"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Committee Reports. Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, Chairperson from the Committee Rules reports the following committee action taken on February 5, 2013: recommends be adopted, referred to the floor is Floor Amendment #4 to House Bill 190."
"The House will be in order. Members will be in their chairs. We shall be led in prayer today by Father Sean Palas who is with the St. John's Church in West Frankfort, Illinois. Father Palas is the guest of Representative Bradley. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, turn off all cell phones, and rise for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Father Palas."
"Perhaps, just take a moment of silence calling to mind God's presence for this year… this afternoon. God, we give You thanks and praise for all the blessings that You have bestowed on us as a country and as a state. We thank You, most of all, for our freedoms, our liberties, our rights entrusted to us by our founding fathers and by You. We ask You to bless and watch over all those who serve to protect us and these rights. Watch over our soldiers and bring them home safe, protect our firefighters and those in law enforcement and all of our civil servants. In a special way we ask Your blessing upon our Representatives, here in Illinois. Give them the courage to stand up for the right to live our faith, not just on Sundays or in moments of worship, but most importantly our right to live our faith 09800012.doc 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 out in the world and in our public lives. And we ask this in Your name, Amen."
Speaker Lang: "We'll be led in the Pledge today by Representative Hurley."
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
"Roll Call for Attendance. Leader Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker. Let the record reflect that there are no excused absences among House Democrats today."
"Leader Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let the record reflect that Representative Schmitz is excused today on the Republican side of the aisle."
"And Mr. Brauer? Please take the record, Mr. Clerk. 117 Members being present, we do have a quorum. The Chair recognizes Representative Mayfield."
"I stand on a point of personal privilege."
"Please state your point."
"I'd just like to call attention to the Members of the House of Representatives that February marks month of Black History Month. Each of you should have received a very delicious cookie that represents Black History Month. This was prepared by a constituent in my district so that each of you may be reminded that what this month stands for. Black History Month or National American History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African 09800012.doc 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of Negro History Week, the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. President has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrate black history The story of Black History Month began in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other peoples of African descent. Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the group sponsored a national history week in 1926 choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures. In the decades that followed, major cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing Natural History Week. By the late 1960s, thanks to, in part, by the Civil Rights Movement and growing awareness of black identity, Negro History Week had evolved into Black History Month on many campuses. President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to seize the 09800012.doc 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area throughout their history. I thank you all and each day this month… each day that we are in Session we will be presenting you with a hero in Black History. Thank you. Enjoy your cookies."
"Thank you, Representative. The Chair recognizes Mr. Martwick."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of personal privilege."
"Please proceed."
"I would… I rise, today, to acknowledge an organization which is called the Polish American Association, which operates in the Chicagoland area. Founded in 1922, it's the nation's only human services organization providing a comprehensive range of bilingual and bicultural services to the Polish American community and to anyone in need. In 2011, the Polish American Association served 11,706 unique, individual clients through its 28 programs designed to enhance the lives of Polish Americans in need. They provide a variety of services like English as a second language, citizen classes, and immigration assistance, vocational and job training programs, job development and placement, crisis intervention, youth and family counseling, homeless outreach programs, alcohol treatment, and they maintain a food pantry. They employ 65 full-time and 102 part-time staff in two Chicago area locations. As part of what they do each year, they have a fundraiser to raise money for 09800012.doc 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 their operations where they honor a Polish tradition, which would occur next week, called Paczki Day. For those of you unfamiliar, this doughnut looking thing here is what we Polish Americans call a paczki. It's a sweet pastry filled with a different kind of jelly and it has a nice little iced topping on it and in the Polish tradition we celebrate this on the day after Ash Wednesday. In America, it's typically thought of as a Fat Tuesday tradition, but it's really the Thursday after Ash Wednesday. Since we will not be here next week, I brought about 240 of these down and you will find them in various locations on the second floor of the Stratton Building. So, I encourage all of my colleagues to recognize the great services of the Polish American Association and to join me in enjoying a paczki. Thank you."
"Thank you, Representative. The Chair recognizes Representative Monique Davis." Davis, M.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I honor both those nationalities or ethnic groups that just were mentioned. However, I'd like to announce that the Insurance Committee will be canceled for today. And we are also asking that all new Members and those on the Insurance Committee, both new Members and those on the Insurance Committee, they're invited to a seminar being given by the Illinois Insurance Association, the Independent Insurance Agents, BlueCross and BlueShield of Illinois. And this event will take place at the Illinois Executive Mansion from 3:30 to 5 p.m. today. So, that's at the Mansion from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and we look forward to meeting you at the Mansion. Thank you." 09800012.doc 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Thank you, Representative. Mr. Clerk."
"Introduction of Resolutions. House Resolution 38, offered by Representative Chapa LaVia. House Resolution 39, offered by Representative Jones. House Resolution 47, offered by Representative DeLuca. House Resolution 48, offered by Representative Ford. And House Joint Resolution #8, offered by Representative Verschoore, are referred to the Rules Committee."
"Mr. Brady, for what reason do you rise, Sir?"
"A point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker"
"Please state your point, Sir."
"Thank you very much. I, too, just want to remind the Body and invite them to a Legislator reception this evening, hosted by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, will be from 5 until approximately 7 p.m. tonight at the Sangamo Club. Please join the IFDA at this Legislator reception. Thank you."
"Thank you, Representative. On page 2 of the Calendar, under the Order of House Bills-Second Reading, appears House Bill 156. Please read the Bill."
Clerk Hollman: "House Bill 156 was read a second time a previous day. No Committee Amendments. No Floor Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Please read the Bill."
"House Bill 156, a Bill for an Act concerning State Government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Leader Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker, Members of the House. This would delay, by two weeks, the Governor's address to the General 09800012.doc 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Assembly regarding his request for spending in the coming fiscal year. This is not without precedent. We've done it once before for this Governor. We did it first, in my memory, for Governor Edgar. I'd make several points. First, the Senate doesn't plan to be here the third Wednesday in February which means either that the Governor, at great expense to the people of Illinois, would have to call the Senate back in for the Budget Address or he'd have to be making two of them and I don't know that we would like to tax him that heavily. Second, he is prepared to be here on Wednesday, March 6th giving us his preview of what he thinks would be the appropriate spending priorities to come. I think our Appropriations Committees can wait until that date to begin their work. And finally, the Governor's Office makes the point that we're considering today supplemental funding. He doesn't know what the outcome of that decision will be, but without knowing what supplemental moneys we decide to spend today, it makes it tougher for him to figure out what kind of budget address he ought to make. Giving him that extra two weeks is not going to do any harm to our budgeting process, but it will make… it makes it a lot more sensible and responsible when he does come before them. I'm happy to answer your questions. I'd be grateful for your 'yes' vote."
"The Lady has moved for the passage of the Bill. On that question, the Chair recognizes Leader Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Lady yields." 09800012.doc 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Leader, I… and… first off, I'm not standing in opposition to the Bill, I… I just have some questions. You say that this will allow him the opportunity to take the possibility of the supplemental… and what was the other reason for the delay?"
"Well, the other reason is that the Senate isn't here the third Wednesday in February."
"Well…"
“They've taken a week off and unfortunately, it's the week the Governor planned to do the Budget Address. They won't be here and under the current statute, he's supposed to make the address to both chambers to the General Assembly in Joint Session."
"So… so really, it's the Senate's fault then, right? We could blame it on the Senate, right?"
"We can blame any… everything on the Senate."
"I thought so. Seriously, though, now we did give him one year that it was delayed basically because we had just impeached a former Governor and he had… it was fairly new and we gave him that. Is that the only other time? Or I thought we'd done it a couple of times."
"We did that one, you're right, once before. We also have done it earlier for Governor Edgar."
"Better outcome, I think. But… okay. That… that answers the question. I just want to make sure we're not just doing this just… I want to make sure that he has the opportunity to prepare this. But the problem I see, and like I said I'm not standing in opposition, each week that we delay this is then… because we must have the Governor's proposed budget 09800012.doc 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 to work as a base. Without that, we're kind of got our hands tied and as big a project and as big a problem that we've got, the faster he can get that to us to allow us the opportunity to work the better."
"Thank you."
