. Representative D'Amico. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk." 09600148.doc 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Senate Bill 3775, a Bill for an Act concerning transportation. Third Reading."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Cook, Representative D'Amico."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Senate Bill 3775 basically removes the authority of the courts to order the issuance of a monitoring driving device and gives it to the Secretary of State. He basically wants to take responsibility for this."
"Seeing no questions, the question is 'Shall the House pass Senate Bill 3775?' All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. The voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Golar. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 108 voting 'aye', 0 'noes', 2 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Jehan Gordon, we have Senate Joint Resolution 117 on page 10 of the Calendar. Talk to the hand. Out of the record. While we're waiting I just want to thank the Pod staff for taking care of business in my absence. Representative Burke, you want to work? House Bill 1846. On the Order of Second Reading, page 4 of the Calendar, we have House Bill 1846, Representative Burke. The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Burke."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would simply ask that this matter be moved to Third Reading."
"Representative Burke on Amendment #1." 09600148.doc 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Ladies and Gentlemen, on the Amendment to House Bill 1846, I think you have all been made aware of this initiative. This would be the temporary lifting of the smoking ban exclusive to casinos in our state. Temporary being the fact that if the adjacent state to our gaming enterprises were to go to a nonsmoking entity we would then revert back to a nonsmoking entity. Be happy to answer any questions."
"Seeing no questions, the question is, 'Shall the House adopt Floor Amendment #1 the House Bill 1846?' All those in favor should say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And Floor Amendment #1 is adopted. Further Amendments?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk."
"House Bill 1846, a Bill for an Act concerning health. Third Reading."
"Representative Burke, on House Bill 1846. The Sponsor asks that we take the Bill out of the record. Mr. Clerk, we have House Bill 5060 on a Motion to override. Representative Soto."
"Thank you, Speaker, and Members of the House. This is a Bill, 5060, that was unanimously passed out of this General Assembly. And I'm asking for your support to override the Governor's Veto. Thank you."
"Seeing no questions, Representative Soto moves that House Bill 5060 do pass notwithstanding the Veto of the Governor. All those in favor should vote 'aye'; all those opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is now open. Have 09600148.doc 61 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 110 voting 'aye', 0 'nays', 0 'presents' and the Motion having received the Supermajority, House Bill 5060, is hereby declared passed, notwithstanding the Veto of the Governor. The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black, for what reason do you rise?"
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Inquiry of the Chair."
"State your inquiry."
"One of the saddest days I've had in the General Assembly was yesterday when you announced your retirement. However, today, you're back. That means your retirement was shorter than my infamous retirement of six years ago, but I'm glad you're back. But is that why you're having trouble remembering how to read, you know, take the record, record and you're having a little trouble today."
Speaker Turner: "And I announced yesterday, it's official today, and because this is the day it does make me speak a little slower because I know it's all over after today."
"I understand. And… So, this is your last official day?"
"My last official day."
"Mr. Speaker, it just passed … I see the hour is now 5 past 12. And in the old days, we used to do the Attendance Roll Call for an additional per diem and I think that might be in order today."
"The chief of staff is looking at me real funny on that one." 09600148.doc 62 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
"Well, he could issue our per diem checks out of his personal account, if he really wanted to."
"I don't think he's listening."
"He never does when you're trying to get his attention."
"Mr. Clerk, Agreed… Agreed Resolutions."
"On the Order of Agreed Resolutions is House Resolution 1494, offered by Representative Turner. House Resolution 1495, offered by Representative Reboletti. House Resolution 1496, offered by Representative Reboletti. House Resolution 1497, offered by Representative Pihos. And House Resolution 1498, offered by Representative Madigan."
"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. All those in favor should say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. And in the opinion of the Chair to adopt… the Resolutions are adopted. Mr. Clerk, Adjournment Resolution."
