Illinois House Floor Debate — May 6, 2015

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the record show that Reps Frese, Hays and Tryon are excused today."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege."

"Thank you. I have, today with me, and I ask all the Members to welcome Livia Platt and she came down here from the City of Chicago from Nettlehorse School. She's in the 5th grade and she came to learn all about Illinois government. So I ask everybody to give her a round of applause. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."

"Thank you, Sir. I have with me today two individuals, two fine, young men that are Pages for the day. Tyler Cushing and Garrett Frashier. Their mom and dad, Aaron and Terry Cushing, are in the gallery with us as also Garrett's dad George is also in the gallery with us. So if you'd help me 09900043.docx 4  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 give them a round warm of applause, please, that'd be very kind. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, please join me in welcoming the Wilmington Wildcats on winning the IHSA Class 3A Football Championship led by one of the greatest coaches in the area of Will County, Coach Reents. The members of the Wilmington Wildcats won it on November 28, 2014 with a 20-17 victory and I apologize for anybody that represents Williamsville but, over Williamsville. So I am ecstatic and happy. I actually had the chance to attend two of those games throughout their march to victory and to their march to the championship. So I ask you to join me in welcoming them to Springfield. Good job, guys. You're champions."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Republicans request an immediate caucus."

"One hour."

"Will the Speaker yield?"

"Speaker, at 8:45 this… let me this straight. This Amendment was released from the Rules Committee at 8:45 this morning. Is that your understanding?"

"What standing committee has heard this Amendment?"

"This Amendment has not been vetted by our Appropriation: Human Services Committee meeting. They were canceled last night. I believe it's appropriate for an $11 billion spending Bill to be vetted through the committee process as we do with all of our Bills. That speaks of transparency and, Mr. Speaker, let's go back to January and I made these comments yesterday. You welcomed us back to active participation in State Government. And we did with the FY15 fix. That was active participation when all four Leaders and caucuses worked together to fix the $1.6 billion hole that the Governor inherited in January. I don't know how this action today reflects the spirit of those comments in January about active participation, the appropriate place to have this Amendment where it should start. It shouldn't start in the Rules Committee. It should've gone to the Appropriations: Human Services Committee where we can have individuals speak to this Bill. I think that we are very much interested in working with the Majority Party on every issue and I think our record speaks for itself. But as I said earlier, I believe taking this matter up and voting on this Bill today flies in the spirit of what we started with in January where we made a commitment that we would work together with the Majority Party to fix the problems that we have in Illinois, to fix our budget problems, but having a Bill that comes to the floor of the House of Representatives that is an $11 billion dollar spending Bill, 125 pages long that has not been reviewed by an active committee. I don't believe this is the appropriate way for us to work together and to try to fix and work on a good budget for the State of Illinois. Whether this… I'm not 09900043.docx 8  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 sure whether we’re going to take this up on Third Reading or not, but I believe that this should be sent back to an Appropriation Committee. Let the public participate more on this specific Bill. But I think that for us to have just, within a few hours, being told to vote on a Bill which… there's a lot to it, there's $11 billion in spending. I don't think it's appropriate for this chamber and it doesn't reflect a spirit of bipartisan cooperation of what I've committed myself to and also my Members have committed theirselves to during the course of what will be a very challenging budget year."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under House Rule 59, I move the previous question."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have some special visitors with us this afternoon. Up in the gallery behind us we have the men of the Washington Community High School Wrestling Team, extraordinary men who finished second in the Class A state wrestling meet. You should note, the City of Washington is something we've talked about in the last year and a half. Three of these individuals lost their households when that tornado came through a year and a half ago, but this team has prevailed just as the community has. We have the head coach, Bryan Medlin and assistant coach Nick Miller with us today. And then I'm going to read off the rest of the names of the players, most of which are here today: Justin Fernald, Jacob Godinez, Kyle Goin, Will Hammer, Brad Howe, Trey Keeley, Randy Meneweather, Caleb Miller, Zach Miller, Elijah Oliver, Manny Plata, Blaize Punke, Dack Punke, Ryder Punke, Ethan Reel, Adam Robinson, Ethan Sperry, Jacob Warner. You should know that most of these individuals placed high in the state tournament and one of their team won his fourth state title in wrestling. Please give them a warm welcome to Springfield."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I'd like to introduce my Page today, Lexi Smyth, who's a freshman at Olympia High School. Also, she's accompanied by her grandparents today, Lois and Jim Soeldner. Jim serves us on the county board and his… her grandmother serves in a variety of Republican offices 09900043.docx 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 throughout McLean County. Please give a nice, warm House welcome to Lexie Smyth."

"Thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, House Resolution 234 is simply a Resolution addressing what's referred to as curbstone funeral directing, which is basically providing services without the proper licensing through the funeral home facility. I'll be happy to answer any questions."