"Mr. Franks."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to speak to the Bill. As our Constitution requires that the Governor give a timely Budget Address. Now last year, Governor Quinn requested an additional three weeks to give his address and it was granted but the problem was, it severely shortened the time the General Assembly could work on the budget and frankly, the additional three weeks added no substance to the address. Now remember folks, this is the same Governor who two years ago waited an hour after he gave his budget address to sign the law, budget for outcomes, and the reason he waited an hour is so he wouldn't have to follow the law which he purportedly supports. Now, the Governor has given no reason for his requested delay. Does that mean that he does not understand the issues? Perhaps he does not fully realize the depths of our problems. Now, every day the Governor delays, our debts grow larger, our providers are short-changed, and our citizens are stuck with higher taxes. Now, under this Governor, we continue to give subsidies to businesses which fire workers while at the same time making drastic and draconian cuts to services to the elderly and the impoverished. Now, a recent analysis by the New York Times pegged Illinois's incentive programs at costing more than one and a half billion dollars a year. 09800012.doc 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 That's five percent of our state budget, a figure that more than eclipses all the revenue generated by the recent tax hikes in our corporate taxes. Now, not only have these incentives proven ineffective, if you read yesterday's Crain's, they're also politically corrupting and they're an ineffective economic development strategy. Now, all the while, Governor Quinn's privatization of the Lottery management is falling drastically short of the promises made. Now, this was a deal that the Governor personally made. The private manager fell short of revenue targets and is even seeking reduced goals from the Quinn administration. While every other state without private lottery managers is having a record year, our new lottery manager did not achieve the results they told us they would and it gets worse. A CNN investigative report aired last month revealed that in the waning days of the heated 2010 election, Governor Quinn authorized a program that ended up paying Chicago teenagers to attend yoga classes and distribute leaflets on corners. Taxpayer dollars were also doled out to pay young people to walk in a parade with the Governor, all under the guise that such actions would reduce violence in Chicago streets. No reasonable person could argue that this program is worth the money spent on it and the community group that was awarded money, under this $55 million boondoggle, admitted the program had no oversight and made no effort to measure results. So, we have serious challenges in this state and apparently just not enough Squeezy the Python to go around. Now, these are just a few of the many issues which are infuriating the 09800012.doc 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 citizens of Illinois, those same citizens that provide the Governor his infamous 27 percent approval rating. Now, in some areas of the state, his popularity is below his two convicted predecessors. So, I suggest it's time for the Governor to stop wasting time, it's time for the Governor to stop wasting our tax dollars, it's time for the Governor to stop demonizing our frontline workers, it's time for the Governor to be held accountable and answer for spending tens of millions of dollars on programs with no oversight. And frankly, because of the Governor's inability to lead, he's asking us yet to clean up again after him. And I say no, I say let's hold him accountable make him give his Budget Address on time as the Constitution mandates. As we begin this 98th General Assembly and look forward, the deficit of leadership in the Governor's Mansion is having a paralyzing effect in our state's progress. We must not let it continue. Let's hold this Governor and all future Governors accountable now and always. Please vote 'no'."
"Mr. Reboletti."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And to the Bill. Last week we learned that the issue with the House Rules was because Speaker Daniels had an issue in 1995 and he was the problem with the State of Illinois. Now we've learned that because Governor Edgar got a break a few years back that we have to give this Governor a break and I don’t necessarily agree with that. I would have to say this. The Governor's fourth address and now he's needed an extension three times. So, his batting average will be .250, which is not very good. He's not unfamiliar with what the Constitution says. He 09800012.doc 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 knows that he's supposed to give that address by the Constitution on a certain date, but if the Members will look at their Calendar, they would have seen that that date had already been moved up before we even met. So, I guess there was some presumption that he would get an extension. This address comes as no surprise to this Governor. We have serious fiscal issues that need to be addressed now, not in a couple of weeks, not in a couple of months, not on May 31, but now. And I would urge the Members of this Body to vote 'no'."
"Mr. Durkin."
"Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Lady yields."
"Representative Currie, there is nothing with regarding the Thompson Correctional Center… Center. That sale is in the… creating the special fund is no longer in this Bill, correct?"
"All this does is change the date…"
"Right."
“of the Governor's Budget Message by two weeks."
"All right. Well, you know, and I've been listening to this debate, as I usually do and I also know that it's the House and the Senate who create the budget. We should be working on this on a regular basis and every day until the Governor… and pass when the Governor gives his address. I don't believe that his request is unreasonable. And I think we can continue with our work and get the other issues of the day done. I'm going to support the Resolution… the House Bill 156." 09800012.doc 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Mr. Moffitt."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Certainly, I think that there've been good comments made. I take all of them very serious, but it's reasonable that somebody needs more time. The Governor's indicating he needs some more time and I think that we should consider giving that time. This is an opportunity when we can be working together, working in a bipartisan manner. If you look at where we're at today, it's taken over a decade to get to this point. To allow two more weeks to further study it, I think is fine to work together. There's no reason that Appropriation Committees cannot, actually, be doing some work ahead of time. So, I think it's a very reasonable request, but in a bipartisan manner, we should be supporting. Thank you."
"Leader Currie to close"
"I'm closing on the comments of Representatives Moffitt and Durkin. Vote 'yes'."
"Lady's moved vote for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Record yourselves, Members. Have all voted who wish? Representative Flowers. Please take the record. On this question, there are 88 voting 'yes', 29 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Chair recognizes Mr. Crespo. Mr. Crespo. Oh. Thank you, Sir. On page 2 of the Calendar appears, under the Order of House Bills-Second Reading, House Bill 190, Speaker Madigan. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill." 09800012.doc 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"House Bill 190 was read a second time on a previous day. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. Floor Amendment #s 2 and 4 have been approved for consideration. Floor Amendment 2 is offered by Speaker Madigan."
"And the Chair recognizes Leader Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Which Amendments are scheduled to be adopted on this?"
"The Clerk said 2 and 4."
"Thank you."
"Leader Currie on Amendment 2."
"If it would please the Chair, maybe we just go to Amendment 4. I believe Amendment 4 replaces Amendment 2."
"Withdraw Amendment 2. And please proceed to Amendment 4."
"Thank you, Speaker, and Members of the House. Amendment 4 is the Amendment that was described in committee yesterday. It appropriates moneys that had been held in abeyance, about half of the funding, for both the group health insurance program and the IDOT group and health insurance program. There'll be some technical changes that needed to be made. So, this Amendment is precisely as was described adding back those dollars that we had the ability to appropriate, but because we were hopeful for savings in both those group and health insurance plans, they did not materialize and we think it's important at this point to use the resources already available to begin to pay the health care bills of our state workers, university employees and people at the 09800012.doc 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Department of Transportation. I'd be happy to answer your questions."
"Lady moves for the adoption of the Amendment. There being no debate, those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. The Chair recognizes Mr. Bost."
"Mr. Speaker… Speaker, we would like to have an immediate Republican caucus."
"And how long will your caucus last, Sir?"
"It could be an hour; it could be two."
"The House will be adjourned 'til the hour of 12… Sorry, the Chair misspoke. The House will recess 'til the hour of 1:45. The House will be in order. Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, on page 2 of the Calendar appears House Bills-Second Reading, House Bill 190. Please tell the Body the status of the Bill, Sir."
"House Bill 190 was read a second time on a previous day. Amendments 1 and 4 have been adopted to the Bill. A budget balance… a balanced budget note has been requested but not filed on the Bill."
"The Chair recognizes Leader Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker. I move to reconsider the vote by which House Amendments 1 and 4 were adopted to House Bill 190."
"You've heard the Lady's Motion. Those in favor of the Lady's Motion will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. The Chair… the Chair misspoke. Those in favor of the Lady's Motion will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the… Mr. Cross." 09800012.doc 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"I'd like to defer to Representative Reboletti. We're just trying to figure out… you started the game back up pretty quick, Mr. Speaker. So, we'd like to just figure out what you're trying to do here. So, if I could defer to Mr. Reboletti, I will."
"Mr. Reboletti. Thank you, Mr. Cross."
"Yes. I… I have a question… a question of the… the Leader."
"Lady yields."
"Leader, if you want to reconsider the vote, I thought that you prevailed pretty well. The entire chamber supported your ability to move the Amendments to Third. What is the reason now to reconsider the vote?"
"There's a rumor that on… many of you are not prepared to vote for the Bill on Third Reading."
"When you said many…"
"So, I thought we would perhaps have an opportunity to have a robust discussion about Amendment 4, if I were to reconsider…"
"Well…"
"…instead and then offer the Amendment again."
"The rumor will play out on the… on the board here, but we only have 47 people. I thought you had 71 people. You should be able to prevail…"
"Yes."
"…numerous amounts of the times so."
"Representative, you may vote against my Motion to reconsider the vote by which Amendment 4 to House Bill 190 was adopted." 09800012.doc 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"And I think I will, but that…"
"Excellent. Then let's go to the vote."
"But at the same time, Leader…"
"Let us go to the vote."
"That's fine. We'll play these games for the next two years. That's fine. This is how it's going to be, take it or leave it. Here we go. Start up the engines and let's just ram this thing through 'cause you don't have the votes."
"Mr. Sullivan."