Clerk Mahoney: "House Joint Resolution 128, offered by Representative Currie. RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that when the two Houses adjourn on Thursday, November 18, 2010, the House of Representatives stands adjourned until Friday, November 19, 2010, in perfunctory session; and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Monday, November 29, 2010, at 12:00 noon; and the Senate stands adjourned until Tuesday, November 23, 2010, in perfunctory session; and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Monday, November 29, 2010, in perfunctory session; and when it 09600148.doc 63 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at 12:00 noon."
"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Adjournment Resolution. All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. And the Resolution is adopted. We're going to do a Death Resolution for a former Member. The Clerk will close the door. Representative Senger is presenting the Resolution. Mr. Clerk, read House Resolution 1352."
"House Resolution 1352. WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mary Lou Cowlishaw, who passed away on June 23, 2010 at the age of 78; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou Cowlishaw was born on February 20, 1932, in Rockford, to Donald George and Mildred Corinne (Hayes) Miller; she graduated as valedictorian from West Rockford High School; she attended the University of Illinois and earned her degree in journalism; she also received two honorary degrees, including a Doctorate of Humane Letters from North Central College; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou and Wayne Cowlishaw were married on July 24, 1954; the couple was happily married for over 50 years; together, they had 3 children, Beth (David) McDaniel, John (Jane) Cowlishaw, and Paula (Andrew) Rader, and 8 grandchildren, Jacob McDaniel, Zachary, Maxwell, Alexandria, and Rachel Green-Cowlishaw, and Emily, Elizabeth and John Paul (JP) Rader; she was preceded in death by her parents and her son, John; and 09600148.doc 64 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 WHEREAS, Soon after their marriage, Mary Lou Cowlishaw and her husband moved to Naperville, where she began her career as a journalist in 1958; she worked for the Naperville Sun for many years, earning a 1st-place award from the Illinois Press Association for a series on the unacceptable conditions in a nearby nursing home; in 1972, she was elected as a member of Naperville Unit District 203's school board, where she developed a passion for improving education; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou Cowlishaw served as a school board member for more than a decade before being elected to represent the 41st District in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1983; her district included nearly all of Naperville Township, part of Lisle Township, and most of the city of Naperville; and WHEREAS, As a legislator, Mary Lou Cowlishaw's passion for advancing the State's educational system did not diminish; as a representative of the 41st District for 2 decades, she made issues related to education her top priority; she sponsored countless legislative initiatives, including Chicago school reform and a charter schools program that became a model for school reform throughout the State the nation at large; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou Cowlishaw was the sponsor of the Education for Homeless Children Act, which minimizes educational disruption for homeless youth, promotes stability and continuity in education, and provides essential social support during periods of housing instability; she also was instrumental in the creation of the Illinois Mathematics 09600148.doc 65 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 and Science Academy in Aurora, which admits about 250 gifted students a year and is frequently listed on Newsweek's annual list of "Best High Schools in America"; and WHEREAS, Former Representative Cowlishaw was a champion of women's rights and was an active member of the National Federation of Republican Women and the League of Women Voters of Naperville; she was also a founding member and former president of the Naperville Republican Women's Club; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou Cowlishaw served as the Republican spokeswoman on the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee and was an active member of the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, the Mental Health and Patient Abuse Committee, the Public Utilities Committee, and the Select Committee on Aging; on the national level, she served as chairperson of the NCSL Education Committee and the Education Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a commissioner from Illinois on the Education Commission of States, and a member of the National Education Goals Panel; and WHEREAS, Mary Lou Cowlishaw's many contributions did not go unnoticed; in recognition of her efforts, she received countless awards from State and local governmental agencies and civic groups, including the State Board of Education, the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, and the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools; she won the Illinois Association of School Boards "Golden Apple" award numerous times; in 2001, she was the 09600148.doc 66 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 only lawmaker in Illinois to be recognized for Outstanding Contributions to Educational Improvement by the National Education Goals Panel; in 1994, she was named Legislator of the Year; her achievements and contributions as a legislator cannot be overstated; and WHEREAS, Perhaps the most befitting recognition of Mary Lou Cowlishaw's commitment to educational excellence, access, and equity on behalf of students in Illinois and throughout the nation was when the Indian Prairie School District 204 honored her by choosing to name Naperville's new school building "Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary" in 1997; and WHEREAS, As a legislator, Mary Lou Cowlishaw maintained that education is the number one determinant of an individual's quality of life; for this reason, education was her top priority, even following her retirement from the Illinois General Assembly; only 4 weeks after her departure from State government, she accepted a position as an adjunct professor of education at North Central College, where she was dedicated to furthering the education of Illinois' youth; and WHEREAS, As a result of her tireless efforts, Mary Lou Cowlishaw has left Illinois a better, more hopeful place than when she entered the world 78 years ago; therefore, be it RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with her family, friends, and the countless people whose lives have been blessed by her presence, the passing 09600148.doc 67 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 of a friend, a former colleague, and an inspiration to all, Mary Lou Cowlishaw; and be it further RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Mary Lou Cowlishaw as a symbol of our sympathy for their loss and as an expression of our profound gratitude and respect."