"Thank you very much. This calls for the reauthorization of the Ez-Im Bank. Illinois businesses large and small are very much in reliance on these funds and on this bank and in order to help keep our companies competitive. And I would ask for your support."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 283 recognizes the 75th anniversary of the Loveland Building in Dixon and thanks the family for donating it."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 284 designates November 4 in 2015 and 2016 as Heroin Abuse Awareness Day in the State of Illinois. This issue is to just raise the awareness of the problem of heroin. And I would ask for your support. Thank you."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 314 designates April of 2015 and 2016 as Autism Awareness Month in the State of Illinois. And I want to thank everybody who's participating in raising the awareness in Illinois of autism on behalf of all the thousands of children who suffer from that. And ask for your support. Thank you."

"Thank you. Will the speaker yield… the Sponsor yield?"

"Thank you. We're on Amendment #4, Representative? Is there a fifth Amendment in Rules?"

"Can we button this stuff up a little bit. I think we just withdrew two and…"

"This is a fascinating process here on one Bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the timeout. Will the Sponsor yield for some questions?"

"Thank you. Representative McAsey, I couldn't help but notice the pregnant pause prior to the introduction of the Bill and then there was some activity by the Speaker asking you to hurry up. So it was stop and go. Let's walk through your proposal, please…"

"What was or is the law and what you're intending to do going forward?"

"As we stand here, today, is there a foundation already in place?"

"And is the fee, the… the fee you said that is being reduced from 10 to 2 dollars, is the fee right now a mandatory fee?"

"All right. And as we stand here today, the fee would be collected by whom if we didn't pass your Bill into law?"

"Thank… thank you for that, but I was asking about what we have now. The $10 fee that isn't being collected, is that a mandatory fee, right now?" 09900043.docx 35  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"I get that. So… but as we stand here right now, there's a $10 mandatory fee that's not being collected because the court has deferred and doesn't want to collect it or thinks there's a better vehicle for collecting it?"

"All right. And so your… the fine person to your right said that the Bill as amended, Amendment #4, is the request of the Supreme Court's Chief Justice…"

"…to implement the rule… the law in a different manner or form through the clerks?"

"All right. And the fee reduces from 10 to 2 dollars?"

"So it's a mandatory fee either way, but it's a reduction in mandatory fee as we go forward?"

"All right. Thank you very much for that clarification."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?" 09900043.docx 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"Representative, there's been few machinations of this Bill, so we're trying to get to the gist of this. You're reducing the fee, but there still is a mandatory fee. The disbursement of potential grants will be administered through the Attorney General?"

"So… and I understand this is preexisting. We're just kind of changing some of the dynamics behind the scenes."

"So where are the grants going now and will that continue into the future?"

"Right."

"I understand that. We're moving this forward. What are the grants supposed to be meant for? What's your intended purpose going forward?"

"Thank you. We just wanted that on the record."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At 1:45, the Republicans wish to caucus for at least an hour."

"Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative Harris, it's May 6, why are we doing this right now?" Harris, G.: "Because the clock is ticking and we need to begin some… every journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. We're taking one step today, Leader."

"I have great admiration for you, Greg, and I know you personally. You're a fine man. I'm not going to repeat what I said earlier today, but we’ve got a lot of time left. We've got three weeks to work on a reasonable, fair budget. I don't need to go too far in the past, but I do believe that what's going on right now is form over substance and it's unfortunate. This is about mail pieces, trying to string people out and I hope that's not your intention, Representative, but the fact is that it's becoming more and more apparent about how this process is going. Again, it was the Speaker who stated that it's about time Republicans participate, get back into the game, but the fact is when we’ve had no hearing on this specific Amendment I think it does ring some sort of cynicism, not only with the people on this side of the aisle, but also through the people of the State of Illinois who sent a Governor, a new Governor, here to the State of Illinois with not just Republican votes but independent and Democrat votes to get things right, but also to do things in a bipartisan, fair manner and we’re not doing that today."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An inquiry of the Chair first and then I'd like to ask a few questions of the Sponsor."

"Is there a way we could combine Amendments 2 through 16, I believe, on one vote?"

"Shocking. Thank you. A question of the…"

"Thank you. Representative, obviously, these Amendments were filed this morning, correct?" Harris, G.: "Yes."

"What time were they filed at, Sir?" Harris, G.: "I would defer to the Clerk to tell me. I don't know off the top of my head."

"Did you file them?" Harris, G.: "They all bear my signature and they were all filed today. I just did not look at the clock, I believe."

"Okay. And with respect to Amendment 2, it was filed this morning and how many pages is that Amendment?" Harris, G.: "It is 2."

"How many readings has it been in front of the committee, your committee?" Harris, G.: "The subject matter has been debated, like I said, for about 11 weeks over and over again. I think you would be correct in saying that two-page document had not gone before the committee."

"It has not gone before the committee?" Harris, G.: "It is a Floor Amendment."

"Thank you." Harris, G.: "By its nature, it came to the floor."