"Thank you. Try and slow the process down here. My understanding, Representative, structurally, by reconsidering this vote and going… and reconsidering 1 and 4, if this passes…"
"I misspoke. It's only 4. Amendment 1 was adopted in committee."
"Oh. Well, okay. So, by reconsidering Amendment 4, you're being… going back to what was considered within Executive Committee yesterday."
"Yes. And then I might…"
"Okay."
"…have opportunity to offer Amendment 4 again."
"And so, then…"
"But right now I move to reconsider the vote by which Amendment 4 was adopted."
"Okay. And can you once again explain what was in Amendment #4 for the Body."
"Yes. It was exactly as I described it in committee yesterday. It was been… the money that had been reserved to 09800012.doc 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 pay the second half of the bills coming in from the group health insurance line and from the Department of Transportation, group health insurance line and the revolving funds. So, there's a mechanism to use those dollars to pay for your health care bills, to make sure your doctors, your hospitals, your other providers of health care get paid in a more timely fashion than they are being paid today."
"So, my understanding is, you want to not pay the group health insurance by taking away number… Amendment #4?"
"Representative, I have a Motion on the floor. If you want to vote against reconsideration, go for it. May we go to the vote on the Motion to reconsider the vote."
"So, do House Rules not allow us to debate these Motions? Is that how it works now?"
"I'm not quite sure what the point…"
"I'm done. Thank you."
"…of debating this Motion is."
"Mr. Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield, please?"
"Lady yields."
"Let me quote you, Leader, if I can from… from last week. 'We don't want to play politics on this floor. That isn't the place for that.' Ma'am, what…"
"It's a good quote…"
"Ma'am, what… what…"
"…and I stand behind it." 09800012.doc 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Ma'am, what in the world do you think you're doing right now."
"Representative, we have a serious measure before us. I'm trying…"
"Yeah, okay. And… and just so you know, we didn't… we didn't protest it. We… we said fine, let's move it on. We can debate this on Third, but yet, you want to play it back and… and you your own self said, this is not the place. This floor is not the place for political games."
"There is nothing political…"
"Political games, that's what you're playing right now."
"There is nothing political about the Bill."
"Hogwash."
"There's nothing political about my Motion."
"Hogwash. Play the games. You said yourself last week. So… so, last week was last week. Now we're going to go to political games."
"Lady's moved that the House reconsider the vote by which Amendment 4 was adopted. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Motion carries and the vote is reconsidered. Representative Currie on Amendment 4."
"Thank you, Speaker. I move adoption of Amendment 4 and… or do we have to reconsi… we reconsidered. Okay. All right. So, on the reconsideration, I would urge that we adopt Amendment 4 to House Bill 190. Amendment 4 will make it possible for us to pay your health care bills. The health care bills of other state workers and those in the Department of Transportation in a timelier fashion than 09800012.doc 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 those bills are being paid today. All Amendment 4 does is take the six-month allocation that was reserved for the group health insurance program and for the health insurance program in the Department of Transportation and appropriate those dollars… We had hoped but we didn't appropriate the total amount last spring. It was our hope that there would be savings in those programs and that we might have to allocate less than the full half-year appropriation in the second half of the fiscal year. Those hopes did not materialize, in a reality, so what this measure does… what this Amendment does, thoroughly discussed in committee yesterday, is to say that we will take that reserve allocation and we will enable the departments to start spending the money to pay your health care bills and the health care bills of all the other employees of the State of Illinois. I'd appreciate your 'yes' votes."
"Lady moves for the adoption of Amendment 4. There being no debate, those in favor of the… Mr. Franks."
"Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"Representative, I'm just not… I wasn't sure what happened before, quite frankly. I'm a little confused. So, right now we're voting on House Amendment #4 which would become the Bill, correct?"
"I think… Actually, there are only… only three new items in Amendment 4 from what was the Bill. It may be technically that we did a gut and replace because of technical reasons, but the only changes between Amendment 1 and Amendment 4 are exactly what I described…" 09800012.doc 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"So, it's the group insurance."
"…paying the health care… paying health care bills and group insurance."
"Which I know is very critical. So, this would… Would this be final action which we're doing now?"
"No. This is Second Reading."
"Thank you. That's what I was trying to figure out and I wasn't sure if this was coming. Thank you. I apologize for the delay."
"We're going to do a Roll Call vote on this. There being no further debate, those in favor of the Lady's Motion will vote 'yes'… Mr. Reboletti."
"Mr. Speaker, a parliamentary procedure point. Are we voting on this on Second Reading, then? Is that where we are at?"
"We're doing a Roll Call vote on Amendment 4 on Second Reading, Sir."
"Who requested that the vote happen on Second Reading, then?"
"I'm…"
"It was Speaker Madigan, right. Thank you, Speaker. I… not Speaker Lang, Speaker Madigan. I…"
"Was he behind me waving?"
"He did wave. So, I…"
Speaker Lang: "Yeah, okay. That… Is that… Are you… you completed your comments, Sir?"
"Only to you. Mr. Speaker, I have a point of parliamentarian procedure."
"Are you proceeding with further questions?" 09800012.doc 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"Representative, now that everybody's thoroughly confused in the chamber as to exactly what's happening here because that's exactly what this is always meant to do. How much does this new appropriations Bill actually spend?"
"We're talking about the Amendment, Representative."
"The Amendment."
"The Amendment would spend in group health insurance $550 million, for group health insurance from the Road Fund, 88… 1.… 161 million and all of those dollars together would then go into the health insurance revolving fund so the money could be used actually to pay doctors, hospitals, and other health care vendors for a total of $621,185,400."
"And what is the funding source for that? My understanding…"
"Yeah. And the only… the only amount that comes from GRF in that total of health care spending is 550 million. The additional 88 million comes out of the Road Fund."
"And… so, we're taking money out of the Road Fund?"
"We are using Road Fund money that we had reserved to pay for health care bills. We said during the second half of the fiscal year it's time to start paying those bills in a… in a fashion more timely than what we had been able to do of late."
"Right."
"The reason for reserving the money was the hope that there would have been some savings through collective bargaining. During the course of the first half of the 09800012.doc 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 fiscal year those savings did not materialize. It only makes sense to spend the money we reserve. We said this is money that's going to go to pay for health care. Let's put it in a separate pot and then appropriate it later in the year in the amount that turns out to be necessary."
"I'm always amazed at these special magical pots of money that you guys are always able to find when it's appropriate. Mr. Speaker…"
"When it's time to appropriate, I believe, is the word you're looking for."
"And appropriate. Where was this $550 million coming from? Last time I checked we had about now $9 billion in unpaid bills. So, doesn't somebody else have to go to the back of the line for the $550 million because it has to come away from somebody else…"
"No, no, no, no, no…"
"…when you're running those types of deficits?"
"…not at all. And the appropriations people on your staff and on your committees know exactly what this is about. This was money that we knew would be likely spent in health care. We hoped that through collective bargaining there would be some givebacks and the total amount might be less. So, we only appropriated the first half of what we understood to be our responsibility in the first half of the fiscal year. This is not found money. This is reserved money because we knew we had a responsibility to pay your health care bills, the health care bills of all of the state workers and of those who work for the Department of 09800012.doc 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Transportation. Not new money, not hidden money, money in reserve."
"Well, I assume, then, that we'll talk more about the found money when we get back… away from Amendment #4 then because there's found money somewhere else, but I guess you and I will have that conversation later."
"Mr. McSweeney."
"Speaker, I rise to speak about the Amendment. We have $9 billion of unpaid bills in this state. We couldn't sell bonds last week, and we're talking about spending more money. Let's have the courage to go through this supplemental appropriation line by line. Let's pay for increased spending with spending cuts. The House is on fire. This state can't pay its bills. If we're going to increase spending, let's cut spending. Let's be honest about it because if we don't, we're not going to have any money for social programs in the future. The House is on fire. Let us cut spending."
"Mr. Sullivan."
"The… To the Amendment. So, last week we had a… the rules that decrease transparency, and you're next vote, on this Amendment, is to spend $2.1 billion with all the backlog that the previous speaker just said. That's what you want to do. But let's talk about why we're here. What has the Governor done with the AFSCME contract, the savings that we were supposed to have in health care with the vote that we took last year, that hasn't been done. That's why we're here today. What has been done with scrubbing the Medicaid rolls? It took quite awhile, six, seven, eight 09800012.doc 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 months, to get the provider in place to scrub the Medicaid rolls thereby decreasing the savings that we would've realized. That's why we're here. Do any of you know what's in this Amendment? Does anybody realize all the little line items of increased spending that we're doing? I don't think so. Ladies and Gentlemen, $2.1 billion on new spending that's what you want. We, on this side, would be for a Road Fund. We, on this side, would be fine if we separated out the Road Fund projects and voted on those separately. Those will help move this state forward. Those will create jobs. So, Mr. Speaker and Mr. Governor, this is what we ask. We hope you shall do it."