"The Lady from DuPage, Representative Senger."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Mary Lou's husband, Wayne Cowlishaw, who is with us today and you know, these… this is harder than what I thought. As we were talking yesterday, it… it hits home, again. Wayne, you and Mary Lou were a wonderful mentor and a friend to my husband and I over many, many years and not only in my work to get here to Springfield but also when I served on the city council for many years and I'm really appreciative for that. Mary Lou was a role model for not only State Legislators but for women who are looking to move forward in a position of election and I know she loved you and she loved her family, the utmost. Mary Lou, one of… one of her most remembered quotes are, 'always remember who brought you to the dance', and that she never forgot. She loved Naperville. She loved her community and she worked tirelessly even to the very end for that community. She worked for North Central College for many years and was recognized for her work with homelessness and kids just the other week. And she was a major influence and someone who created and crafted the community that we're in and our place is a better place to live in today because of her. So, I just want to say that whether reporting on politics 09600148.doc 68 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 or reporting on the floor, we'll never forget Mary Lou and the work she has done here both in Springfield and in the City of Naperville. Thank you."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from DuPage, Representative Connelly."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In echoing what Darlene said I've had the good fortune of… my cousins have lived in Naperville since 1965. So, whether we were young kids in Braynard Park on the southwest side of Chicago or when we moved to Lagrange, we'd always spend time in the country is what my parents used to call it in Naperville. So, I've seen Naperville go from a 15 thousand resident stop on the Burlington line to what it is today, 150 thousand people spanning two counties and the economic engine of DuPage County. And Mary Lou Cowlishaw, maybe more than anyone helped, shepherd Naperville through its growing pains, if you will, to what it is today. I've got a couple of antidotes, and when I think of Mary Lou I think of… and I apologize for rambling… I think of… in 2006 I ran for the county board in DuPage and I ran against the local Republican Party, if you will, so I was the true outsider. And the weekend after I won the Primary there was a township Republican meeting and with all honesty here, folks, it was the first one I ever went to. So I walked in kind of with trepidation and concern, if you will and you… you know how people sometimes look at you like what are you doing here. So, my eyes glanced over and there was Mary Lou. And I walked up and I said Representative and she said Michael Connelly, great to see you, wonderful, 09600148.doc 69 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 congratulations, anything I can do, but she said it as loud as she could so that everyone in that room knew that Mary Lou was saying this is our guy now. This is the guy we'll back and talk about breaking the ice. Another anecdote. When I won my Primary for this spot, I went and saw her. And Wayne, I'm doing the best I can to… to emulate what she said. Michael, you're perfect down there. Now, be careful, those Democrats over there. They're a crafty bunch. They're kind of crafty but deep down they're just like us so make sure you get over there and work with them because in the end we're trying to make Illinois a better place and she was right. Finely, Darlene mentioned about her being a role model. My wife and I have lived out in that region of DuPage for 22 years. My wife is an engineer and I've had the good fortune of meeting a lot of people in my life and doing some interesting things like play golf with Bo Jackson; play basketball with Michael Jordan. I grew up with Jeff Hornacek. And I can remember coming home and saying, hey, I played ball with Michael… Michael Jordan today; my wife could care less. I played golf with Bo Jackson, remember Bo Jackson; she could care less. Take out the garbage was kind of the response. But one day, about a year and a half ago, we went to have lunch, Darlene and I, over at the Cowlishaw's and I said, Lisa, I'm going to have lunch with Mary Lou Cowlishaw today. Mary Lou, I mean, she stopped on a dime. Oh my gosh, that is fantastic. Oh, man, would I love to meet her. Oh my gosh, you are so lucky. I love Mary Lou Cowlishaw. I love Mary Lou Cowlishaw. And I think I know why, because in 1989 when 09600148.doc 70 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 we moved out there my wife was a young professional working at Lucent Technologies, an Engineer. And like a lot of young women in the professions at that time they looked up to people like Mary Lou Cowlishaw. As Darlene said, she was a true role model for professional women in Naperville and in that region. She is going to be missed. She will never be forgotten. Her legacy lives on, Wayne. You know how much we love you in town, anything we can do. But Mary Lou, God bless you and we love you."
