Illinois House Floor Debate — February 28, 2013

"The House shall come to order. All Members should be in their seats. We shall be led in prayer today by Pastor Sammy Simmons who's with the Immanuel Baptist Church in Benton, Illinois. Pastor Simmons 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 the Pledge of Allegiance."

"We shall be led in the Pledge of Allegiance today by Representative Fine."

Speaker Turner: "Roll Call for Attendance. Representative Currie."

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

"Representative Bost." 09800021.doc 2  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"A quorum is present, 118 Members being present today. Representative Flowers."

"Mr… Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Representative Ford a happy birthday. He turned 41 today, so would you please wish him a happy birthday and cake will be served in his office. Thank you."

Speaker Turner: "Happy birthday, Representative Ford. Thank you, Representative Flowers. Representative D'Amico."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to wish a happy birthday to our seatmate here, Representative Martwick."

"Happy birthday, Representative Martwick. Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Phelps."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What are you doing up there? Wait, wait, your seat I thought was down here. Hey, Congratulations. Congratulations, Leader Turner."

Speaker Turner: "Better view from up here. Thank you, Representative Phelps."

"Purpose of an announcement."

"State your purpose."

"The… just want to making sure everybody knows on March the 20th, Wednesday, the Illinois Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus, will have our 20th annual reception and auction at the State House Inn in Springfield. Reception time's at 6:00, auction at 7:00. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Representative Moffitt."

"State your point."

"…you, Representative Moffitt. Representative Riley, for what reason do you rise?"

"Point of personal privilege."

"Please state your point." 09800021.doc 4  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"I know information gets around. I'm not sure if Members know, but a really good friend of mine and all of ours, he was a former Member, Manny Hoffman passed away last night. I'm going to do a Resolution which I hope to present next week. But… when we talk about icons, and he belongs to all of us. Manny Hoffman was great in terms of what he did down here in Springfield, but also the community building that he did in the south suburbs. I knew Manny and his late wife for over 30 years and I just want to pass that information on. I will be doing a Death Resolution and hopefully I'll present it next week. Thank you."

Speaker Turner: "Thank you, Representative Riley. Speaker Madigan is in the Chair."

Speaker Madigan: "Got your name on the board. Ladies and Gentlemen, if everyone could please take their seat and staff please retire to the rear of the chamber. Well, we have a special guest today the representative of the Canadian Government, to the Midwest and to the State of Illinois and the city of Chicago. I'm sure we all agree that Illinois and the United States of America have enjoyed a long-time relationship, a friendship, with Canada at least since 1812, when we lost the war. And… and there's a great degree of trade relations and a great degree of cultural exchanges between the two countries and the friendship is very long-lasting. And so we're very pleased to have with us the Consul from the Canadian Government Gitane De Silva."

"We thank the Consul and she'll be available down in the well for greetings and picture taking, so. Mr. Bost."

"Mr. Bost, Room 114?"

"And when do you think you'll be back?"

"Okay. Thank you. The Democrats will remain on the floor. So, the House will stand at ease." 09800021.doc 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"The House will be in order. Members will be in their chairs. On page 2 of the Calendar, under the weekly order of business, appears House Bill 1154. Please read the Bill."

"Mr. Bost, for what reason do you rise?"

"Thank you, Sir. Chair recognizes Representative Nekritz to handle the Amendment."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to present floo… House Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 1154. We're all aware that this deals with the pension problems that we have in the State of Illinois and we're all very… all too familiar with the rapidly increasing pressure that the payment… pension payments are putting on our budget. There really is no relief in sight to that every escalating pension cost. There's been a number of proposals that have been put out there to address this issue and while they are all different, they're all also very similar. What we haven't done yet is come up with a comprehensive plan that achieves the consensus we need to move forward in this chamber. Each of us has an opportunity, starting today, to participate in building that consensus. Each of us can have a role in crafting a solution. What we can do no longer is 09800021.doc 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 wait. I'll just give you one number. When we were trying to solve the pen… looking to come up with a solution last May, the total pension payment from between when we would pass the Bill in 2045, the total we would be obligated for was $309 billion. By December, seven months later, that number had grown by $88 billion to $397 billion. In seven short months the total obligation of the state, between now and 2045, had grown by $88 billion. Delay is not our friend. And that's $88 billion that’s not available for education funding, for Medicaid, for a group health insurance, all the very same pressures that we are facing today as we try to craft a budget for 2014. This problem is so big it requires all of us to come together to be part of the solution. As I said, all the proposals are… are very similar in some ways because that is only so many… as my colleague on the Republican side of the aisle likes to say, there's only so many levers we can pull in order to… in order to come up with a solution. And so, what we have before us today is a series of Amendments that… that deal with some of those levers and probably the most important lever. This particular one, House Floor Amendment #1, terminates the cost-of-living adjustments for everyone moving forward from the effective date of the Bill. And I get that that's a pretty heavy handed way of approaching it, but recognize that the COLA, that single benefit, is about 25 to 30 percent of the overall normal cost of the pensions and about 20 percent overall of the entire cost of the pensions including the unfunded liability. So, that single benefit is… is a big cost driver in the… in the 09800021.doc 11  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 pension systems and by addressing that single cost driver, whether it's with Floor Amendment 1, Floor Amendment 2 or some other proposal, this is how we… this is the biggest step forward we can take in bringing our pension costs under control. So, again, I get that this is a… this is a… this is a solution that puts those at the lowest end of the… of the wage scale, the most at risk because this eliminates any… any inflation protection at all that they might enjoy. But other states have looked at these kinds of solutions and have enacted solutions very similar to these. And again, the COLA is the biggest cost driver. So, I would ask for your consideration of House Floor Amendment #1."

"Lady moves for the adoption of the Amendment. On that question, the Chair recognizes Mr. Zalewski."

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

"Lady yields."

"Representative, your role as chairman of the Pensions Committee… chairperson of the Pensions Committee and the… well, what many consider to be our point person on pensions. What is your current view of the cost of living as a cost driver for the pension system?"

"I would say, Representative, it's the single largest cost driver among all the pension benefits that we… that we provide."

"And without delving into specific proposals that have been out there, what… what's your view on broadly on what can be done to deal with the cost-of-living adjustments while still be… be viewed as constitutional?" 09800021.doc 12  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Well, Representative, I think the issue of constitutionality is a… is a larger question than what we would be addressed in this particular Amendment. In part because I think that… that the… what makes… what makes something constitutional is a comprehensive package not an individual proposal. And so, while I… but I think that in, again, in engaging Members of this chamber in coming up with a solution dealing with these one-by-one is a… is a… is a very serious way of trying to stress the… both the component parts of a solution and the depth that we have to go to in order to address the crisis."

"And would it be fair to characterize your position that in any scenario where we rescue the Illinois pension system that COLA still have a role, cost-of-living adjustment still have a role in the pension system in providing annuitants with a benefit that they're entitled to?"

"Ab… absolutely, Representative."

"So, to the Amendment, Mr… Mr. Speaker. Those of us who wish to see a comprehensive solution to this issue… I'm sorry… those of us who wish to see a comprehensive solution to… to this issue and wish to continue to engage, as you mentioned, even those of us who have signed on to specific proposals, I think even us, we believe that this is a bridge too far. And on the first Floor Amendment to House Bill 1154, I would urge a 'no' vote."