"Mr. Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"When… when… Leader, when you were discussing with… with the other Representative about where these funds are coming from, is part of this the funds that are in this particular Amendment also what the Governor vetoed out and then has put in?"
"That was in Amendment 1, Representative. Total GRF spending that is new in this Bill is about 53.6 million. You can talk billions if you like, but if you are talking about GRF, GRF is about 53 million in funding for DCFS, for mental health grants…"
"And… Yeah… I'm…"
"…and taking that 550…"
"Leader."
"…million in reserve…" 09800012.doc 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Leader."
"to pay for your health care bills."
"I… I am… I'm asking you specifically, though, and… and now our staff is telling us that that is part of this. That… that part of the revenues had to come from the fact that the Governor vetoed out certain things of the budget…"
"And that was… that's exactly right that was in Amendment 1."
"Okay."
"The Appropriations Members and staff…"
"But… but I…"
"…agreed that we had some 58 million either in Governor cuts or because money was coming in more quickly in GRF spending that could be allocated to programs…"
"Well…"
"…like staff and…"
"And… and maybe I'm…"
"…the Department of Children and Family Services."
"…maybe I'm reading the Amendment wrong, but on the first page of the Amendment it says that Amendment… House Bi… let me see… Amendment to House Bill 190 as amended by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following, so… so…"
"And I said earlier that Amendment 1 included the items that were approved…"
"But… but now… but now Amendment 4…"
"…in a bipartisan fashion by the House Executive Committee yesterday."
"Madam, please. I…" 09800012.doc 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"This was redrafted, but this is not new material."
"Leader, this… this…"
"These dollars were in the Amendment yesterday."
"…this Bill… this Amendment now becomes the Bill. Right."
"That's correct."
"Okay. That's fine. So, that's why I want to bring up the following. I would suggest to you that the money that was taken out by the Governor of a budget that we approved last year, we all worked together closely and approved, and by him amending out he went through a process of closing certain facilities that many of us believe should not have been closed. Now, let me tell you the events that have happened over the last two weeks. In Pontiac, because of the mishandle of these funds and the problems that existing, a certain guard was beat half to death. Let me tell you that two days ago, an inmate was killed by another inmate who was transferred from Tamms. I just got a text a few minutes ago three… three guards… three guards at Menard have been attacked by six inmates. I'm telling you what we're using is blood money. Blood money. I want to fix and cure these other problems but doing this allows more people to die because we don't stand to the Governor on this particular revenue."
"Well I remember…"
"Now, I know there are good things in this Bill. But the problem I have is that when we keep passing things to the Governor, this type of thing keeps happening, and you and the others on that side of the aisle, by allowing this to 09800012.doc 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 move forward and not dealing with that issue, are allowing it to continue to happen."
"Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Leader Currie yields."
"Thank you. I just want to ask in the original Amendment you said the money for the mental health was in there."
"That's right. And it was… it's also in Amendment 4. We had to redraft the whole as a whole. It's… it is in Amendment 4."
"Okay. All right. So, Speaker to the Bill. Thank you very much. A lot of us have concerns especially about the mental health funding because we realize that that was a mistake in the original budget process. A lot of us have concerns about DCFS because we don't want to see children hurt by the programs that might be deleted. We don't want to see 500 workers let go. But a lot of us, again, have concerns over the process that we've been through especially the budget appropriation people in the last couple of days. We've had several conference calls. We've tried to get this straight, but the conce… one of the major concerns in the GRF portion of this is, is that three days ago they said there was 57 million in there to pay for this. We thought there wasn't 57 million 'cause 30 million needed to go, and we weren't sure where that was, for Corrections. Yesterday, when we talked, that money was taken out, but we are not sure, even on that correction 09800012.doc 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 money, if that is going to go up $7 million a month over the next three months because that 30 million was just for last November and December. So there are a lot of concerns here that the numbers are not correct, even in the major portion of the Bill, in the GRF. So, what we're talking about now, when we left here a couple months ago I said could be a billion dollars in a supplemental now, in total, it could be $2.1 billion. That's our concern even though we want to support that mental health and DCFS money. Thank you."
"Leader Currie to close."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. I think it's important for you to understand that we are not spending $2.1 billion of state General Revenue Funds. In the total allocation, for example, there are $35 million going to the State Board of Education because the State Board of Education won a federal grant. We can't spend that for any other reason. And in fact, all of these items on the list are coming from other state funds or from federal moneys, we don't have any choice. We could say to the State Board of Education, goody for you, you won the grant, but we're not going to let you use it. I don't know why that makes sense for the school children of Illinois. Of the total amount, 53 million is money that, through the gubernatorial cuts, through new revenues, is General Revenue Funds. The appropriations staff and Members worked together, agreed that there was some $58 million in new revenue, and in this measure, we appropriate less than 34 million of that total. This measure, also, includes 09800012.doc 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 reserved money so that we can start paying medical bills, your medical bills and the medical bills of all the other members of the state workforce. There's nothing new, unusual, strange or odd about this Bill. Those of you who care about mental health funding in the community, this is your chance to say 'yes'. Here is the 12 money… $12 million we thought we already gave you. Those of you who want to see to it that the staff… that there is staff in the Department of the Children and Family Services to answer the hotline, 25 million goes into this budget for staff at DCFS so we can take care, finally, of abused and neglected Illinois children. I urge your 'aye' vote on Amendment 4 to House Bill 190."
"The Lady has moved for the adoption of Amendment 4 to House Bill 190. Those in favor of the Amendment will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Davis, Feigenholtz, Franks, Harris, Jackson, Schmitz. Record yourselves, Members. Please take the record, Mr. Clerk. On this question, there are 66 voting 'yes', 46 voting 'no', and 2 voting 'present'. And the Amendment is adopted. Put that… Third Reading. Please read the Bill for a third time. Please read the Bill for a third time."
Clerk Hollman: "House Bill 190, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Leader Currie."
"Thank you, Members and Speaker. We have heard what's in the Bill. What's in the Bill is less than 54 million in General Revenue Funding that we had not anticipated 09800012.doc 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 spending in the spring. This is your chance to say 'yes' to quality care in our State Department of Children and Family Services. This is your chance to say 'yes' to mental health grants, $12 million we thought was in the original budget. And this is your chance to take the money that was in reserve, money we have already set aside to pay the health care bills of the state workforce. We cannot, without this appropriation, pay your doctors, your hospitals, the doctors in the hospitals of other state employees and state universities employees and those in the Department of Transportation without your 'yes' vote on House Bill 190. I urge you to do the right thing, I urge you to do the responsible thing. And I urge you to vote 'yes'."
"The Lady's moved for the passage of the Bill. The Chair recognizes Mr. Reboletti."
"Mr. Speaker, to the Bill. I am so tired of the other side of this aisle telling me I don't care about anything. I'm sick of it. I have a fifth grader in a public school, so don’t tell me I don't care about school children. And don't tell me I don't care about people who have mental health issues, if I don't vote for this Bill. That's not what the case is. What I care about are the people of the State of Illinois and funding the things that we need to fund and prioritizing them. I didn't realize one of our priorities today should be to give more money to Chicago State or to a museum in Danville. I don't care what kind of museum it is. Quit lighting up the Christmas tree every time you guys file an appropriations Bill. That's what it's all about. We're for helping the Road Fund out. 09800012.doc 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 We're for helping out the mentally health… the mental health issues. We're for making sure that the doctors are regulated. Just because I don't vote for this Bill doesn't mean I don't care but I know that's how the messaging goes. Then the media can run around with it and say, oh, the Republicans, the party of no; they hate everybody. Garbage, enough with that. How about this, Leader Currie, how about work with us. How about your side come talk to us. We're always here. This take it or leave it stuff has got to end. And talk about working together and that just ends as soon as the Rules are voted on. We've talk… I see all the people who run for this office talk about fiscal accountability and responsibility and when I go to Springfield, I'm going to hold their feet to the fire. The magical strawman, that's what we'll do. But when you get down here, you do what you're told to do, and that's what happens. That you demonize my side of the aisle and say, see, they don't like anybody; they don't care about anybody. Enough of that. We're here to help fix the people's problems as well. So, when you want to bring a clean Bill that takes care of our immediate issues, I'll help you on that. But this take it or leave it, well, we found some money, this is some pass through money. That's not true. There's more spending here. You're addicted to it and you can't stop. And we're here to help you clear that addiction so you can see more clearly."