"The Gentleman from Vermilion, Representative Black."
"To… Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Mary Lou Cowlishaw was a staunch Republican. And yet not once, in the years that I was privileged to serve with her, did I ever see her political beliefs stop her from reaching not only across the aisle but within our caucus to see where common ground could be found particularly as it related to her great passion and that was education. She firmly believed that if we were to maximize our human capital, she was the first person I ever heard use that term, human capital, then our education system mus… must continually strive to upgrade not only through technology but new teaching methods to have schools that were reflective of the ever-changing and fast-changing world. She was a tenacious proponent of Chicago school reform, not everybody shared her… her view on that, but she was always one who had statistics. Why is the dropout rate 52 percent in this district, not necessarily Chicago, but any district? She… she usually had a briefcase full of 09600148.doc 71 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 educational statistics that she would quote to you in a second. And why does this school district have a graduation rate of 92 percent, what's wrong? It's not enough to worry about, well, my school district's doing a good job. The other school districts I don't worry about. And many times, when I would visit with her in her office, she would say, you know, what we have to realize is that children today, unlike the turn of the last century when we were in an agrarian state largely, they don't stay in their own areas, they don't stay in their own town or their own township or their own county. They're much more mobile today. And a school district that doesn't prepare their children is not just their problem it becomes a statewide problem if, in fact, not a national problem. Often went with Mary Lou and Wayne would go as well we attended several national conference of state Legislator's annual meetings where Mary Lou was generally a panelist or a participant in education committees and I often set in on one of those committees as I used to teach school way back sometimes I think the turn of the last century. But Mary Lou was a fascinating woman to talk with. She had great interests. We used to talk about our fascination with why the Fighting Illini could not be a perennial power in certain athletic endeavors. She had a very… and not everybody could see this, she had a delightful sense of humor. It was a dry humor, and some… sometimes people didn't always get it and woe be… and I won't mention names and all of them are gone now anyway or not in the General Assembly, there were several male Legislator's and you have 09600148.doc 72 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 to remember a… not that many years ago this was a male dominated place, and some of the male Legislators just really didn't take some of the women Legislators seriously. And Mary Lou would give no quarter and she put more than one male Legislator in his seat after a rather well-placed comment or two about the male Legislator's ancestry or intelligence or both. All of us who got to serve with her, all of us who were privileged to know her and especially to get to know her out of this chamber, our lives have been enriched by having Mary Lou in it. I think the educational system and the educational committee process in this General Assembly is a little better for Mary Lou's input. And as Mary Lou would be the first to tell you, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done and probably more important now that we focus on education and the quality there of than it was in Mary Lou's tenure. And I know if she were here, she would be in the forefront of those efforts. So, Wayne, my best to you and your family. I certainly remember some of those times at NCSL meetings, out to dinner Mary Lou could spin a joke every once in awhile, never anything off-color, but you sometimes had to think to get the joke. Just a remarkable lady, well versed, intelligent, and I never will forget, to show you how kind she was, when my wife… when my wife was a newlywed now that happened 48 years ago, when my daughter was a… a newlywed she and her husband moved to the border right on Aurora and Naperville. And they didn't know anybody and I had talked to Mary Lou and there was some kind of a fall festival going on in Naperville and she said, for some 09600148.doc 73 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 reason she called me 'Sir William', and she said, Sir William, come up, have your daughter join us. We'll meet at the food tent in downtown Naperville and I'll just show you around the waterfront. The and… and I had never been in downtown Naperville. I expected it to be a rather small town on the outskirts of Chicago; good heavens, it was anything but. But Mary Lou was a gracious host that day as she was a gracious lady. I will remember her fondly and when you get to walk through life with people like Mary Lou Cowlishaw your life is better for having had that experience. Wayne, I know you have many wonderful memories and if any of us can ever be a service to you, you know all you have to do is call."