Speaker Lang: "Mr. Reboletti. Mr. Reboletti passes. Mr. Smiddy."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Lady yield?" 09800021.doc 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Lady yields."

"The question that I have is why were only four of the five pension systems put into this particular legislation?"

"Representative, I can tell you that in other states where the issue of pension reform has been addressed, and where they have provisions similar to what we have in our Constitution where the judges not only have protection for pensions but also have protections for their salary… protection from reduction of their salaries, the courts have made a decision on the basis of the reduction in salaries and never addressed the pension question. And… to me the worst thing we can do is go through this very difficult exercise and then not even have the courts address the issue as to the… as to whether this passes constitutional muster and on the issue of the pension clause."

"What is going to be the financial impact of this legislation? What cost is it going to be to the… to the state? What are we going to save?"

"We've not done a full actuarial analysis on… on this particular single proposal mostly because it takes two weeks and it costs about $30 thousand to do a full actuarial proposal. So, to do each one of these individually would be very… very timely… time intensive and costly proposition. But we do have some very, I think, good guesstimates on what this would be. And we think that the savings to the normal cost, the going forward cost for the state, would be $550 million a year and that the overall 09800021.doc 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 impact to the unfunded liability could be a reduction of as much as 40 billion."

"But that's just a guess right now, correct?"

"That's our best… that's our best estimate based on what we know from other actuarial studies."

"Okay. Will anybody… will we have a grandfather clause in this for current retirees and survivors under this plan?"

"No, we would not, Representative. And that’s because the… the, as I said in my opening remarks, the problem has become so big that if we were to take retirees out and leave the impact only to active employees, we would have to make the reductions to active employees so severe that I think it's better that we all share in some sacrifice and… and spread the burden more evenly."

"I would have to say and urge my colleagues to vote 'no' on this legislation because it's hurting people that we have already said and we've… we've already given a commitment to. So, I would urge a vote of 'no'."

"Mr. Ford."

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

"Lady yields."

"Thank you, Leader, for your hard work on the pensions this year and last year. I just have one question. If this measure is adopted, will it address the underfunded pension problem and guarantee full future payments?"

"This particular provision does not include a funding guarantee. You know there are plenty of proposals that… out 09800021.doc 15  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 there that do, but this Amendment only addresses that the… a change to the COLA."

"Thank you."

"Representative Nekritz to close."

"I ask for your consideration."

"Those in favor of the Lady's Amendment shall vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Record yourselves, Members, if you wish. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 2 voting 'yes', 66 voting 'no'. And the Amendment fails. Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Nekritz."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This particular Amendment is identical to something that the State of Rhode Island did. Their pension issue… their pension debt on a per capita basis was as severe as Illinois, and when they did their pension reform legislation and made the changes that they felt were necessary, this is exactly what they did to the COLAs for retirees and active employees. They… they included a trigger that said that the… that the COLA would be eliminated until such time as the pension systems are in good health, which they defined as 80 percent funding."

"Seeing no debate, those in favor of the Lady's Motion will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please take the record. On this question, 09800021.doc 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 there are 5 voting 'yes', 62 voting 'no'. And the Amendment fails. Mr. Clerk."

"Please hold this Bill on the Order of Second Reading. House Bill 1165, Mr. Clerk."

"Representative Nekritz."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, there's only a handful of levers that we can utilize to address the unfunded liability and the level of payments going forward. We already talked about a couple of things that would impact the cost of living adjustment. This one has to do with the age of retirement and would require that everyone, as of the effective date of the Bill, would have to wait until they were age 67 to retire."

"Lady's moved for the adoption of the Amendment. The Chair recognizes Mr. Cross."

"Mr. Franks. Mr. Franks."

"Thanks, and I'm not sure I'm going to live up to that, but that was nice of you. I… I appreciate the previous speaker's comment, and Mr. Cross, I agree with much of it. I was wrestling, too, how I would handle today when I saw these proposals and I wasn't sure if I was going to vote 'present' because I didn't think it was serious, and I saw my friends on the other side not voting, I'm like… they're probably right. Folks, it's time to get serious. We shouldn't be pawns in the process. Representative Nekritz and Representative Cross, I think, are very close to getting to a solution, and we need to help them. I think the way for that to occur, and I'm going to put this out there and I hope you guys can support me. What I'd like to present is that we ask for a Committee of the Whole, and that we suspend all other business in front of the House of Representatives. We suspend deadlines, and we have hearings here on the House Floor and we do it concurrently with our already set up schedule, so it won't cost the taxpayers anything more, and we meet from 9 to 5 every day on the days that we have scheduled, right here. We bring folks in to talk to us. We have Amendments; we debate them on the floor, but we suspend everything else until we get this done. I think if we agree to do that, and we talk to our 09800021.doc 23  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Leaders and if we have more than 50 percent of us, hopefully we can encourage our Leaders to do that. But there is a lot of pressing issues facing our state. All of us have a lot of Bills and the vast majority of them are very important, but nothing is more important than this because without solving this problem everything else is at peril. And with our credit rating now being the same as Botswana, there's real… there's a real concern that we will not be able to carry on the business of this state. Last night I met with one of the superintendents from my district, and there are 44 kids in the seventh-grade health clar… in the health class. Can you imagine 44 seventh-grade boys in a health class? Man, I don't know how they… how they can do it. It's like you need to have a lion tamer. So, I would ask that instead of being a pawn in the process, that instead that we take back the process. And I know this is unprecedented, but we've never faced this type of problem before. Every day that we delay it's costing our state, by some estimates, $17 million a day. We can't afford this. Folks, what I would suggest is that we ask our Leadership to commence a Committee of the Whole starting tomorrow, bring in all the stakeholders and let's please get this done and suspend all other business. No more committees, nothing else, only this 'til we get it done. And let's send over a Bill that will pass constitutional muster and protect the fiscal solvency of the State of Illinois. I ask for your support."

"Mr. Cross." 09800021.doc 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Representative Nekritz to close."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am thrilled to have been working with Leader Cross and coming up with a… with what I believe is a very comprehensive solution and a solution that, unlike the Bills that were… the Amendments that we're considering today, does protect those at the low end of the wage scale and does preserve the… and does allow folks that who are closer… who are closer to retirement to continue on the course that they're on and not have to make significant changes and require those changes of folks who are further away from retirement. And it does contain a strong funding guarantee and it does add additional revenue into the pension systems. I am really thrilled to be working with Leader Cross and who has stood with 31 of… with 30 other colleagues yesterday to do that. That being said, we don't have 60 votes on this yet, and we have to engage in a process that will get us there, and maybe this isn't the exactly… you know, exactly what we would all want, but we needed to shake things up. We needed to something a little different than we've been doing because, as Leader Cross said, we've been working for three years to get to a point where we have a Bill that can get 60 votes here. So, if, you know, we all need to find something we're for and if this is a process that can get us to something that we're for, then… then let's go ahead with it. If it's some other process, I'm open to that too, but we have to get to 09800021.doc 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 something that we're for and each of you has to engage in that process of… of being to getting to 'yes'. Thank you."