"Representative Will Davis." Davis, W.: "Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields." 09800012.doc 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Davis, W.: "Representative, as an Appropriations Chair, I've been a part of several meetings that have talked a lot about this Appropriations Bill, and what would be in it and where the dollars would come from, but as I looked at the list that I had, that a few others had, I guess what probably troubles me more about that list is the IDOT portion of that list. So, it's my understanding that the IDOT portion of that list is about $785 million, correct?"
"It is 714,663. That's not the health care, but that's the capital money for IDOT." Davis, W.: "Well, according to a document that I have in front of me, it says that IDOT is requesting 785 million in total supplemental appropriation. So, is this incorrect?"
"Yes. We only… that was their request. We approved 714 million." Davis, W.: "Only 714."
"Yes." Davis, W.: "Okay. I stand corrected. Thank you very much. And again, because in my opinion, one of the greatest challenges that I have as a Member with IDOT sometimes and I'll even put on my Black Caucus Chair hat in this conversation, is that there's always an after conversation about what IDOT does in specific districts. And when we have Bills like this, because they're so large, because they have so much in them, and they're a little hard to monitor, and then when IDOT is given chunks of money to do things and there's no specific language. So, in the… in the information that I have, it identifies $675 million that will be spent on specific projects throughout the state, 09800012.doc 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 primarily bridge-related projects. So, the balance of that is not really specified in terms of what it will spend. So, I know you can't, but I would ask IDOT, what are they spending in the 30th District? You know, what are they spending in the south suburbs? What are they spending in additionally on the south side of Chicago? And it's unfortunate that I've been asking this question to IDOT. And if you are on our calls, I did raise the issue about why this had to be a part of this Bill. Why are we not dealing with the IDOT piece separately? That's a question."
"Okay. And our habit is to put a number of appropriations together in one Bill, and I will work with you to get adequate answers to your questions from the Department of Transportation." Davis, W.: "Well, I… I appreciate that, Leader Currie, and thank you for your willingness to help, but I guess the trouble that I'm having is that particularly on that side of it, we're always asking IDOT. Now, again, not to… not to just solely talk about what they do or don't do, particularly in minority communities, but we're always asking IDOT about what their efforts are in our communities, and sometimes, we get tired of asking the question after these things happen. And it's important to have the dialogue before these types of things happen. Now I have been talking to them and they've been engaging me in conversation which is why I thought we had a little time to address the IDOT situation. The fact that it's all coming and we were having our conversations, our conference calls with the Appropriations' Chair, I did ask that we were 09800012.doc 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 discussing how much money would be available and what would be in it. While we have an idea of everything that you wanted to do, but the idea that is now all coming in one Bill is a little… little troublesome to me. Now, again, I would never encourage a Member to vote a certain way or not to vote a certain way, particularly in this, and I understand the relationship that you're making with the supplemental. So, do I not vote for it because I'm troubled with IDOT and put DCFS in jeopardy and what they want to do with the resources or what? So, that's kind of a quandary for… quandary for someone like myself. But when we're talking about 785 or 14 million dollars, to me, I would have preferred that that be left out of this Appropriation's Bill, that we try another supplemental for the purposes of IDOT and move the other pieces forward as well. So… so, I appreciate your willingness to work with me, other Members of the Black Caucus to see how this particular supplemental will… will affect their… affect their districts, but right now, in good conscience, because unfortunately some commitments were not made or we couldn't have a conversation about specific commitments for IDOT, I'm going to vote 'no' on this supplemental."
"Leader Cross."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to make a couple of observations. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking today, but I find it ironic that for all practical purposes, the very first day of the new General Assembly is focused on spending more money and not focusing on reform. You can talk about the various silos, but at the end of the 09800012.doc 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 day, we're appropriating $2.1 billion of new spending. We, as Representative Sullivan, Bost, Reboletti have said, some things in here we like. We realized the significance and importance of road projects. We have roads that need to be widened, we have roads that need to be improved, we have bridges that are crumbling. I know that as well as anybody and… and our side of the aisle understands the need to get people working, keep people working fixing our roads. So, let's… let's not start pointing fingers about how bad we are 'cause there's some things… because we don't support this Bill. That frankly, gets very, very old and the idea of a Christmas tree Bill to those of you that are new, of loading up a Bill, putting in some good things and some bad things, is really the essence of how this place is run year in and year out. I guess it maybe explains why we are in the mess we're in. We have an unfunded liability on health insurance, pensions, unpaid bills. And I think for a chamber that applauds itself or at least tries to applaud itself on last year's budget work where we had $8 billion of unpaid bills, keep in mind as we move forward in this year, we have over $9 billion in unpaid bills. We are not moving forward; we're moving backwards. So, when you come before this chamber and say we want to appropriate all this money and not focus on a single reform, yes, it causes us pause. Yes, we have concerns about it. Yes, we are not going to support it. You think about and look at some of the things in this Bill, they run completely in the face of some of the reforms we've talked about and the need to make government smaller. There's over a million and a half 09800012.doc 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 dollars… or almost a million and a half dollars that we're having… that you're having to put in your Bill to pay for salaries… pay for salaries. The Governor has hired, subsequent to the last… or last year, deputy directors in various agencies that he has. The money wasn't appropriated, but yet he hired people to the tune of over a million dollars. And then you come in here and say, we want to appropriate in this Bill money to take care of the Governor's new hires. Now, this is an administration that is going in the exact wrong direction of where we need to go as a state. You're appropriating money in this Bill to take care of workmen's compensation cost. This General Assembly said, we need to privatize. We think it makes more sense to privatize the workers' compensation system. Representative Kay has been a leading proponent of the need to reform workers' comp. There's a lot… a lot more we need to do on workers' comp, but on this very issue, we said, let's privatize. Did that happen? No. So, we're going to spend $82 million… $82 million on that. You've got a component in here to pay for and to appropriate money for health care costs, health insurance. We realize those bills need to get paid and we want them to get paid, but we asked the Governor, almost a year ago, to start negotiating on an AFSCME contract, finish that up, and at the same time we would figure out what the savings would be or know what the savings would be on health insurance because of the premium situation. Has that happened? No. No. So, the question for us as a Body and as a state, are we going to move in the direction of reform, or are we going continue in the 09800012.doc 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 direction of spending money we don't have? And I think if we're ever going to get out of this mess, if we're ever going to practice what we preach, if we're ever going to talk the talk and walk the walk and all those terms that everybody uses in every campaign piece and every town hall meeting and every Lion's club meeting that we have got to turn the corner, we got to change the direction of the state, we have to take care of the hardworking people of the State of Illinois, then we need to quit spending. We've done nothing on pension reform other than talk a good game for the last two years. We passed some Medicaid reform, but yet most of it is yet to be implemented. We haven't seen any savings on the health care side, on the health insurance premium. We haven't continued the reform on work comp, and the list goes on and on and on, and the bills keep building higher and higher and higher. People keep talking about leaving the state. Businesses say, why am I staying here? You haven't figured it out. Well, today is another indication that you have not figured it out, and you're saying to the hardworking taxpayers of the State of Illinois, sorry, forget it, don’t worry about it. We haven't gotten it yet. We're not ready to reform and we're not sure when we're going to do that because the very first day in the new General Assembly, we spend $2.1 billion and do not in any single way reform government in the State of Illinois. That is why we're not supporting this Bill. And that is why we are going to continue to demand reform, day in and day out, until you get the message. Thank you, Mr. Speaker." 09800012.doc 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Mr. Dunkin."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"Leader, in the last year and a half, about how much did this General Assembly cut in our budget, our General Revenue Fund?"
"About $3 billion from program during the last two budget years."
"Three billion dollars in the last program?"
"But (indiscernible) program cuts, that's not just how much money are you cutting but how much program are you cutting so you don't pay those bills next year."
"So, that included group health insurance…"
"It… it included…"
"…are we talking education…"
"It included, yes, the education which went down. It included changes in eligibility, and benefits for people on the state's Medicaid program."
"My point exactly. To the Bill. Ladies and Gentlemen."
"Human Services across…"
"In every aspect of government, State Government…"
"Yes."