"The Gentleman from Cook, Representative Joe Lyons."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. As we reminisce these last couple days of Members who are leaving us on a good circumstances like you Mr. Speaker and those who we'll remember fondly as our as we develop down here the friendships across the aisle. When we took back the House again in '97, in caucus the issue came up about, well, the Republicans ran 90 percent of the legislation when they were in charge, when Speaker Daniels was running the House and in committee… in our committee room, we were saying, well, we're going to get even. It's going to be all Democratic sponsored Bills. And those of us who were there remember Speaker Madigan said those days are over. Under the 1997 rules, half of what comes out of this chamber is going to be Democratic and half is going to be 09600148.doc 74 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Republican. And for all the criticism Speaker Madigan gets, he put that rule in place when we took that House back in 1997 and there was a wonderful thing that happened because then we had to start talking to each other. If I had a good idea, I had to find a Republican to sponsor something and Mary Lou and I, on more than one occasion, I would see her… I don't know how the friendship started, if she brought me the first Bill or I brought it to her, but Mary Lou and I did several Bills together those first couple of years and she'd open the argument or open the presentation and I would close or we would go visa versa and it was a wonderful friendship that developed. You talk about a Republican's Republican. Mary Lou Cowlishaw was a Republican's Republican and I admired her for that. And she knew where I came from, a Chicago Democrat and the friendship was there. So, Wayne, to you and the family, I have fond memories of that wonderful lady and she'll be a part of all of us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Jackson, Representative Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, those of us who served with Mary Lou and I came in as a freshman and at a time when we took over the Majority and she was a strong voice in our caucus. On more times than not I had seen her express her opinion and to John Bradley, I say don't be offended by this, she was no wallflower. She would… you better believe that, when Mary Lou had a position on something you knew exactly what her position was and she expressed it clearly. And during the debates 09600148.doc 75 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 that would occur in caucus between many Members, when Mary Lou would start on an issue that she was passionate about, she was going to have your attention. Now, I will tell a quick story of the day that I took over as the spokesman for Public Utilities and Mary Lou knew about this because we laughed about it later. That time a Representative, and she still lobbies around here, Shirley Jones was… had just taken over as the spokesman of that committee and Shirley… it was kind of a rough day in the General Assembly that day and a lot of things were going on and there was someone that was giving testimony on our particular Bill and she said that there would only be… only be testimony only we weren't going to ask any questions but yet I had been asked by our Leadership team to ask a few questions and whenever it came time after getting done with the testimony I raised my hand and Shirley said I told you we're not going to ask any questions. And I stood up and turned around as you can in the committee and I didn't put it on the microphone and… and I said, Shirley, look, here's a list of questions I have to ask and it is very important that I ask them. Leadership has told me that we need to ask them. Now, Shirley, I can either ask the questions or I pointed at Mary Lou, I said or she will. She said you'll be asking some questions. Mary Lou was respected. Mary Lou, you might not agree with her, if you were from the other side of the aisle, but you always knew where she was coming from, you always knew what she believed in and when it came to the issues of the State of Illinois, she was a bulldog pulling for the citizens of her district and for the 09600148.doc 76 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 children of the State of Illinois. Wayne, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve with her."