Speaker Lang: "The Lady moves for the adoption of the Amendment. Those in favor vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please take the record. On this question, there is 1 voting 'yes', 66 voting 'no'. And the Amendment fails. Mr. Clerk."

"Please hold this Bill in the Order of Second Reading. The next Bill is House Bill 1166. Please read the Bill."

"Leader Nekritz."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Amendment deals with the… an increase in employee contributions. This would ask employees to put a… an additional 5 percent of salary in on top of what they and we are already putting into the pension system. It does… it does allow for significant savings to the state coffers and it is something that other stakeholders… it's a… it's a concept that other stakeholders in this process have put on the table although this is larger than what they've… than what they've requested." 09800021.doc 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Lady moved for the adoption of the Amendment. There being no debate, those in favor of the Amendment shall vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please take the record. On this question, there are 3 voting 'yes', 61 voting 'no'. And the Amendment fails. Mr. Clerk."

"Please hold the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Mr. Verschoore, for what reason do you rise, Sir?"

"Personal privilege. Thank you."

"Please proceed."

"I'd like to welcome a group, there's a group of college students from Blackhawk College down here today, they're in the gallery. I'd like to give them a warm Springfield welcome, wherever they're at."

"Representative Mitchell, for what reason do you rise, Sir?" Mitchell, B.: "Thank… thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of order. Under House Rule 18(g), I move to discharge from the… from the discharge of House Bill 28 from the House Rules Committee. Under House Rule 54(a)(2) all Motions are assigned Standard Debates status, and I wish to debate my Motion. Upon the conclusion of the debate I ask for a recorded vote on the Motion to Discharge. Under Rule 49 Article IV Section 8(c) of the Illinois Constitution, any vote shall by be by recorded vote whenever 5 Representatives shall so request. There are at least 5 09800021.doc 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Members on my side that wish for a recorded Motion to Discharge House Bill 28 from the House Rules Committee."

"Majority Leader Currie."

"Thank you very much, Speaker, Members of the House. I object to the Gentleman's Motion."

"Mr. Mitchell, the House Rules require unanimous vote to discharge the Rules Committee; therefore, your Motion is denied. Mr. Reboletti." Mitchell, B.: "I rise on a point of order."

"Please state your point, Sir." Mitchell, B.: "I requested a Roll Call on my Motion, pursuant to the rights granted in the Illinois Rules and the Illinois Constitution."

"Sir, the Rul…" Mitchell, B.: "This breach of Rules should be corrected immediately with a Roll Call vote on my Motion to Discharge. This state… House Bill… what is House Bill 28? House Bill 28 just sells the state air fleet, okay. We're spending… we just talked about the problems of pensions. We just… just the other day in my local hometown paper, the Decatur Herald & Review, state unpaid bills may hit $22 billion. Twenty two billion dollars, yet we have the largest air fleet in the nation worth 22 million, we spend 7 million every year. The town I'm from… the town I'm from, Decatur, Illinois, we have the highest unemployment rate in the State of Illinois, 11.8. People, if they have a job, don't know if they'll have one tomorrow. And yet, when they see that the muckity mucks in Springfield have a special air fleet, they don't understand, and they shouldn't 09800021.doc 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 understand. Let's have the… let's have the debate on House Bill 28. Thank you."

"Sir, the House Rules require unanimous vote to discharge Rules. The Chair rules that no Roll Call is appropriate because the request is moot. Mr. Zalewski."

"Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker."

"Please state your point."

"We… we just heard, a few minutes ago, a poignant, a few minutes for remarks from Leader Cross, and I have deepest amount of respects for Leader Cross. We were… we talked about playing games and how everybody needed to be serious about what we were trying to accomplish and not five minutes later we have a Bill, a Motion to Discharge on a Bill that would do little, little to solve the state's fiscal crisis. We had Amendments on the board that some of you couldn't even bring yourselves to vote for and now we're dealing with this silly, silly Bill. It's fine. We… we all agree we need to get serious about this, and we all need to tackle the serious problems we face, but to do that Bill five minutes after what we just heard, is ridiculous. So we're all willing to get serious on this side of the aisle, and have a serious discussion about what we're facing, but don't pill… put those Bills on the board after what we just went through. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Mr. Reboletti."

"Please state your point, Sir."

"Representative Bill Mitchell." Mitchell, B.: "Thank you. Maybe this is a point to the Gentleman from Chicago. Maybe in Chicago, Illinois, $7 million is not a lot of money, but in central Illinois it is. Let's just have a little talk about House Bill 28. I filed this Bill for years and years and years, and your Leadership never releases it. Last year, I was on that Public Safety Appropriations Committee, and I even talked to Secretary of Transportation, I said, you don't want to sell the fleet, when we're in this financial crisis, ground it. And they snickered at me. They snickered at me. I've heard the old expression imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Representatives, your side of the file… your side of the aisle copied my legislation and one of the Members from central Illinois filed the, what you call, a silly 09800021.doc 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Bill. The Bill saves $7 million. That’s a lot of money in our book. Thank you."

"Mr. Drury."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Reboletti, as prosecutor to prosecutor, I'm absolutely appalled, appalled, at what you just said up there. We are a nation of laws and we respect the laws. Not everybody always likes the laws, but you stood in front of juries for eight years, based on what I've heard in the Judicial Committee, and you asked them to uphold the laws. There may have been criminal defendants up there who said I don't like the laws, I don't want to abide by the laws, I'm going to shoot people down, I'm going to gun people down, I'm going to rape people, and you upheld the law. These are the Rules of this House, you should respect them, you should abide by them, just like you asked other people to do. Now the problem is, Mr. Reboletti, you're setting a very, very dangerous precedence by telling people and condoning, not abiding by the laws of this House. All right? You like to wave around that you're a prosecutor, you should start acting like one."

"Mr. Ford."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a Representative from the westside, I just think about all of the budget problems that this state face, and I think about how we got there, and I think about every community that has benefited from all of the budgets that have passed. And I want to say that the roads and bridges on that side of the aisle are much better than the roads and bridges and schools in my district and on the west and south side of Chicago. So, 09800021.doc 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 this problem is due to not just Democrats, but Republicans as well and my community suffers from your benefits as well. Thank you."

"Mr. Zalewski."

"Again, Mr. Speaker, I… I… to the Gentleman's remarks earlier. I never called the Bill stupid. I… I never did that. And I was in that Appropriations Committee last year, when Ann Schneider testified about the fleet. And there may be some things we can talk about. My general point to… to what was discussed was Leader Cross made substantive, responsible, good remarks about what we're up against, and he said we needed to get serious. And as a result of that, you folks weren't able to put your finger on a button. So, to do it five minutes later, to get up on a Bill that saves $7 million, and Representative, you can… you know, you can make judgments about what I consider to be valuable, that’s your prerogative, but don't put words in my mouth. That's not what I said. My point was, we got a lecture about being serious, and then we put that Bill on the board as a Motion to Discharge. So, I want to be… the record to be clear. I never called the Gentleman's Bill stupid, and I never said it was silly. My point was, we need to say what we mean, and mean what we say going forward down here. We're happy to have that discussion, but we need to do it responsibly, we need to not put words in each others' mouths. Thank you."