"…this Body on this side as well as the other side, took up the mantle of being responsible by reducing the budget over… well over $3 billion. I was here. I'm one of the Appropriation's Chairs, I sat in on another Approp Chair for General Services where we made cut after cut after cut in every department. It impacted programs, personnel, grants; we covered the gambit. The fact of the 09800012.doc 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 matter is, we need additional dollars to make sure that we shore up our government's responsibilities and obligations. So we should not provide the $174 thousand for a group health insurance for the employees of DNR? We should reduce early childhood education a meager $35 million all across the state? Should we leave the kids out in East St. Louis on the fringes without providing them with a $9 million grant to add value to their lives for the next year and their future? We can go down the list of some of the unfortunate consequences of things that we have to do in order to be responsible. As leading state actors, we are elected to make the tough decisions, as hard as they are. I understand that there's a problem or a bone of contention with our Governor and he's trying to negotiate with the union members, I get that. I'm not jumping up and down for IDOT's budget being the lion's share of this Bill, I get that. But at the end of the day, we have to put skin in the game. We cannot continue to afford to pass the buck and say no or take our ball then run away without coming up with some viable solutions. This is a part solution. And by the way, everybody here that I'm aware of, that I served with in the last Assembly, wants to be responsible when it comes to pensions, cost reductions, seeing to it that we reduce our health care. But this is one of those times when we simply are trying to add some more value and seeing to it that our State Government functions competently off of already bare bones dollars. That's why we cut it $3 billion, in the last several… in this… in the last General Assembly, quite frankly. So, we're acting responsible. 09800012.doc 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 We're in a situation, however, where we have to do the right thing. We are making reductions. We are avoiding some layoffs compared to massive layoffs. Let's be responsible, let's fund education, let's fund our health care, let's pay some of the vendors that we have obligations and commitments to. Let's pay some of those companies that we incentivized to come here to our state to train our workers and to retain jobs. That's why I'm voting 'aye' for this Bill. I think a responsible Legislator should vote for this legislation as well. Thank you."
"Mr. Bost."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. You know, I… I… as I said earlier when we were passing the Amendment, the statement was made that we shouldn't play politics on this floor, but I will tell you that this Bill plays politics in the fact that… let me tell you that I agree with my colleague on the other side of the aisle, that if it was separated out where we could each make a vote on the issues as they are by themselves, then we could go back and argue to our constituents and say, look, this is why I did what I did. But by creating all the pieces that are on this Bill, you make that either more difficult or some maybe it'll be easier, I don't know. But for someone to claim that if we don't support this we're against people with mental illness, well, how about the fact that you closed Murray Center and you're using that money. How about… can you tell that to the families of Murray Center? Do you… does everybody know what Murray Center is? It's… it is a… it is a special place where families love that they can provide 09800012.doc 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 for that family member who has mental illness, but yet that closed down. Our Corrections, as I offered up a while ago and the danger that we're putting each guard in, and yes, even our inmates in who are not the most violent by closing Tamms. By changing our policy and closing Murphysboro on a successful program that was actually in youth corrections, was actually working, where we had a situation where when it was operating in its original form, we had a 77… or we had a less than 17 percent recidivism rate but now they've fell into the 77 percent recidivism rate. Wow, that's been successful. But you know, to stand on your side of the aisle and say I don't care for people with mental illness, you don't know my family and you don't know what the things I faced in our family. And I think that's very cold to say, oh well, I don't care for people in the most needy situations if I don't vote for this. Don't tell me that politics isn't played on this floor because it's being played right now. The Bill itself is so political in nature because there's a few things that have been put in that the newspaper have come up with that have been mentioned in the newspapers that it's kind of strange that they're in this Bill. Funding for museums, though I love museums. You know, I… and they might not even be quoting it correctly, but the thing is, that's the public perception. So if you hide all this stuff in there and then you say, but it's for the road funds… oh, just so you know, that… those of you who don't know, yeah, my family owns a trucking business, have for years. My grandfather started the trucking business in 1933, and guess what, we work every day with road 09800012.doc 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 construction, every day. I know the importance of those funds, but to say I'm going to just throw myself on this boat and go, oh yes, now I’m going to vote for it with the other damages that I'm seeing this do and for us not standing against the Governor with his Veto, folks, you're going to vote what you want to vote, but don't sit up here and point to this side of the aisle or those who vote against this, and say, oh, you don't really care for the people. I will argue that everybody on this floor cares about our jobs, we do. I think this is the wrong way to do it. I think it's wrong because of the way it's all being compiled. I would have loved to have input and have an opportunity to work with you on each of these individual areas. But folks, I won't be supporting it and I know that's no surprise to you, but I would encourage each of you to weigh out what really is in the Bill and whether you want to go down this path or you want to change the course of what we continue to do and have continued to do over the last several years, that has continued to drive us deeper and deeper in debt. Work with us. I ask you to, but I ask you to vote 'no' to send a clear message so that we can come back and work together."
"Mr. Franks."
"Speaker, I first have a parliamentary inquiry. I'm looking at our analysis and I see we have notes, and there was one note that I have not seen a response to, and that was a balanced budget note. Has that been filed?"
"Mr. Clerk." 09800012.doc 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"A balanced budget note for Amendment #4 has been filed."
"Maybe we can update our computers, as that's not been shown and I'd like to know whether there is any effect?"
"Please…"
"So I'll…"
"…proceed, Sir."
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield? Will the Majority Leader yield?"
"Majority Leader will yield."
"Representative, I've been listening to this debate and I wasn't sure how I was going to vote on the Amendment and I actually didn't because I wasn't sure what to do. So, I was listening and it seems we held back $550 million in the GRF to be able to pay for our health insurance."
"Group health insurance, yes."
"And one of the reasons we held that back is because we thought we might be able to get some savings with some of the unions, correct?"
"That is correct."
"But that never materialized."
"It has not so far materialized and so our… our best bet, we thought, was to go ahead and appropriate the money so that bills could be paid in the second half of the current fiscal year. There's no reason for us to sit on money that the people who provided us care in the clinic, in the doctor's office, in the hospital, they ought to be paid if we can pay them. This way, if we adopt this Bill, we can pay them." 09800012.doc 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"No, I agree. I think they need to be paid. There's a lot of things in this Bill that I like, but I'm having some trouble with that because it seems to me it's because of our incompetence that we got to pay extra. And I don't know whose incompetence it is, but the fact is that we've been negotiating for a year and can't save money. I don't think it's fair to the state… the citizens of the State of Illinois that we're going to pay the full freight because we couldn't get our job done."
"Well, perhaps it was unrealistic to think that the givebacks were, in fact, available in those discussions. I have not been party to the discussions and so I can't answer that question myself. I would hope that they would still bear some fruit. The discussions are not over, but in terms of being able to adopt a specific dollar amount in savings in the current fiscal year, I think the answer is we're not able to do that." Franks: Well, let me ask you about the additional GRF because I'm… I'm going through our analysis and it indicates it's approximately $54 million."
"Yeah, a little less, 53.6."
"All right, 53.6 million in additional GRF. Where did we get that money?"
"Okay. And we… let me just make the point that we came to these numbers in collaboration with the Members of the appropriation staff and the Members of the Appropriations Committees. Let me just run down them. There was 26.9 million that was vetoed by the Governor; Vetoes that were not overridden by the Assembly." 09800012.doc 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Okay."
"There are 11.1 million from the Local Government Distributive Fund and that was an estimate that it turned out that the fiscal '12 transfers included some one-time transfers not repeated in fiscal '13. There were $12.8 million in the Estate Tax Distributive Fund. If you remember, we used to ask the county treasurers to collect that tax for us and then we gave them a cut of the proceeds. No longer do we ask them to perform that task. That $12.8 million is now money that we're able to use for our own purposes. We don't need to pay people to do jobs that they're not performing. There are other transfers which are coming in a little bit lower than originally anticipated."
"Okay. So, that… I get that. I'm… when I'm going through the analysis, I see some of these ideas that you have indicated that were agreed to by the Appropriation Chairs. I see one line item from IOC for state officer' salaries and I think that was $1.2 million, if I'm correct."
"Yes. In…"
"How did that occur?"
"Well, as I understand it, in fact, many of those positions were filled. For whatever reason, during the regular budget process in the spring, money was not allocated for all of those salaries. So, this will give the Comptroller enough money to pay those individuals. Some of them are running agencies; some of them are deputy administrators. I think, for example, the person who's in 09800012.doc 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 charge of the Lottery is one of those and I think that that appointment actually happened more than a year ago and I'm not quite sure why it didn't end up in the budget. But this corrects the problem that we… that there was not adequate oversight."
"So, these aren't new hires?"
"They're not new positions and I think most of them were already filled before we finished budget-making last year."
"I see another line item I wanted to ask about and that was from, I think it was ISBE's $9 million money from GRF for doubling the East St. Louis Financial Oversight Panel's Emergency Assistance Grant." Currie: That's right."
"What is that?"
"Illinois State Board of Education has asked for that money. As you know, the East St. Louis School District is in financial oversight in spite of best efforts and there have been some very good efforts. They still are not able to make ends meet and in order to be able to finish the school year, the state board has asked us to appropriate this money." Franks: Okay. And then, I'm looking here and I don't see anything for Chicago State, but I'm to understand that there's… I'm told that there's $6.6 million that's been appropriated there, but…"
"Six point five million for emergency electrical repair."