"You recited and you gave credence to both Republicans and Democrats over a whole set of values, things that good 09900043.docx 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 people, people of conscience and heart would value, but good people normally also value some process, some transparency. Do you think this is good process, filing an Amendment today, an appropriations Bill? By the way, we’ve haven’t even set a revenue number yet." Harris, G.: "Look, this was a brand new program that had just come upon the state you might have a point, Representative, but the fact of the matter is this is a program that became an entitlement to the people of the State of Illinois in a consent decree that was signed by Governor Jim Thompson, who was a Member of your Party many years ago. So in all these years… this is a program that has existed. We know how it works, we know what the dynamics are and we're…"

"Greg, I respect the program and the substance. I'm talking about process right now." Harris, G.: "Well, I'm answering your question. That, you know, this was a program that nobody knew how it worked or how it functioned, it would probably take a lot longer to determine what's appropriate, what's not appropriate, but we have decades of history with it."

"Wait a minute. We’re going to… are you suggesting this is good budget process for each and every instance in State Government because it's been in existence for decades?" Harris, G.: "I would say that there is no process that is good for each and every instance of anything, but I think this is an appropriate process for this particular legislation."

"And I suspect you'll say that for the subsequent 15 Amendments, as well, yes?" Harris, G.: "I think so." 09900043.docx 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"Even though some are newer programs than others irrespective of their entrenchment in State Government and how many years, whether it was Thompson, Edgar, Ryan, that guy after him of your Party or otherwise, this is good process?" Harris, G.: "I'm sorry, Representative. Could you repeat your question?"

"No, it's okay. I'll move on. Do you know if Speaker Madigan intends to vote in favor of your Bill, your Amendment?" Harris, G.: "I have not asked him nor, you know, other Members how they intend to vote."

"Generally, we do a little Roll Call before… a guy like you, a good Legis… a veteran Legislator, putting a Bill out there that hasn't done a Roll Call of his Leader, the Speaker of the House, doesn't know how the Speaker's going to vote on your Bill?" Harris, G.: "Yeah. Again, I will put this out. This is… it's certainly the most public venue in which to discuss anything we do, everything we hear and say will be heard today by the people in this room, by the people watching, by the people recording it. This is the most transparent process we can have and then we will see how…"

"Oh, it really isn't. It really isn't the most transparent process." Harris, G.: "And then… then we will see how each person votes."

"To the Amendment, Mr. Speaker. That was a bridge too far for this Gentleman to actually throw out there without the audible groan from this side of the aisle. I'm going to 09900043.docx 45  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 suggest my colleagues watch the board very carefully because on the last Amendment, Amendment #1 to House Bill 4141, the Speaker of this chamber voted… well, actually, he didn't vote. He proposed something and didn't vote on it. Yet, we’re being asked to address on the merits for the first time without a committee and something that was put in on the floor today, an Appropriations Bill of importance, something we all value. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is an absolute sham carrying over from yesterday's sham. It is embarrassing to me, to all of us here, that we're wasting our time and energy in such a form. Leader Durkin, yesterday, spoke about substance over form, working in a bipartisan manner, actually being collegial and cooperative. It is a shame that this is what we're doing, these show votes, this political gamesmanship. I think we're all a little lesser for it because this Bill deserves the real process. We need to have a revenue number. We need to have what are we really going to budget and then it needs to be vetted at the committee in the real way not a subject matter show trial either. I'm going to suggest my colleagues vote 'present' and then watch that board because it may be instructive. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

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

"Representative, technically, the numbers involved with this Amendment, how do the numbers compare from the FY15 that we passed under 317 compared to the Governor's introduced FY16 budget?" 09900043.docx 46  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "Okay. I can tell you that FY15 pre-supplemental there are three lines. Would you like me to read through them for you?"

"Just… do you have the ballpark numbers?" Harris, G.: "It's a about level. It's about level for this particular program, but that's a little deceptive when you look at the numbers because this program also… as the baby boomers get older and we now know, you know, between now and 2020 is when the baby boom will become senior citizens. Each year the number of people utilizing this program increases substantially. In out years this is where we really need to control liability. So while the number stays level the demand for the services is actually increased so we will be spending less."

"How does this compare to the Governor's introduced budget though?" Harris, G.: "To the Governor's introduced budget? Let me just add up the different things here. It appears… it's over the Governor's budget by about 90 million."

"It's over the Governor's budget by… $90 million? Are you sure about that? Can you have your guys check real quickly? Or maybe this should have been done before we came to the floor, maybe rushed a little bit. So you're going to vote on a Bill that you can't tell me whether it's cut, as you said, or over, and your staff doesn't know that answer either? Is… is that what I'm looking at right now?" Harris, G.: "Yeah. They're saying it is exactly about $90 million over?" 09900043.docx 47  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"So it's about $90 million over? Now we have something else…" Harris, G.: "Yeah."

"…but only because we were given it about an hour ago and so, we’re trying to check into it. That's why we're asking the questions. It might be a long time today because we don't have all the information because we weren't actually brought into the process." Harris, G.: "Okay. Well I…"

"So if you just give me a second here while I confer…" Harris, G.: "Okay. Let me just give you…"

"…with my guys. I only have one though. You got two guys working with you? I got one, so it might take a little longer. Hang on." Harris, G.: "Okay."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please excuse Representative David Harris for the remainder of the day."