"Mr. Reboletti."

"Mr. Mitchell." Mitchell, B.: "Mr. Speaker, under House Rule 57(a), I move to appeal the ruling of the Chair that there be no recorded vote to discharge House Bill 28 from the House Rules Committee."

Speaker Lang: "Mr. Mitchell, your Motion is out of order because there's been intervening business, and so there's nothing to appeal. Mr. Kay."

"Leader Cross."

"Members, moving to page 5 on the Calendar, under the Order of House Bills-Third Reading, appears House Bill 61, Mr. Ford. Out of the record. House Bill 99, Mr. Zalewski. Please read the Bill."

"Mr. Zalewski."

"Mr. Speaker, House Bill 99 is an initiative of the Illinois Department of Professional… Financial Responsi… Financial and Professional Regulation. It extends the Homeowner Protection Act for three years. It's an agreed 09800021.doc 37  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Bill with the financial institutions. I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. There being no debate, those in favor of the Bill will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please record yourselves, Members. Davidsmeyer, Mitchell, Sims. Mr. Mitchell. Please take the record. On this question, there are 115 voting 'yes', 1 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 105, Representative Chapa LaVia. Please read the Bill."

"Representative Chapa LaVia."

"Hi, Speaker. How you doing today? You look great. I'm putting up the computer right now, sorry. So, what it does is it amends the Election Code. It asks universities and colleges to e-mail enrolled students information about how to vote… register to vote. I'll take any questions."

"Representative, should we take this out of the record and return to it?"

"I described it."

"Oh, we thought you were reading something."

"No…"

"Your…"

"I just described the Bill. Thank you, Speaker."

"The Lady moves for the passage of the Bill. The Chair recognizes Mr. Sullivan." 09800021.doc 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Lady yields."

"That would be the choice of the student, on where they'd like to register to vote. If they want to be on campus, 'cause the majority of our students support this."

"No, you're correct on that."

"Mr. Reboletti."

"Lady yields."

"It was an initiative through the college, young college kids. It wasn't… it wasn't one of my genesis."

"Because they have already communicated with these college students. They're already enrolled and they're already communicating through websites, different materials, whether it's federal aid, whether it's student grades, what have you. It's already a form of communication; that’s what we thought would be best."

"And… and you know, I'm sorry, 'cause Reboletti, this is really important to you, I know this. This already Federal Law. What we're doing is codifying what we have at the federal level to enforce the universities to do this. And I don't know if it was discussed with Representative Sullivan earlier in the… in the committee 'cause I didn't have a chance to go to the committee. And I… I was… I think it was Senator… I mean, Representative Burke was so gracious… Chairman Burke was so gracious to run it 'cause I was going to explain that. So, what we're actually doing is taking federal statute, that’s already there and we're codifying it here because the universities here were not doing what they're supposed to be doing at the federal level."

"So, we're just giving them another, hey, you got to be doing this, you have to inform your college students that can register to vote. They don't have to. It's just an electronic message saying, if you'd like to register to vote you can register to vote here or, if you're registered back home, you can't be registered to both. There'll be a lot of voter information. It's not going to be so flippant that they're going to try to trick the kid up, so he can register in two locations. That’s… that’s not the idea of the Bill."

"Cor…"

"The way… the way the… it reads it's public and private. And once again, it's a federal piece of legislation or statute that we're just trying to codify at the state level."

"I'm not sure. I'd have to get back to you on that information."

"Representative Chapa LaVia to close."

"Thank you, everybody. The… you know, we're trying to always engage our young people to be civically minded. I don't know about you all, but I know in our last election 09800021.doc 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 and in the township we had 3.7 percent turnout. So, as many people as we can get engaged in the process, it's better for the whole entire state, which is better for the whole entire United States. So, I'd… I'd urge an 'aye' vote. Thank you very much."

"Those in favor of the Lady's Bill will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Mell. Please take the record. On this question, there are 70 voting 'yes', 47 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 141, Representative Flowers. Out of the record. House Bill 167, Representative Mayfield. Out of the record. House Bill 181, Mr. Zalewski. Please read the Bill."

"Leader Turner in the Chair."

"Mr. Zalewski."

"Good to see you, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you."

"You, too, Representative Lang. House Bill 181 is an initiative of Illinois State Police. When a defendant is sentenced under the Child Pornography Law, there's a fine levied. The State Police finds itself in a posture of having to do most of the forensics work without being really compensated for it when a local authority has one of these cases. So, there's forensics work and computers work, they would like to siphon off some of that money for the 09800021.doc 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 work. They'd be compensated for the work they do. I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Representative Ford."

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

"He indicates that he does."

"I just want to ask you why do you have the opposition to this Bill at this time, or has it been removed?"

"The only opposition, Representative, I was aware of is… I'm looking at my analysis, one moment. I don't have any… I don't have any opponents. Does your analysis say something different?"

"It says the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Illinois Education Association, Leaders Education, lots of opposition."

"I… I… 181, Representative?"

"One… that's what came up."

"I don't… I don't know why the teachers… I don't…"

"There's… hold on…"

"…think the teachers are opposed."

"…let me see, I'm sorry. No opposition. My computer jumped to a different deal."

"Okay."

"All right."

"Seeing no fur… Mr. Zalewski to close."

"I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Seeing no further discussion, the question is, "Shall House Bill 181 pass?' And the voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Reis. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, 09800021.doc 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 100 are voting… 117 voting 'yes', 1 voting… not voting, 0 voting 'no', 0 'present', this Bill is declared passed. Representative Lang. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 183. Please read the Bill."

"Representative Lang."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Bill with no opposition. It would state that ATM machines are no longer required to disclose their surcharges on a sign on the outside of the machine, as long as they're disclosed electronically. We're doing this to mirror Federal Law. I would ask your support."

"Representative Dunkin."

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

"Sponsor yields."

"Thank you. Representative, I'm just trying to get some clarification on this legislation. So, you're saying that automatic teller… ATMs are no longer required to disclose surcharges on the visible sign or sticker on the ATM? So, you're saying for it not to be required to put it there, or just the opposite?"

"Today, the law requires there be a sign, but all of these machines already have electronic screens that give the same information. And so it's a superfluous law. The Federal Law has changed, so this Bill will mirror the new Federal Law. And the Federal Law changed for two reasons: first, because it's already on the machine in the electronic display, and second, because people were 09800021.doc 45  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 actually creating lawsuits by stealing the signs and then suing the company that didn't have the sign for not having the sign. So, we're doing… mirroring Federal Law and trying to keep people from filing ridiculous lawsuits."

"Thanks for the clarification."

"Representative Brauer."

"Representative Durkin."

"Representative, the answer is no."

Speaker Turner: "The Bill does not include spec… specific language preempting Home Rule."

"Pretty certain it's correct."

"No, Sir."

Speaker Turner: "Thank you, Representative Durkin. Representative Lang to close."

"I appreciated the questions of Mr. Dunkin and the comments of Mr. Brauer, and the questioning of Mr. Durkin of the Chair. I ask for an 'aye' vote."