"Is that on our analysis?" 09800012.doc 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"And that's… that's a capital line item and I think from other state funds there also is a $307 thousand allocation because, for whatever reason, there was a glitch and they did not get that money for their pharmacy program. But that, again, is other state funds. It is not out of General Revenue."
"Are there anything in there that would… we used to euphemistically call Member initiatives; some people call it pork, some people call it directives?"
"No."
"But when you're talking about museums, I heard some of my friends on the other side talk about those."
"Nothing… nothing new. In respect to the museum issue, that money was… this is really reappropriation with slightly different language. There's no new Member initiative money in this Supplemental Appropriation."
"Well, with this supplemental I think there are… there are many good things in there. Certainly paying the… our providers and the Road Fund certainly makes sense. What I'm concerned about, though, are some of the more peripheral issues that I think that if they were brought on their own would not stand. And some of the criticisms have been this has grown larger than we had anticipated. When I was first hearing about the supplemental, it was a much smaller supplemental than this, and I'm wondering if there's been any thought of perhaps of paring this down and going more to the bare essentials and coming back later for those that aren't so essential?" 09800012.doc 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Actually, it started out a lot bigger, Representative. My understanding was that the Executive Branch asked for many, many millions more than is apparent in the measure before you today. And that 53.6 million, under 54 million, the Appropriations Members and staff concluded that of GRF we actually had more than that to spend and we restrained ourselves. So, I think if you look at the original requests, I think you will find that this represents a pretty austere response to efforts to spend more than we might and some might even suggest more than we have."
"Thank you."
"Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Again, I just want to reiterate what a lot of us would like to support in this Bill but cannot at this time. Mental health, DCFS, these are all issues that a lot of us support. As you will see, a lot of us have signed on to Representative Feigenholtz's Bill for mental health because that was a mistake in the budgeting process. But I'll tell you, this budgeting process this year on this issue is totally different than what it's been in the other years when we got together in a conference room and looked over the appropriation, looked over the resources and then would agree upon the things that we would take off the table and add on. I would have to say that when somebody said on these phone calls that there was agreement, there may have been agreement, but I don't even understand that on the phone even between the spokesman yesterday and the Appropriation Chair. We had a lot of discussions. They, the 09800012.doc 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 Chairs, had a lot of concerns as to where these resources were that I brought up before. So I'm telling you, we are on the fiscal cliff. They talk about it in Washington; well, that's where we are right now and this process is like hitting a moving target. It's in, it's out; it's in, it's out within a 48-hour period. And our concerns are that we don't have a certain amount for Corrections. They have 30 million. That was in there the day before. We had the concern that 30 million had already been spent. That was in the 57 million as a resource three days ago. We asked to take a look at that. They took it out and put it on the side. But they'll probably have to have another supplemental by that in the spring because that's going to go up 3 to 7 million dollars a month, just that one item and that item alone that they're setting aside for Corrections by May could be close to $15 million, which is the total amount that we're giving to the GRF resources right now. So, those are our questions. We're just asking for statistics that we can rely on. Moving forward, we're trying to get a better fiscal footing here in the State of Illinois so we can keep the companies in the state, not moving out; keep the jobs in Illinois so we can have the people stay in their communities where they reside right now and not to join the ranks of the exodus out of Illinois. The only way that is going to come is from responsible people taking the direction of facing budgets in the State of Illinois. Thank you."
"Mr. Drury." 09800012.doc 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, as a new Member on the floor, I want to just start out by saying that I'm a little bit embarrassed about the conversation that's been going on today. There's so much anger and vitriol coming from both sides. The reality is, is what we're here today to decide is whether or not we're going to spend an additional $2 billion in the budget. And when you hear the conversation that it is ignoring those facts, it's a big problem. There's a complete lack of public trust that the public has in our government and when you watch what's going on here, it's clear why that's happening. Now if we get to look at the actual Bill that's being proposed, as I listen to the discussion, the Bill is too big. The Bill is too big. Yes, we need to have $12 million for mental health appropriations. I'm for that. And yes, we need to have $25 million for DCFS so our children do not have the proper services that they should be afforded, but to add on another 1.8, 1.9 billion dollars and not have the discussion and not vet it, it's just inappropriate. I agree that we should work and we should have a… we should work and we should look at this and we should take it piece by piece and we should sit down and vote on the things that we need and we don't necessarily need to vote on every other thing in this Bill. We look back at the tough budget decisions that were made back, I believe it was last April, and what we're doing now is giving them all back. What message does that send to our children when we make tough decisions and then we give them all back a little later on? It doesn't teach us anything. It teaches us make a tough 09800012.doc 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 decision knowing that we can just get it back come the next… the next Legislator in office. So, I'm for a lot in this Bill. I believe there's a lot that's needed in this Bill. I think it will be tragic if we don't pass a Bill that gets these things done, but it will also be tragic if we vote on a Bill that's this big that has $2 billion of spending in it."
"Mr. Sullivan."
"I guess, I just… I agree with the previous speaker, but will the Sponsor yield?"
"She will."
"Representative, I think I heard you just say that there's no pork in this or no Member initiatives."
"That's right. Any… there's some reappropriation with some different language about some projects that already had been appropriated and I know of one of them, Representative, that comes from a Member on your side of the aisle, not mine."
"I know we had some technical changes on our side, but we have a project here…"
"That's it."
"…for 225 thousand for the opportunity for a grant to Fulfilling Our responsibility Unto Mankind for their facility, 225 thousand for some group's Responsibility Unto Mankind. We have one for 28 thousand and change for a grant to the Ravenswood Budlong Congregation doing business as Chabad Living Room for all costs associated with infrastructure. These are new projects. So how can you sit there and say that there are no new projects or no pork in 09800012.doc 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 this. And I could go on, but for the betterment of time, I'm not going to read all the ones that I have right here."
"I would refer you to page 2 where you will see what these are replacing. These are changes in existing programs already appropriated by this General Assembly."
"Well, we certainly can disagree on that. To the Bill. One of the previous speakers talked about making East St. Louis whole. In this Bill, in case you haven't read it, there's $9 million for East St. Louis. This is a school district that has been taken over by the state and when we tried to take it over, they sued the state. The school board sued the state to try and not be taken over. And you wonder why did they do that? Why did they want… not want the state to take over? Was it for the kids? Well, let me read you some of the corruption that has taken place down there in East St. Louis: $2.4 million of payroll dedicated to family members of the school district; 17 administrators making $100 thousand or above, $31 million on consultants. I realize nobody wants to pay attention to that. We're all talking, but let me read you something from the State Board of Education on what's going on in this school district. The State Board of Education made the decision with a unanimous vote citing generations of academic failure and a culture of resistance towards fixing it on the part of the local board. So what are you going to do? You're going to give them $9 million to continue the resistance, to continue the failure for the students down there. Who in this chamber would like $9 million for your local school? I know I would. You know, up in my area just north of me in, 09800012.doc 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 I believe Representative Yingling's district, they did it right. Round Lake was taken over by the state. They brought in an administrator, he changed contracts, he built the base. He did it correctly and now they have a thriving school district. But here in the General Assembly, here in the General Assembly we're just going to give them money. We're going to give them money and say, keep doing what you've been doing; we don't need the $9 million for other schools. But you're going to vote for it. Mark my words, you're going to vote for it. God bless you."
"Representative Gabel."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields."
"So, it is my understanding the appropriation for the Human Rights Commission is eliminated in this Bill for the purpose of allowing federal money in a nonappropriated fund to be used for legal staff at the Torture Commission. There was confusion at the Comptroller's Office with the zero appropriation and they would not let the Human Rights Commission use the money in a nonappropriated fund. This is federal money that we just needed to spend. Is… is my understanding correct?"
"That is correct."
"Thank you very much."
"Representative Senger."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Just a couple comments. I know the other day on a conference call with the approp working groups we did talk about the fact that we need another Appropriation Bill, supplemental Bill, 09800012.doc 54 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 coming out for, I believe, it's 30 million. And part of my concern right now and this has to do more with a capital piece than anything else, the other week we went to issue bonds and we pulled back and said it's too expensive to do. So we have the money in the Capital Program today to pay for what's in front of us. It's almost like everybody's special program, get out there and get it now because we may be in a situation coming up where you're not going to have it, if we don't fix some of the problems we have in our state. We have an 8 billion-plus pension payment next year… this year and it's really concerning me that we're spending every dime we can find right now when we know we have to make cuts again. So, it's very disconcerting to look at these projects that are out there today, knowing very well that we may not get another dime for capital unless we don't put this straight back to where we need to go. Thank you."