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Peoria, Representative Leitch."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The… One of the real treasures of having the honor of being able to serve in this Assembly and to serve over some period of time is to have the opportunity to meet very special people like Mary Lou Cowlishaw. Mary Lou was an inspiration on education, an inspiration for her partisan Republican commitments and zeal, but she was a wonderful example of a public servant and mother. She was deeply devoted to Wayne and the family and was just a wonderful person to be with in every… in every respect. I had the very great honor, as I was a freshman here, sitting where Mike Fortner sits today and Mary Lou, ironically enough, sit… sat right where Darlene sits today and since she had been a reporter and I'd been a political reporter you can imagine the instant camaraderie that we had. And I would always come in, sit down and she'd start out, look over and say, well, let me tell you a story. And about an hour later the story would come to a conclusion, but they were always very entertaining stories reflecting her experience as a reporter and a very distinguished reporter in Naperville. Back in those days a number of us, especially at the end of Session, will wind up in Bobby Churchill's office where we had a lot of soda pop, sometimes a little too much soda pop. And I was always being scrutinized by my mother in Springfield, Mary Lou Cowlishaw who would share with me advice including my 09600148.doc 77 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 behavior in Bobby Churchill's office which again only endeared her to me and to so many others that she counseled. I remember very, very distinctly how passionate she was to work on the Chicago Reform Bill. It was no secret that Mayor Daley and his emissaries wanted Republicans to craft and pass that Bill and Mary Lou was at the forefront of that entire initiative and worked on a very effective bipartisan basis to craft that Bill and to provide a better future for the children in Chicago. She was very, very, very proud of her service in that capacity. I would just say to you, Wayne, thank you so much for sharing Mary Lou, thank the family for sharing Mary Lou with us, letting her serve, working and supporting her service as she so strongly supported and loved the family. I just say my life and our lives and the lives of the children and families of Illinois are much richer, much better by virtue of the service of Mary Lou Cowlishaw. Thank you."
"The Lady from Cook, Representative Mendoza."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to add my Democratic side of the aisle voice to my respect for Representative Mary Lou Cowlishaw. I remember when I first came in here 10 years ago, I walked up to every single Member on both sides of the aisle to talk to each and every one of you, and some that are no longer here obviously, about all of my legislative ideas. And I'd go Member by Member talking about my Bill and why I really needed their support and I did that with Mary Lou time and time again. Every single Bill I would go up to her and I'd ask her if 09600148.doc 78 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 she would please support it after I'd talk to her about it. But the first time I did that she said, who do you work for? And I said, what do you mean? And she's like, yeah, who do you staff? And I said, no, I… I'm Representative Mendoza. And she goes, really and I said, yeah, so let me tell you about my Bill. So, after I gave her this big huge spiel about my legislation and everybody else that was supporting it, including several Members from the Republican side of the aisle, I'd say, can I count on your support? And she'd say, no. Every time, every time, every single time I asked her to support one of my Bills, after a long spiel, she would say no. But every single time that Bill went up for a vote she'd vote for it. So, I loved her because I thought it was like a fun thing that she would do to me time and time again. I'd ask her for her support. She'd tell me to explain the Bill she'd tell me no way she was going to be with me and then she'd vote for each and every one of my Bills. So, Mary Lou Cowlishaw really did have a great sense of humor. She was a very nice woman. I'm really thankful that I had the opportunity to get to know her. I know how important her family was to her and honestly, I… I was shocked today when I saw this for her because I hate to say it, but I did not realize that Representative Cowlishaw had passed away. So, Mr. Cowlishaw, I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I feel for your loss. Just want to add my voice to that of my colleagues in letting you know that we will sincerely miss, Mary Lou, but most importantly we'll forever remember her. Thank you." 09600148.doc 79 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010