"Question is, 'Shall House Bill 183 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Kirk, please… Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 102 'ayes', 13 'nays', 1 voting 'present'. And the Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative Mayfield, House Bill 167. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."

"Representative Mayfield."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I present House Bill 167, which is for the creation of a license plate for the Prince Hall Masons, here in the State of Illinois. The Secretary of State's Office has requested a minimum of 850 individuals who would be willing to sign up for the plates, in order to establish the plate. The break-even point for 09800021.doc 47  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 the plate would be approximately $36,100. We have over 4 thousand Prince Hall Masons who have already signed up and said they want these plates, so we will more than break even when we actually make money. And I would just like to point out that our Secretary of State, Jesse White, is a Prince Hall Mason. There is no opposition to this Bill. And I would urge a 'yes' vote."

"Seeing no debate, the question is, 'Shall House Bill 167 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Mayfield, do you want to vote for your Bill? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 106 'yeas', 11 'nays', 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, what's the status of House Bill 188?"

Speaker Turner: "Representative Gabel. Out of the record. Representative Jackson on House Bill 192. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."

"Representative Jackson."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, House Bill 192 amends the debt limit… limitation of Smithton Community Consolidated School District 130. Smithton Community Consolidated School District 130 may issue bonds 09800021.doc 48  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 with an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 15 million and that the bonds must mature within 25 years. The conditions for the bonds are: the voters of the district must approve a proposition for the bond issuance at an election held on or after April the 9, 2013; the School Board must determine, by resolution, that the building and equipping of a new middle school building and the alteration and repair and equipping of an existing elementary school are required as the result of a limited capacity, age and condition of the existing school building. I ask for an 'aye' vote. And would entertain any questions that anyone would have."

"Representative Reis."

"Sponsor yields."

"Yes, it is. It's in the… it's in my district. It's in the southern part of Illinois."

"Okay."

"No, it's for the re… it's…"

"It's going to build a middle school and repair and add to an elementary school."

"There… for this to occur there must be a referendum."

"Yes, it will."

"This vote is necessary so that if they pass a referendum, we would be prepared to issue the school, and have them issue the bonds to the building of the middle school, and the repair of the elementary school."

"No, there isn't."

“No.”

"Representative Durkin."

"Sponsor yields."

"Now, you just hit me with a question. Frontal referendum or back door referendum."

"Could you explain the difference?"

"Yeah."

"It's a frontal referendum."

"Because their debt limitation is at 6 million, and they wanted to exceed that to 15 million."

"Representative Sullivan."

"The Sponsor yields."

"That is correct."

"That's correct."

"That’s correct."

"Representative Kay."

"He indicates that he does."

"Not to my knowledge."

"Representative Jackson to close."

"I would ask for an 'aye' vote. Thank you."

"The question is, 'Shall House Bill 192 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have… have all voted who wish? Representative Will Davis, Representative Flowers. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On a vote of 80 voting 'aye', 37 'nay', 0 voting 'present', this Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 194."

"Representative Chapa LaVia."

"Thank you, Speaker. How you doing today?" 09800021.doc 52  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Wonderful, Representative, thank you."

"It's good to see you up there. You remind me of your father, who I have highest esteem for him, and you are right on that path, honey, and I'm very, very proud of you. So, House Bill 192 is something that I have been ca… looking to do for the last four years. I've been working with ISAC. They sent me to Indiana to go through the training, and they were called 'Promise Zones'. And what we've done is we've created a program, it's going to be a pilot program, there's no cost to the state in this, but why we want it in legislation, as far as statute, as opposed to House Resolutions, because there could be possible dollars coming our way for creating these programs throughout the State of Illinois. Aurora, Illinois, Rockford and East St. Louis will be the three piloted program areas. I'll be working with Representative Flowers on something in Chicago too, but what it would look like is that the city itself that it resides in, in every school district, the children could be eligible to have and… a two- year… two-year scholarship to go to any state community college or university in the State of Illinois. We tried to come up with some ideas so we don't go back to the colleges due to the General Assembly scholarships that hurt districts like mine, and a lot of other districts that have high… high poverty, very amazing kids that want to go to college but have no idea how to get there. So, what these piloted programs would do is put together a private foundation within the community; they'd work together, raise dollars themselves. So, from a child going in in 09800021.doc 53  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 freshman year to they… they receive the degree in senior year, for four years if they get a C or better, that they'd be eligible to get a two… two-year scholarships based on academics every year that they're in a college. But also, it's… it's… it's an economic engine for companies to move into these three cities, because we'll have an educated workforce ready to go, ready to work their trades. And the money it brings back into the communities is amazing. You can see the… anybody here who has children, one of the first things you think of when they're born is how am I going to put money aside for my… my kid to go to college. There's a lot of foreclosures in Aurora, and what I think this will do, not only to Aurora, Rockford, and East St. Louis, is bring people back to those amazing cities; they want to live there. If they know the city is going to partner with them to get their college… their kids through at least two years of college, we're looking at hopefully, expanding this to four years of college. But once again, it's a pilot program. I'm honored that our two colleagues here, Representative Jefferson and Representative Jackson, are so willing to be a part of this. In fact, it was a big push by Mayor Morrissey in Rockford to get on top of this, and I really appreciate him. Although, Chuck, you guys are still number 3, I think, and we're still number 2 in Aurora. So, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions. This is pretty expansive pilot program, but I'm here at your please."

"Representative Reis."

"Sponsor yields."

"Well, the review… review committee here in the state or are you talking about ones the locally there and at the city levels? 'Cause there's going to be… there's going to be… there won't be oversight by us but ISAC will be intimately involved in this and in any moneys that we do gain, there will be helping us. Case in point, if the kid qualifies for MAP or FAFSA, that money will be utilized first before these dollars go. But if you're talking about locally, we would form a consortium with the city, with the colleges, with the school districts and private partners to raise dollars for this money. Back here, we'll make sure that the General Assembly is engaged in what's going on in those three pilot programs just in case they want to do one. Peoria has Peoria Promise; they already have something going. And someone asked once, why do we have to put it in statute? The reason why we're putting it in statute is so we're in position to receive any dollars that the Federal Government might want to do to place in programs like promise zones throughout the United States. President Obama was in town a couple of weeks back, and one of the points he hit was about how encouraged he is that promise zones are being created throughout the United States, and it's not coming from state or federal dollars in a sense, it's 09800021.doc 55  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 being worked at at a local level with private partnerships to raise dollars for these scholarships for these students. So, there's two: there's one locally in the city that would be working together in conjunction with all the entities that want to be a part of the Lincoln's Promise, and then there's one back here with ISAC communicating and documenting all data to make sure that we're on the right path. If there… and we're not just… we're not just… we're not going to be denying any student the ability to secure these dollars. We were once thinking about free and reduced lunch, or things like that, poverty level, things like that, but what we don't want is to discourage any child from going to college. So, I hope that answered some of your question because part of the process, Represent Reis, is to develop this, so."