"Representative Monique Davis." Davis, M.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Lady yields." Davis, M.: "She yields. Representative, can you answer where the grants are going for the people who have mental challenges, the mental health dollars? Where are those dollars going?"
"To the… to agencies in the community, Representative, who provide services to the state's clients. There was a… some kind of miscommunication and I believe that the Members of the Appropriations Committee thought that the $12 million was in the budget we adopted last spring. It 09800012.doc 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 wasn't, so this restores that funding to community agencies that serve our clients with mental challenges in the community." Davis, M.: "Well, my concern in reference to that is so many of those agencies in my community have been shut down. They have been closed, so they will not be receiving any of that grant money. And did I hear correctly from Representative Gabel that the funds for the Human Rights Commission was removed?"
"No, no. Her question was whether… what happened was that the funding for that commission was set at zero dollars. In fact, there are federal funds available to supply legal staff. The Comptroller, however, said we can't give the commission that money because it says zero. So all we have done is taken out zero so the Comptroller can send that money to the Torture Commission so they can get on with the job." Davis, M.: "So, they will continue to get their funds. Is that correct?"
"They will get their federal funding only… only if we make the change that is in House Bill 190." Davis, M.: "And how much exactly… what is the total amount of dollars that's going to the Illinois Department of Transportation?"
"That would be $621,185,400 and… Oh, I'm sorry, that's the group health insurance; 714 million and a fair amount of that come… I mean, this is federal… much of it's federal funding." Davis, M.: "So, a lot of it is federal funding?" 09800012.doc 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Yes." Davis, M.: "And so are they required…"
"None of it… none of this, Representative, is General Revenue Funding." Davis, M.: "So…"
"None of this is the money that we control." Davis, M.: "Okay. So, because it is federal are they required to make sure there're African Americans working on these jobs and these projects?"
"The Federal Government has requirements about affirmative action and so have we." Davis, M.: "Does anyone ever monitor those projects for that reason?"
"First of all, I believe that the federal Department of Transportation has a mandate to do so and second, I believe that our Appropriations Committees monitor those activities." Davis, M.: "To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. There is a crisis in Chicago. There is a crisis of children killing children and I see absolutely nothing in this Bill to address that crisis. People are calling for the President to come to Chicago from Washington, but they're ignoring that there's a government in Illinois, in Springfield. They're ignoring the fact that we have a Governor who should, in my opinion, attempt to help address these issues. Because there's absolutely nothing in this Bill that I can see that helps Chicago, that helps those who might be the most needy, I'm going to have to vote 'no'. And I have the greatest respect for you and the Sponsor. Thank you." 09800012.doc 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"Leader Currie to close."
"Thank you very much, Speaker and Members of the House. First, I want to correct a misstatement that was uttered on this House Floor. The suggestion is that $9 million is going under this Bill to the East St. Louis School District; it is not. If you read the Bill, you will discover that that money is going to the State Board of Education at their request to try to settle the mess that has been happening in East St. Louis so that those youngsters can have access to a quality education. Finally, in closing, in general I would just say this, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday this Bill was approved in bipartisan fashion, 9 to 2 in the House Executive Committee. What in the world happened between yesterday and today? Nothing changed except some people decided that it is a good idea to make political partisan hay out of an effort to provide funding for the State Department of Children and Family Services, funding for mental health grants in the community, funding so that the doctors, nurses and hospitals can be paid for serving state workers. Something odd is happening on this House Floor. It wasn't happening yesterday. Nothing has changed but an attitude. And I would encourage everybody's attitude to move toward the direction of saying yes, this is reasonable, it is responsible and it is time for us to show our commitment to school children, to the mentally ill and to the abused and neglected children of the State of Illinois. Please vote 'yes'." 09800012.doc 58 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"The Lady's moved for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Record yourself, Members. Have all voted who wish? Acevedo, Feigenholtz, Harris, Mayfield, Mell, Nekritz, Schmitz. Record yourselves, Members. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 63 voting 'yes', 52 voting 'no' and 1 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, the Adjournment Resolution."
Clerk Hollman: "House Joint Resolution 11 offered by Representative Currie. RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that when the House of Representatives adjourns on Wednesday, February 06, 2013, it stands adjourned until Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 12:00 noon, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Wednesday, February 20, 2013, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Thursday, February 21, 2013, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Tuesday, February 26, 2013, or until the call of the Speaker; and when the Senate adjourns on Thursday, February 07, 2013, it stands adjourned until Wednesday, February 13, 2013, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Thursday, February 14, 2013, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Friday, February 15, 2013, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until February 21, 2013, in perfunctory 09800012.doc 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 session, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Wednesday, February 27, 2013, or until the call of the President."
"Leader Currie moves for the adoption of the Adjournment Resolution. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Adjournment Resolution is adopted. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."
Clerk Hollman: "Agreed Resolutions. House Resolution 37, offered by Representative Dunkin. House Resolution 40, offered by Representative Riley. House Resolution 41, offered by Representative Riley. House Resolution 42, offered by Representative Reis. House Resolution 43, offered by Representative Demmer. House Resolution 44, offered by Representative Dunkin. House Resolution 45, offered by Representative Pihos. House Resolution 46, offered by Representative Zalewski. House Resolution 49, offered by Representative Osmond. House Resolution 50, offered by Representative Osmond. And House Resolution 51, offered by Representative Daniel Burke."
"Leader Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Agreed Resolutions are adopted. The Chair recognizes Representative Flowers."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to announce that the Committee on Health Care Availability and Access will be canceled."
"Thank you for your announcement. Mr. Clerk, committee announcements for this afternoon." 09800012.doc 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013
"The following committees have been canceled this afternoon: Insurance, Public Utilities, Consumer Protection, and Health Care Availability and Accessibility. Meeting at 4:00 are the following committees: Financial Institutions in Room 115, and Revenue & Finance in Room 114."
"Representative Golar."
"Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."
"Please state your point."
"The Black Caucus will be meeting in Room 115 at 5:30 p.m. Thank you."
Speaker Lang: "Thank you, Representative. And allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk, Leader Currie now moves that the House stand adjourned 'til Wednesday, February 6 at 11:30 a.m. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the House does stand adjourned 'til February 6, Wednesday, 11:30 a.m."
"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction and First Reading of House Bills. House Bill 1273, offered by Representative Beiser, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1274, offered by Representative Davis, William, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. House Bill 1275, offered by Representative Pihos, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. House Bill 1276, offered by Representative Pihos, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1277, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning public employee benefits. House Bill 1278, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act 09800012.doc 61 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 concerning revenue. House Bill 1279, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1280, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning public employee benefits. House Bill 1281, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. House Bill 1282, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning wages. House Bill 1283, offered by Representative Senger, a Bill for an Act concerning public employee benefits. House Bill 1284, offered by Representative Lang, a Bill for an Act concerning insurance. House Bill 1285, offered by Representative Jakobsson, a Bill for an Act concerning liquor. House Bill 1286, offered by Representative Jakobsson, a Bill for an Act concerning public aid. House Bill 1287, offered by Representative Zalewski, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. House Bill 1288, offered by Representative Gabel, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1289, offered by Representative Gabel, a Bill for an Act concerning transportation. House Bill 1290, offered by Representative Gabel, a Bill for an Act concerning appropriations. House Bill 1291, offered by Representative Phelps, a Bill for an Act concerning safety. House Bill 1292, offered by Representative Gordon-Booth, a Bill for an Act concerning property. House Bill 1293, offered by Representative Nekritz, a Bill for an Act concerning condominium property. House Bill 1294, offered by Representative Lang, a Bill for an Act concerning gaming. House Bill 1295, offered by Representative Riley, a Bill 09800012.doc 62 STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 12th Legislative Day 2/5/2013 for an Act concerning local government. House Bill 1296, offered by Representative Mitchell, Christian, a Bill for an Act concerning public employee benefits. House Bill 1297, offered by Representative Roth, a Bill for an Act concerning civil law. House Bill 1298, offered by Representative Roth, a Bill for an Act concerning government. House Bill 1299, offered by Representative Roth, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1300, offered by Representative Bradley, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. House Bill 1301, offered by Representative Hoffman, a Bill for an Act concerning employment. House Bill 1302, offered by Representative Hoffman, a Bill for an Act concerning employment. House Bill 1303, offered by Representative Hoffman, a Bill for an Act concerning employment. House Bill 1304, offered by Representative Martwick, a Bill for an Act concerning education. House Bill 1305, offered by Representative Martwick, a Bill for an Act concerning business. House Bill 1306, offered by Representative Thapedi, a Bill for an Act concerning gaming. House Bill 1307, offered by Representative Roth, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. House Bill 1308, offered by Representative Roth, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. These are referred to the Rules Committee. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned." 09800012.doc 63