"No, no, I said I'm conferring with my one staffer as opposed to his two staffers, so just give me a quick second…"

"I would actually just like to see the budget that we’re voting on more than an hour in advance. That's what I would like. Okay. We're going to continue to look at our documents that we got an hour ago and we might have some further questions. Thank you." 09900043.docx 48  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

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

"Greg, I noticed that you opened your comments today with a real familiar adage, so I'm going to see if you have ever heard of this one before. If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Have you ever of that one?" Harris, G.: "I've heard it, or I've heard a lot of really good sayings."

"Yeah. Well that seems to be what we're doing here today because you really don't know where you're trying to go. And I'm going to begin by asking and proving my point by asking you where you think you're going to find the money to pay for what you want to do?" Harris, G.: "Could you repeat your question? I couldn’t hear you."

"No, I… I'm sorry. Where are you going to find the money to pay for what you want to do here today?" Harris, G.: "Well, I would tell you, Representative, that there are really a couple different to go about budgeting. One is from the top down and the other… I read a very interesting article in the paper this weekend. One of our colleagues from North Barrington, Illinois, was talking about zero-based budgeting where you start the budget and you build it from the bottom up. And that is sort of this process."

"Well, we’re certainly building from the bottom up, there's no doubt about that. But I want to know today where you're going to find the money to pass this set of Amendments? Because this isn't zero-based." 09900043.docx 49  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "The… the revenue that… that exists within the, state if you look at the COGFA and GOMB numbers, it's certainly inclusive of the amounts that would be represented by the total 16 Amendments."

"So with respect to the Amendment, or this Amendment at least, it's fair to say that you and I sit on an Appropriations Committee together, correct? And you mentioned that we had met, what, 11 days or 11 times?" Harris, G.: "I think it was 11 weeks is what we…"

"Which… which one of those 11 days did we reach consensus as to any one of the Amendments that you have run out today for consideration?" Harris, G.: "These are being brought out on the floor today for the full Body to consider, Representative…"

"That's not my question. Which day, of the 11, did we reach consensus on these spending items that you have brought before us today?" Harris, G.: "You know, I remember in other years where, you know, things have gone through Committee, came to the floor, there was not always consensus, and people vote their districts and vote their consciences. So I, you know, the outcome, I don't think, is going to be largely different."

"In other words, you… you really totally left one side of the aisle out of the equation and just decided to run these Amendments on your own." Harris, G.: "We had a proposal that was sponsored by the Governor earlier. We looked at that, you know, and… and I think if that had just been left there, people would say, why aren't 09900043.docx 50  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 you guys proposing something new? This is another proposal and I would put it up. I would ask for your support."

"So the last two questions you haven't answered, but I… I'm assuming that you don't value input from the other party, you don't value the ideas of the other Party, you don't value the time we spent in that committee. Because 11 days I sat there with you, and never once did you say any one of these items should be up for consideration as a final line item. Never once. What's wrong with the process?" Harris, G.: "I think that in all the meetings, you know, people said they supported the concepts of, you know, continuing our CCP programs and Early Intervention. I… I don't think that's a mystery."

"Well, I thought when we started out this year that there was a sincere desire to fix the State of Illinois. And I certainly think the… the adage that I referred to before is truer than ever. We have no idea where we're going and we’re taking every road we possibly can to get there. And that's exactly the peril that you leave this state in, and it's on you, Greg. It's on you."

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

"So I just wanted to ask you, Representative Harris, that we have worked together a lot on the last year and the last couple of years on the budget process. And I really thought that we were go… you know, after, I think it was yesterday, we were back in the working groups. I thought the 09900043.docx 51  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 plan was… wasn't the plan to have another meeting and to start going over line by line so that we could work together on this?" Harris, G.: "And the… also, you know, we've been working on these same things. We’ve been going through these same concepts, these same programs, you know, for a number of weeks, Representative."

"Well, I know it. And we have participated in that, in fact, I was trying to go over… I think we probably sat through probably 16 to 18 hours of testimony from the advocates. And we have tried to be active participants in that process, starting up in Chicago and then coming down. So I guess my point is that we wanted to work with you on this and then all of a sudden we get this big Bill because just… and I know this doesn't pertain to this Amendment, but I know all of us cared, especially, on the group… I mean we all cared about all the advocates, but the 18 to 21 year olds and we had talked about that last week. And I just talked with Director Sheldon's people, that he's gone back to Washington twice now to look on the funding for that. So that's why I was looking forward and a lot of people of getting back together in the final process and working line by line in getting to where we were on the budget in order to see if some of those numbers might move a little bit, as to what we could fund and shift a little bit, which is usually what we do, isn't it?" Harris, G.: "And I… I would say that there… there is… we look at not only DCFS, but, you know, other… also other programs in DHS, mental health, substance abuse. I think that one thing has become clear, that we probably have left federal match on 09900043.docx 52  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 the table. That has come up over and over again in the hours of discussions regarding the budget that… that you mentioned. But until, you know, we get those Bills drafted, until they're signed into law, until the feds have signed off on it, we can't account for that revenue now. It's revenue that does not exist… I… I really hope we can continue to work toward those because I think we need to bring in, you know, every dollar of federal money that has been left on the table if there is any out there, particularly for DCFS, mental health, and substance abuse services."