Speaker Turner: "The Gentleman from Boone, Representative Wait."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I'm one of the few here that had the pleasure to come in with Mary Lou. As you recall, we had the Quinn Amendment back in 1980 and we shrunk the size of the House from 177 down to 118. And Mary Lou and I… I think, as I recall, there was 16 Democrats and 13 Republicans that came in that year. So, I had the pleasure of going through the freshman class orientation and everything with Mary Lou. It's fitting that we pay honor, not only to her, but I might mention Joel Brunsvold, as we know, we paid tribute to him yesterday. He was also in that class, was a wonderful friend of mine. And it's funny, Joel, he had something in common with me because a lot of people think he's from the Quad City, which he was, but during high school he went to Belvidere High School, played for the Belvidere Bucs, the same as I did. And then Mary Lou, I think it was either Wayne's folks or Mary Lou's folks, they were from the Rockford area, which I represent and I think they were in a… live there in a nursing home. So, we had a lot in common with Mary Lou that I did and she came out a couple of times and helped me. One thing with Mary Lou, you never had to worry where she stood on the issue. She always let you know where she stood on the issue and she was a great friend of mine, an advisor. I mean I taught school too for four years, junior high, special ed, and coached, so we enjoyed talking about some of the educational experience. I just want to say in closing, 09600148.doc 80 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Wayne, your prayers and sympathy goes with you. Mary Lou, she truly was a wonderful person and contributed a lot to education, to the kids of the State of Illinois. Thank you."
"The Lady of DuPage, Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. Just to say thank you again to Wayne and to your family for coming down today and for allowing all of us to share our wonderful memories that we have of Mary Lou on the floor with you 'cause sometimes our families back at home don't understand the families that they all have down here on both sides of the aisle as most people have spoken today. But Mary Lou was a mentor to me when I first came down here being from DuPage County and being a woman, and also she was a woman that I saw as so passionate as others have described. And I think in a place like this she focused on that one issue and she was successful in making major changes in the State of Illinois on education and for children which is what her mission was, but she was also a lot of fun and she described stories. I remember her telling me about running around the night before election with Harris Fawell, who was our U.S. Congressman, putting up signs and things like that. And also I remember coming in and having our Leader, Lee Daniels, stopping when Mary Lou Cowlishaw would say something in our caucus and I remember being so impressed that he would stop, pretty much dead straight and listen to what Mary Lou had to say about that issue. Especially besides education I remember her serving on aging issues and when we did the important 09600148.doc 81 STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 148th Legislative Day 11/18/2010 Circuit Breaker Bill, she held up that Bill. All of a sudden, she called Lee and she said there needs to be one more thing in that. And Lee took that Bill back and we made some changes just because Mary Lou thought that was the right thing to do. I used to say she was almost like E.F. Hutton because this place we know how loud it is and everybody talks and she didn't talk that often but when she did all of a sudden the whole floor would get quiet and listen to what she said in her articulate way. But I just want to leave with one thing that she said to me when I said I was sad when she was leaving and she said you know what Patti, there's a saying in the theater leave while they're still applauding."
"Representative Senger moves for the adoption of House Resolution 1352. All those in favor should say 'aye'; all those oppose say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. And now with leave with the Body, I'd like to, allowing Perfunctory time for the Clerk, I'd like to say now it’s time to say goodbye to all my colleagues, M-I-C, see you real soon, K-E-Y, why because I love you, I won't say the M-O-U-S-E. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Representative Lang now moves that the House stands adjourned 'til Monday, November 29 at the hour of 12:00 noon, allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk. And the House stands adjourned." 09600148.doc 82