"Yeah. I…"

"Right, right. Well…" 09800021.doc 56  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"…we don't want to make it too big. We want to make it more familiar to the location of the city and what they feel that they're going to create. And I understand your issue there, I didn't really pay a lot of attention to that because it's a pilot program and I'm hoping, if there's issues in the next four years, that we're able to come back and tweak it. But the idea is to try to produce something, some pilot programs, that might be able to fit into your area, or fit into Danville, or wherever in the State of Illinois where they can take what we've been successful or failed at and manipulate that and make it into a better program. I've already spoke…"

"Well, no… it's not unfunded… it's not unfunded mandates."

"Okay. I will…"

"Representative Sullivan."

"Sponsor yields." 09800021.doc 57  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Well, it's not suddenly. You know, we need to see if they're going to work and if our state's, you know, if our state's willing to do what they need to do. A lot of people sometimes don't like to give money to education, for whatever strange reason. So, we don't want to put it in to tie the hands of future General Assembly Members, but we want to create something that's… it should be eventually self-reliant where each city can take care of its own. The only reason, once again, that we put in statute now is there could be possibilities there could be funding or funders that are looking at this at a United States wide thing, that they'd like to give dollars into this. I'd like to see this be, every city who wants it, can have it, and it's on their own to create. But we want to… we wanted to put some parameters here so at least it looks official."

"Right. Well, that's not our purpose of it. It's more that the local municipality that has it, will then 09800021.doc 58  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 continue on. It could abolish at the state level, but that… it's still going to continue on within the program itself and…"

"No. The only reason why we have ISAC involved is because they're partnering with us 'cause they want to see kids succeed and go on to postsecondary.”

“And they're… they’re instructed that that's their job, right, and they have to teach kids how to fill out FAFSA, and they want to collect data from us. But the intent is not to cut off dollars, it's to raise dollars, but…"

"…ISAC wants oversight so they can hel… right now, to help us grow that foundation so it could be self- reliant and… and self-autonomous so the city can dictate how that looks 'cause right now we have it as a community college. But I just talked to Aurora University earlier, Dr. Sherry Eagle, and I said there's no reason why you can't get also the associate's at Aurora University…"

"…so it's not just specific community college. So, we're going to be catering it…"

"…hopefully other colleagues can learn from it and they can input it in their districts…"

"…and maybe they won't need legislation. So, we didn't want to tie it past a certain time, and if in three years we get more people on board and people are liking it, and they want it in legislation, we can extend it and then add more cities in. So…"

"That… that would… no, the intent is to be an economic engine for a community that… that has issues. Like, if you look at why our casinos were created, they were created in economic…"

"…economic depressed areas, right? And if we're looking at East St. Louis, Rockford and Aurora, we're still not getting the people that we need to move into our districts and the businesses and what have you."

“This is like… this is enticing somebody, not only to move their business…"

Chapa LaVia: "…but their home and their family to our districts, fill up the foreclosures, pay taxes, money gets in the system. The idea here is truly more entrepreneurish than it is governmentalish, you know, is that…"

"Right."

"Right."

"Right."

"Right."

Chapa LaVia: "No. That's not my intent of this piece of legislation."

"Thank you."

"Representative Ives."

"Sponsor yields."

"There are issues through CM… CMS, in different dollars that a school district or university entities can take in this state. They have to run through a standard operational procedure. So, it's, you know, like donations… what booster clubs, it's totally different and different 09800021.doc 61  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 elements and how much money is going into the school district. But what… what's your point from that to…"

"Yeah."

"I understand what you're saying, Ma'am, but we picked specifically locations that have foundations, that already give scholarships into the communities, and they're very large, I mean, nothing stops them from doing that. Maybe you didn't hear the first part of this, the reason why we're setting it up this way is that there is a federal push to do more promise zones throughout the United States, and we want to make sure that we have something in statute, just in case something does come through. ISAC already goes into the schools and helps kids, but they want to do more. And there's been a pro… a proclamation at the Governor's level and the President's level, that by the year 2045 or 2040, 60 percent… we want 60 percent of the population to have a postsecondary degree. So, with ISAC on board on this, that's what we're trying to push, is the idea that in 09800021.doc 62  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 areas where there is no generations going to college, I'm fifth generation American Mexican, the first to go to college in my area, that there is a program translated into those communities at their level that education is obtainable; you can fill out the FAFSA, you can do certain things. So, I understand what you're saying, but this is in areas that are predominately right now, the three pilot programs, are predominately areas that kids aren't first generation, they're going to be coll… first generation college students, but don't even know what that means 'cause there's been nobody in their fu… their past that's gotten a college education. So, I really understand what you're saying, but this is…"

"Thank you. I'm glad you are, you don't understand it." 09800021.doc 63  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Representative Davidsmeyer."

"The Sponsor yields."

"I… I don't know how to answer that. I know… I know Peoria, we've visited them, and they're real excited that we're creating this and we're going to get some more recognition throughout the state on… on what's going on. The reason why these three areas were selected, not only what I've explained already about, you know, trying to get kids understanding that they have the possibility of college, is that we already have funders lined up in these cities that will do that. And I'm sure with your Promise Zone you have local funders. And I want to say it started out at of your municipality, right?"

"Did it start from your mayor?"

"Great."

"Great. Great, great. I don't… I don't see this… we're not… we don't want to detract from your program. I don't want to detract from anybody's program, that's not our intent. Our intent is to produce a pilot program in those areas to help them get started, and part of the reason why we want… you know, in four years if more of you want to be added, great; if more people don't, that's great. It just gives the structure to get it up and running quicker and we can exchange information between the cities to see how's it's running. Peoria was very gracious. They gave us a lot of information, a lot of statistics on how well it was working with ISAC. I think that's… that's a key component, not only to find funders in your area, and I have to acknowledge that’s… that's great that you guys are doing that and the citizens got up and did that, but it's not happening all throughout the state. What we'd like to do eventually is the whole entire state be linked to the promise; every child that wants to go to college should be able to. I'm just hoping other people in other cities can learn from our mistakes and our successes and create those things… those programs."

"Right…"

"Correct. I understand what…"

"…you're saying, we learned a lot from Michigan's Promise already."

"I mean, the initial onslaught was a billionaire that put all the money and didn't have any regulations on grade point average, or what school in the United States they go to and stuff like that. So, we've learned a lot from them. Our state is so large and as you know now being down here as many months as you have, very diverse…"

"…and local control is a very important thing in this state, extremely important. So, I don't want to force them, in a district that doesn't want to partake or doesn't have the resources to do it, that… that don't have forward thinking business people to say, the reason why I have to get involved in education is 'cause those are my future workers. As a business owner, we've had kids come apply for jobs and they don't even know how to fill out an application. I don't know if you have the same issue in your area…"

"…but you realize at a time that as a business owner, I'm going to fail 'cause I'm not going to have any good customers 'cause they can't… they can't even come in and buy the stuff 'cause they don't have a good paying job, right."

"So, the purpose of this was to have structure so we can learn from each other, ISAC be part of… a strong 09800021.doc 66  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 part of this, give us information. If they get more federal dollars 'cause we have more kids qua… trying to fill out the applications and stuff, then we can get more kids with FAFSA and MAP grants, and what have you. But the intention, Representative, was… is not to detract from yours, and maybe you can learn… or we can learn more from you, vice versa."