"Well, I guess my point was, to that, is that all of a sudden then we get a 125-page Bill just brought up today adding back in, I think, close to 850 million over what the Governor's budget was without any other discussion about that, except to have it in front of us right now." Harris, G.: "I think that the 125-page budget, was that not the Governor's introduced budget?"

"Yes, but I'm just saying we thought we were going to have more time to work on that in committee before we brought it out here and see what we all agreed on, line by line, in that budget. Harris, G.: "You know…"

"We took the time and you did a good job. I respect you for all the work that you've done. We brought in all the agencies so… and I feel that our side of the aisle, that we're very educated on a lot of the issues, but we were looking forward to going over at the end and looking where that money was, just like we talked about EI the other day. Certain 09900043.docx 53  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 things that were getting cut that, you know, what could we do about that? How could we work with that?" Harris, G.: "And again, we've spent many, many hours talking about that and this is a proposal today to address some of those issues."

"Well, to the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I'm going say that this year's budget, especially for Human Services, is filled with a lot of heart-wrenching decisions. And the Governor has tried to look forward to what… how we can put our state back on track. And it is with that, with caution, that we’ve been looking over this budget especially because this budget affects people's lives. But we also have to take into consideration that over the last several years, we have been downgraded over 22 times in our bond ratings. And we did the pension reform, and we did the Medicaid reform, and we still have $6 billion of unpaid bills. Those bills belong to providers, to nursing homes, to doctors, to private business people, to middle-class workers. That is who we owe that $6 billion to. And so, in trying to come up with heart-wrenching decisions on this budget, we have tried to work through these decisions and I think what we're ending up with here is the same thing. We are not going to have money to pay for these. Then we get into the borrowing and other things that we cannot put our state back on fiscal, strong footing. And those are the concerns of everybody today in the State of Illinois as to how to get our state back on track, how we’re going to pay our bills, how we are going to take care of the most fragile population in Illinois, and be able to provide the services 09900043.docx 54  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 that we want to provide for them. And I think that we are not providing that now. Thank you."

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

"Mr. Chairman, I know we're both members of the Human Services Appropriation Committee. I'm not sure if I missed a day, but perhaps you could share with me what the vote was in committee on this Amendment?" Harris, G.: "You… you guys all missed a day a couple weeks ago…"

"Is that when the vote was?" Harris, G.: "No, but yeah, there was a day. As we’ve said to… as we’ve said here before, this two lines… this two pages, as introduced, did not come before the committee. It came directly to the floor and we have a chance to review it today."

"When did you draft these Bills?" Harris, G.: "We've been working for… for the last 11 weeks on listening to the same testimony, the same advocates…"

"But the number that you arrived at today, when did you arrive at that number?" Harris, G.: "In the last couple days. You know, been thinking about it and we came to that conclusion."

"So we held, as… as Representative before me said, we held many hours of testimony and heard from advocates on the Governor's proposed budget. I'm curious, if you have been working on this alternate plan for so many weeks, working on an alternate proposal for so many weeks, why did you not bring 09900043.docx 55  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 that before the committee to hear input from advocates on how that proposal might affect them?" Harris, G.: "'Cause we think it's important to move forward and say we’re interested in, you know, funding vital services, but also reducing costs. We think those are two very important things."

"So on the proposal that we're debating right now, Floor Amendment 2, do you know how advocates feel this Amendment would affect them?" Harris, G.: "I think that they would be generally supportive."

"We think, but we haven’t asked them. We haven't heard an open hearing. We’ve asked them to weigh in on the Governor's proposal, but not on this one." Harris, G.: "Our analysis shows support."

"When were they made aware of this? When… when were the… when were the advocates given these numbers?" Harris, G.: "I think our staff has been, you know, working with some of them to be sure in the last, you know, short time that they were… found this acceptable."

"And so, never during that discussion did it arise that we might want to convene a committee, a Human Service Appropriation Committee and as we’ve been doing with the Governor's proposal, hear in an open, public forum with the idea of transparency in mind, to hear in that setting how the advocates feel this proposal will affect them?" Harris, G.: "I think the Governor's meetings we’re talking about are the ones where they were supposed to be behind closed doors. This is in full, public view and everyone in Illinois has a chance to watch and listen to the discussion…" 09900043.docx 56  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"As long as they can read it in two hours, right? As long as they can make it through millions of dollars in spending. My next is question is this… this… the next several Amendments, although they represent significant financial amounts, they don't represent the entirety of the appropriation that the Human Services Appropriation Committee will be responsible for. So as chairman of that committee, is it your intent to run the remainder of the Human Services budget through Floor Amendments or will we convene again as a meeting of the Human Services…" Harris, G.: "I believe tomorrow morning…"

"…Appropriation Committee?" Harris, G.: "…at 8 a.m."