"Yes, this is local control."

"It limits it to the city limit. So, in our City of Aurora, being the second largest city, we have… I want to say… six school districts. We barely have Kaneland in it, but we have six school districts, and if they want to participate they can. But it will be for every child in Aurora that meets certain criteria, as long as we have funding there, and that takes and you know… it takes usually like three years before you get money in the bank and then we're going to do an endowment and then watch that… those dollars roll in. Now, you were talking about Michigan, 'cause I've gone throughout this, you know, state and learned about other promise zone programs, some have TIFs, some have private vend… private parties, some have more involvement at the state level, et cetera, et cetera, but we felt it best to have local control, local control 'cause they know their kids the most and the best. And the businesses are interested in this. Like I said, we have funders that are ready to support this in a big way, local… 09800021.doc 67  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 locally 'cause your district probably doesn't look like my district. So you know, my university, my community college, they're on board. The school districts, like I said, they're really excited about this and I hope that we can learn more from your project out there too."

"Right. I don't…"

"And my… my commitment to you is that you're aware of what's going on in our promise zones, and maybe we're partnering in the future. Okay? So, I'll make sure… I'll make sure that you… whoever's running your entity knows exactly what… what's going on with our… our three locations."

"I mean, that's what I can do. I don't, you know, we're… I don't foresee us taking any state dollars, we don't have any state dollars…"

"…to cut, right?”

“And we got rid of our state General Assembly scholarships, right?"

"So we have to come up with creative ideas, as business people, to start driving money into education because we get less and less every year and if you ask me that's like child abuse, 'cause what we're doing is we're putting a nail in their coffin. But what I give to you as my word, is that your group will be involved in what's going on, if they want monthly reports on what… how we're doing and where would the money come from, what have you. It's going to be a very open process, in fact, we'll be receiving a white paper, if you will, to the General Assembly, all of our Members will see what's going on."

"Once again…"

"…the only reason I'm putting this in statute… otherwise we'd be doing exactly what you're doing… is that there is a push at the state… at the federal level on promise zones, just an awareness. And when you put in an awareness to it, I mean, you could do a PR campaign on what you have already. But what… when you put an awareness together on that throughout the United States, what you find is groups like Gates Foundation, you find McCarthy all the foundations that give dollars to education for thoughtful, forward people want to partner with you, right?"

"So, the benefit at the federal level is yet to be unseen, and there might not be any benefit for us doing this other than collaborating between the three cities and every promise zone that's created and how we're going to take that throughout the state where cities need it. So, that's yet to be foreseen, what benefits are going to come from the federal level, this is just in case, but you start to get an exposure. You know, I don't know if you guys have, but you start get businesses excited about what you're doing and… and citizens excited, and property values go up, right?"

"People paying taxes, so more money goes into the school. So, I don't know if they'll be any benefits in the future from the federal level, but we want to make sure if there are that they're there. But like I said, we, as a General Assembly are going to be informed every year, I think it's in the stat that… in the statute every year we receive a report. But specific promise zones and you have my word on this, 'cause I can't put it into legislation, that we will make sure that we inform every promise zone in the state that's in existence what's going on and what our steps have been and maybe you can add to what we have or we can give you information. You know, I want it to be a win- win for the whole entire state. I just started with three… these three cities because 1)Rockford's Mayor, Rockford Morrissey, came to me with his superintendent and said, we see that you've been working on a promise zone piece of legislation, two years ago or a year ago. We'd like to do 09800021.doc 70  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 something with you, but we don't want to do what you were going to do. 'Cause I was going to involve TIF, and it was just… it's a mess, right?"

"So, I want to make it so it's local businesses that are contributing to this, local foundations that already give scholarships away, schools, you know the pride in the community being able to give kids scholarships is pretty phenomenal. So, like I said, I commend you in what you guys have been able to do."

Chapa LaVia: "Well, it's not as organized 'cause ISAC is involved and they're a state entity. Right? And ISAC is not… I mean, they're just… they want to help us succeed just like, I'm sure, they've been in your promise zone. Have you been working with ISAC, do you know?"

"Okay. Well, that's one thing that's coming out of this discussion, you need to really work for… with ISAC on it, because what they would do is the kids that come and fill out the applications they would make sure to see, there might be dollars that they already qualify for and freeing up dollars for other kids that don't qualify for FAFSA or MAP or what have you, right? So that's one good thing. But it's just the communications, it's the resources that we could have from this city… this state that would help that process, you know, expand. Who just spoke? 09800021.doc 71  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Representative Reis was saying, you know… you know, you should add in Statewide Alliance, I think that's what he said, I can't remember, but because being chair of Education in the House, in Elementary & Secondary, I have resources and people we can talk to, to say, well, how do you feel about this, how's this translate there. So, there's a structure that helps us, with the institutional knowledge that we have here, to create a really good promise zone or a Lincoln's Promise. And I'd be more than happy to sit down with you, and your people, on your promise zone and give you the information I already have. Right?"

"Thank you. I want to… I want to… I misspoke on one thing. I said it would be an annual report. It's a report that we're going to be giving the General Assembly in 2017, so I want to make sure I get that on the record. That's the correct answer of which you asked earlier. Could you repeat your last question, I apologize."

"Right."

"Right."

"Right."

"It… it's a… it's an interesting idea. I wouldn't be closed to it in the see… to see how these programs are rolling out. I mean, once again, my sole purpose is that kids can have scholarships to go to college if they need a…"

"…if they need assistance, right, for the whole entire state. But here in Illinois we're so large, the 13 million of us, and we come from so many different areas and some people have funding, and some people don't have funders, and some people get scholarships. Some people have community colleges, some don't, some have universities. I mean, I can go on and on from the tip of this state all the way to the tip of Chicago, and side to side. So, eventually, yes, we'd like to produce something like that. And I understand, everyone of them is going be… have to be catered totally differently, okay? I'm just hoping that from the three pilot programs that we're able to TIF this off and spread it throughout the state and we have to start somewhere. So, that's the reason, and I understand you want 09800021.doc 73  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 to do zones, but that… it could come extremely complex and I can't get my arms around that. I can't study that."

"No, Sir. There's no cost to the state. It's all private dollars. We already have funders lined up to pay for those certain areas to help us start these programs."

"Because the funders are only for…"

"…those areas right now. Because it's a pilot program they want to see proven data and track record that these programs work…"

"…before they can actually pay, you know, make it a larger program throughout the state. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to put money into something, I'm going to make sure we get the data and it's going to do what it needs to do…"

"…and then you can convince me on why I need to do it in more areas. I mean, I'd be more than happy to go anywhere to help people sell that, once we get these pilot programs going and we can show that the investment is worth it to get our kids educated and get their degrees."

"Because Peoria is already up and running…" 09800021.doc 74  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"…and we went to go see them and they didn't ask… they didn't say they wanted to be a part of this program. They're already doing it with their community college. And they already have a program that's running very well. And they're getting… I think they do annual fundraisers, they work closely with their community college, they work with ISAC. So, it wasn't something that they were really interested in partnering with us on."

"Representative Kay."

"Sponsor yields."

Chapa LaVia: "Yes, Representative Kay. We're going to be courting… we do have some funders in line once it's… it's put into play and quite a few foundations that are interested in getting together at the same table and helping to give as many scholarships out to as many kids as they can."

"Once again…"

"Representative Kay, it's to create a program that we are… it's reflective of other promise programs, promise zone programs throughout the United States. And the President of the United States has said this is one of the things he wants to concentrate on, and he's promoting these throughout the United States. Illinois has a couple of them, but what we want to do is coordinate with these states to gather data, to work with ISAC, 'cause this is one of ISAC's very… one of their top priorities is to educate as many of the citizens of the State of Illinois with a postsecondary degree as they can…"

"…by 2025, or 2045, I can't remember now…"

"…I'm thinking about pension."

"But it… ISAC component needs to be there in order to gain information from us."

"Strictly… strictly education. The only dollars that would be foreseen to go anywhere else, Sir, would be if there… and that would by the foundation whoever sets it up in their bylaws, if they had a volunteer, executive director or if they had somebody, they want to do part- time, like they do in Peoria. But it's through that… everything is volunteer at the level of the foundation, putting together…"

"…in building the bylaws."

"Are you now talking about the school district that's having a lot of financial problems?"

"No. You said something about East St. Louis, I don't…"

"Well, Lincoln's Promise will be the entire City of East St. Louis."

"I… I don't know what a safe zone is."

"Representative Kay, I really don't understand your question. This… I… I…"

Chapa LaVia: "…I don't understand how the correlation is there."

"Be spent for scholarships…"

"… either scholarships for the kids…"

"…or if… if the foundation, whatever they choose, to help, to make, facilitate, those scholarships available to the kids."

"Correct."

"Sir, I… I don't know how that connects with promise zone scholarship dollars, that's what I'm trying to get from you, a very logical question of trying to answer your question, I can't. Because this is to create Lincoln's Promise, a scholarship program, for kids in those three cities to help them go to college. So, I don't know what you're trying to get at."

Chapa LaVia: "I'll come over and talk to you after this, Representative Kay, I don't understand."

"Representative D'Amico."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move their previous question."

"The Gentleman moves the previous question. All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. Representative Chapa LaVia to close."

"Thank you for all the interesting debate today. And I understand some concerns, others I don't. I will end up talking to some of the Members on the other side of the aisle, and try to get their concerns and work best with this. My intention is to educate the kids in the State of Illinois, and help get them scholarships so they can go on and be the best we can get them to be. So, I'd really appreciate a lot of support on this to show our kids, we might take away their General Assembly scholarships, but we believe in them. And this is the first step to create these Lincoln's Promises throughout the State of Illinois for every child regardless of where they live. Thank you very much."

"The question is, 'Shall House Bill 194 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 95 'ayes', 22 'nays', 0 voting 'present'. And this 09800021.doc 79  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 956."

"Representative Moffitt."

"Representative Sullivan."

"Representative Phelps."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, to the Bill. I want to reiterate what Representative Sullivan just said, and commend Representative Verschoore and especially Representative Moffitt for putting this together. Firefighters all across this state have raised millions and millions amends for the charities and they ought to be thanked. I urge an 'aye' vote."

"The question is, 'Shall House Bill 956 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? 09800021.doc 81  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Representative Davis. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 117 'ayes', 0 'nays', 0 voting 'present'. This Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 958."

"Representative McAsey."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. House Bill 958 is legislation designed to affect repeat domestic battery offenses. Under current law, a first offense is a Class A misdemeanor, second, third, fourth, tenth offense are Class IV Felonies. What this legislation does is to put in a graduated scale so that a first offense remains a Class A misdemeanor, second or third offense is a Class IV Felony, fourth offense is a Class III Felony and a fifth is a Class II Felony. This is intended to go after the cyclical nature of domestic batterers and has been developed in conjunction with the Will County State's Attorneys Office. It's also supported by other state's attorneys. I ask for the support of the Body."

"The question is, 'Shall House Bill 958 pass?' All in favor will vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Representative Monique Davis, you wish to be recorded? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 117 voting 'aye', 0 voting 'nay', 0 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having received the 09800021.doc 82  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Representative DeLuca, for what reason do you rise?"

"Personal privilege."

"State your point."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you could please give a warm Springfield welcome. They're not all here right now, they're out throughout the Capitol. There's 112 students from Governor's State University, which is in my district. Thank you for being here."

Speaker Turner: "Welcome to your Capitol. Representative Reboletti."

"Doing well, Representative, how are you?"

"State your question, Representative."

"Actually, waiting on copies to come back from print, you should receive them soon."

"Paper. I saved the state some money."

"Representative Marcus Evans, for what reason do you rise?"

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to provide the little known African-American History fact for the day, so listen up all you golf enthusiasts. So all the golf enthusiasts and the rest of you, who painfully hacked through 18 holes of golf, did you know that the process of teeing up the ball use to involve pinching moist sand to fashion what we now know as a tee. An African-American gentleman named George Grant, born in Oswego, New York, in 1847, who was also a successful dentist and Harvard graduate, became frustrated with performing this process 18 times in a round, so he came up with an invention that would forever have an impact and that we currently use. On December 12, 1899, he received a U.S. patent number 638,920 creating the world's first patent for a golf tee. Grant was an inventor, not a businessman, and he never marketed his golf innovation. It would have been hard to imagine that any piece of sporting equipment has been used more often than the golf tee, but Dr. Grant had then manufactured them locally and simply gave them out to friends by the handfuls for recreation. His daughters recall playing with tees as children. And Dr. Grant died of liver cancer in 1810. Yet, because his invention reached such small audiences at the time, he was not recognized for its appeal. Another dentist, Dr. William Lowe of Maplewood, New Jersey, popularized the tee in 18… in 1921 and he manufactured the 'reddy tee', which was painted red. In 1991, Dr. Grant received his just due. Nearly a century after his patent, 09800021.doc 84  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013 the United States Golf Association finally gave his… him the recognition for creating this, a great product. So all you golf guys, make sure you thank Dr. George Grant for creating that tee."

"Thank you, Representative Evans. Mr. Clerk, committee announcements."

"Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."

"Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. All those in favor say 'aye'; all those opposed say 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. Representative Flowers." 09800021.doc 85  STATE OF ILLINOIS 98th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 21st Legislative Day 2/28/2013

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to announce that Health Care Availability and Access will be canceled for tomorrow morning as well."

"Thank you, Representative." Flowers: Thank you."

"Representative Chapa LaVia."

"Point of personal privilege. I don't see my buddy Representative Pritchard over there, so I'm going to mention it. Tonight the Education Caucus, Education 101 Seminar is being held. If anybody wants to know where it is, come talk to me, if they don't already have it. It's an extremely important issue that people understand education at the foundation level. When I say foundation, the base level. So, please, if you get an opportunity to, please come by; you will learn a lot. Thank you."

"Representative Sente."

"Thank you, Speaker. I just wanted to confirm that our first meeting of the Business Growth & Incentives Committee will be taking place tomorrow, subject matter only at 10 a.m."

"Allowing for perpunct… perfunctory time for the Clerk, the House will adjourn 'til Friday, March 1 at 11 a.m. Thank you."