"And so, these were… were given special attention, but the rest of the budget will run through a different, more responsible process?" Harris, G.: "These are things that had general support within the committee, within the community of people who came in and testified for us. These are things, I think, broadly across the State of Illinois people are in support of."

"Isn't one way to gauge whether they have general support in the committee to hold a vote in committee?" Harris, G.: "I think a better way would be to have all 118 Members cast a vote on the floor."

"Well, why do we have the committee process in the first place then?" Harris, G.: "To bring in testimony, to talk amongst each other which we have done for 11 weeks." 09900043.docx 57  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"Thank you, and to the Amendment. I think the… the strength of the committee process was just admitted by the Sponsor here, saying that that's an important step as we build responsible legislation, to bring in people to the process, to hear their input on it, to have open discussions. Not just discussions that, apparently, have been happening between one side of the aisle and advocates for up to 11 weeks without making that information public and without making that information available to the rest of us. This really is not a good process and I… I really recommend that you consider how this process affects everything else that we have to work on going forward. Thank you."

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

"Chairman Harris, just a couple questions. First, I see on my calendar that there is a Human Services Appropriations working group for fiscal year '16 tomorrow. Is that still scheduled?" Harris, G.: "Yes, it is."

"So if we’re having a working group to discuss the fiscal year '16 budget, but we're running these Amendments on the floor today, what's the purpose of all of the committee process?" Harris, G.: "I think there are about 1,090 other lines we had… that still need consideration and we can go through those."

"I guess my point is why not bring those on the floor if you're bringing these on the floor? How do you… how do you 09900043.docx 59  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 differentiate what's important enough to go through committee and why we have the committee process and what's important enough to skip the legislative process and bring them straight to the floor? How are you determining that?" Harris, G.: "'Cause I think in both Springfield and Chicago, in public hearing after public hearing, both behind closed doors and in Human Service Approp hearings, we've heard over and over again from members of the public that taking care of our seniors, taking care of people with disabilities, addressing the needs of persons with mental illness and substance abuse disorder in our community…"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Amendment, to the Bill. This is a sham. It's an absolute sham. I'm proud to be able to represent 110 thousand constituents from my district. They have not had one chance to voice their opinion on this process. This is not what's taught in high school civics. This is not the legislative process. And everyone needs to know that the process is being ignored and that… that certain individuals are determining the… the game that is going on here and the politics that are being played, both today and yesterday. We have a lot of work to do and it's embarrassing that we're wasting our time on the games that we're seeing in the last couple of days."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Everybody watching above should really pay attention to what's going on today. We had a first vote that basically asked us to vote against things that most people want to fund. And that was all as… 09900043.docx 61  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 that was a sham. Now we have all these different Amendments. They're strictly just there for mailpieces for a fall campaign. They’re basically there to make sure that if we vote against them that, you know, we don't like people with autism or we don't want to help the homeless. And nothing could be further from the truth. My nephew's autistic. I mean, how dare you play around with autism budget in this manner. The truth is you had… the truth is you had $31 billion come in between 2011 and 2015, new revenue. Nearly all of it went to pension payments which you refuse to reform. When you have increased budgets and increased grant lines year after year after year with no way to pay for the spending, at some point, there's a consequence to be paid for that. And unfortunately, we're paying the consequences now. We have to right-size our budget. We had… we are still down 236 thousand jobs from the great recession. We lost nearly 100 thousand residents last year alone. We are on… we're going to lose 2 thousand steel workers soon. We are also down, let's see, in March, we were down 1,800 payroll jobs alone. This is about right-sizing State Government. There is no blank check. We are still… we are still over $6 billion that we owe in current accounts, but nobody wants to prioritize the budget and that's, unfortunately, what we have to do. We have to prioritize what the state… what the state is responsible for. But, you know, the Sponsor started out by talking about these are funding things that people value. Well, why wasn't the topic of discussion last year when we funded $10 million for a DePaul Stadium, when you found $10 million for a theater in Chicago, when you found $35 million for the Speaker's school that 09900043.docx 62  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 didn't go through normal grant lines. How about when you decided to send $20 million extra to the Department of Labor and they didn't have to tell us what it was going to be used for? Were these things that the Democrats valued also and put into the budget? How about the Illiana Expressway, which national leaders in transportation have called a boondoggle. You still, in last year's budget, found that… found funding for that. Is that also what you value versus the homeless, and child care, and autism? Is that what you value? Because if it's all about values, where were your values for the last decade when you weren't completely in charge? On top of it, Kristen McQueary of the Chicago Tribune really said it well. You have to wonder why, and she writes this in an op-ed in… on April, where she says you have to wonder why the rhetoric pillaring corporate handouts gets aimed at Rauner when it's the Democrats in this state who negotiated and sponsored every juicy, corporate tax break for more than a decade. The Legislator couldn't be bothered to pass a balanced budget in 2011, but it spent an entire fall Session on tax breaks for CME group and a generous campaign donor, Sears. So apparently that's what you value: corporate cronyism rather than the little guy. Enough of this. You know that this entire process is a fraud. On top of it, you are not being true about the things that you really value. The truth is what you have valued before in the votes that you put on last year. You created this crisis. We're going to fix it."

"A few questions of the Sponsor."

"Repres… Representative Harris, has the director of DCFS opined on your Amendment #3?" Harris, G.: "On this Amendment, I've not heard from him today."

"Have you inquired of him, with respect to his budget and his… and this Amendment?" Harris, G.: "We heard very lengthy testimony from him in committee…"

"Come on, Greg. I asked the question. Did you inquire…" him on this Amendment?" Harris, G.: "On this Amendment?"

"…him on this Amendment?" Harris, G.: "I did not."

"Thank you. Is there a reason why you wouldn't ask the per… the point person, the director of the agency, their opinion on the budget being allocated for their department?" Harris, G.: "I would expect, you know, that all of us involved in the process down here would be looking at each and every Amendment also."

"Well, that would be true if the director were looking at an Amendment filed about an hour ago. Is that something the director's supposed to do?" Harris, G.: "I think the director has made it clear in his testimony that while yeah, he supports the Governor's budget he was hoping that we could find a way… a way to provide for these young people who are… you know, we are really their parents, so I think that would be his position. I respect that." 09900043.docx 68  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"To the Amendment. I have a good idea how these Roll Calls are going to go. I'm just asking people before, on that side of the aisle, before they push the green button, if they really would like this process to ensue on a Bill that they found important to them in their district? Would they want an item put on… on the floor about an hour or two, and then vetted such that this is being vetted on the floor? Is that how they think their constituents want matters that are important to them held? Is that how the process should roll? You know, this is late in the game, but it's still early in the budget game. For this process to roll out this way and then tomorrow have an appropriations hearing on other topics of the budget just calls the… the lie to this process. This is a sham. This is so unfortunate. Again, I'm going to ask my colleagues and those on the other side that feel the process is less than honest, because it is, to vote 'present'."

"Thank you, Speaker. To the Amendment and to the Amendments in general. Particularly, I wanted to address a comment that came up in the context of the previous Amendment but is applicable to this one as well. And the question came up as to when in the last four years did our side of the aisle support programs for child care, autism, mental health, and so many of these other vital programs that help the most needy in our State of Illinois. And the answer was it did happen in the last four years, specifically, four years ago this spring as we were crafting the fiscal year 2012 budget. At that time, the two sides worked together. We all sat at the table. Though not every budget Bill was unanimous, they were all with wide 09900043.docx 69  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 bipartisan support as we did the couple dozen Bills that made the budget. Some were unanimous. Even Human Services Appropriations that year passed with 83 votes. A clear bipartisan support for that. So there is a process that we have done not so far back in our past, where we have responded. We have worked across the aisle to put together a budget that both sides could support that deal with these issues. We don't have to have this process that piecemeals these Amendments in a way that doesn't do the state the kind of service I know this Body can do. Thank you."

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

"So specifically, Representative, this is the program I referred to before, but I know that we all care a lot about this program because we spent a lot of time on it and we've been working on it. So I guess my question to you is number one, what is the cost of this program? I think it's either 140 million or 207 million. Not sure." Harris, G.: "94 million."

"Oh, 94? Okay, thank you. I thought it was a hun… I thought in committee we were talking 140. Anyway, so I guess what I brought up before was that we met with Director Sheldon. I just spoke with the people from DCFS yesterday. They said he has flown back out to Washington twice. So my question to you is, with regard to this, is that I would question if there was still a chance, that's why I wish that we would have this in the approp hearing rather than on the 09900043.docx 70  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 floor right now. Because if there was a chance to get federal money for this program, why would we go ahead and put GRF in it, where education or some other important category may have to be cut because of us funding this with general revenue, when we may have had a chance within the next week or two before the final days of the budget to get some federal funding for it?" Harris, G.: "Representative, it's my understanding that the federal process would last far longer than the beginning of our next fiscal year and certainly longer than the end of this session, even if we would decide to go down that path. So, you know, should we have a chance to come back and adjust this program as well as mental health and substance abuse, and the others, I think we all agree we could look for additional federal funds for, there'd be an appropriate time to come do that. Right now we're looking at how do we maintain the viability of services for these young people, you know, in the immediate future moving forward."

"I understand what you're coming from, but I guess, in… for the '16 budget, if we could get commitment from the Federal Government to fund this program, and they think that this program should be funded even now, as it stands, because the majority of these children were in work programs or were in school programs and that is a Federal Law that they can get funded 100 percent if they are in those programs or if they are in a medical program, of which a lot of them are in Medicaid. So my point is, is that I don't want to see another program such as education or something important, when we could work on this and try to get that federal funding, and 09900043.docx 71  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 when it gets off the table now, along with everything else, it'll say it's funded and we're not going to work on that. And this is something that I think is imperative, that has to happen, we all agree that, and that I wish that we could still move forward right now because we’ve seen other things happen before. Two years ago we went to one of our Congressman, we had waited a year for a waiver and in a couple of weeks they got us that waiver. So I guess I just am saying that I don't want to take something out of general revenue and see a cut in education or in something important in another category that we could possibly have gotten federal funding for. Thank you very much."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the record show that Representative Moffitt is excused for the remainder of the day."

"Thank you. A few questions of the Sponsor."

"Greg, last… just similar to the last questions I asked. Have you met with and talked with the director of the department about this Amendment, specifically?" Harris, G.: "Not this Amendment."

"Any reason why?" Harris, G.: "We are presenting it here. It is the, you know, purview today of us to consider this. We've met with the director and the department on numerous occasions on the topic and general funding levels. This seems to be appropriate."

"It's not unusual and, frankly, it's more typical to have the director of any department before your Committee or other Appropriation Committees to interact and, obviously, have a dialogue on funding…" Harris, G.: "We… we've had, actually, a lot of dialogue and I commend the director. I think he's doing an excellent job and I think he's done an excellent job representing the Governor's budget and their position. And now, it's time for the Legislature to perform its functions."

"Well, typically, that function comes out of a committee on a vote and it's far more interactive with the… with a 09900043.docx 75  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 secretary or director or department head. And with that, I would ask you would you be willing to recommit and move your Amendment back to committee so that the head of DHS and other directors can be far more interactive and far more involved in the process, and actually hear what it is you seek to appropriate to their department?" Harris, G.: "I think, you know, we can move through this process. We are not at Third Reading yet, so there's ample time for discussion."

"Well, it's going to be a… we’re not at Third Reading, you're right. It's an Amendment, but you don't intend to commit this to the committee after Second Reading, do you?" Harris, G.: "It would be my comment that, you know, there will be plenty of time to discuss with directors and other interested parties, you know, after we've gone through our endeavors here on the floor today."

"Well, I appreciate that, but I… I'd ask for an answer to my question. Is it your intention move this to Third Reading and vote on it in… in total or are you going to commit it to a committee after Second Reading?" Harris, G.: "My intention today is to move these Amendments and see which succeed and which fail."

"And then what, Greg?" Harris, G.: "And then we…"

"If it succeeds…" Harris, G.: "…then we will come to a conclusion on the next step."

"All right. So you have no intention of putting these… this Amendment into committee for a full vetting in front of the committee?" 09900043.docx 76  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "I just said that my intention today is to discuss these on the floor to see which succeed and which fail and to move from there."

"To the Amendment. That was an interesting, artful dodge. I simply asked the Sponsor what his intention is after this Amendment clearly passes because the Roll Call has pretty much been set. So maybe these show votes are similar to what we did last session on pensions and guns. I don't know, but it's a waste of our time. Our time would be better spent in committee fully vetting Appropriation Bills, frankly, after a revenue number had been set. We… this isn't, by the way, zero-based budgeting. This isn't top down budgeting. This isn't bottom up budgeting. This is a sham."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Amendment. This is a very important program as previous speakers have mentioned. In fact, we all just really spent a lot of time hearing from constituents and hearing from people who are affected by a child care program as we debated the… the supplemental to the previous year. We also saw how much stress it put on parents and providers during the last fiscal year when we saw funding was running out and people didn't know where else they were going to go. I think that's a really important thing to keep in mind. Last year, we put ourselves in that situation of 09900043.docx 78  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 unnecessarily stressing so many parents and providers across the state because we didn't get the number right in the first budget proposal. I think it's very important that we get the number right in this budget proposal, and I think one of the ways we can ensure the number is correct is to make sure that this proposal, this Amendment, has a thorough discussion, a thorough debate and has time for both sides for advocates for the department to get together and compare notes to make sure that those… that those numbers are correct. So pursuant to House Rule 68, I make a Motion to commit this House Floor Amendment 4 to the Human Services Appropriations Committee."

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

"Chairman Harris, I chose to be on the Human Services Appropriation Committee because I understand the importance of what we do in there. Do you think what we do is important?" Harris, G.: "I think the work and the services we provide to the State of Illinois are very important."

"Do you think the work that we do in committee is important?" 09900043.docx 79  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "I think, you know, we’ve done a lot of work. I think it’s been very important. We’ve listened to testimony from literally hundreds of citizens, advocates, interested parties and departments. So I think all of this is a very important part of the process."

"Do you think this process, bringing these straight to the floor and not going through the committee, actually takes that committee process for granted? Does it take our committee for granted?" Harris, G.: "I don't think we could've gotten where we are today without having spent the time we did in Committee understanding all the different impacts, the various budget proposals, would've had. So I think it was time well spent."

"I would argue that the majority of us knew how important many of these programs are and that we'd be exactly where we are today without those meetings and I think that this process takes the… those committee meetings for granted. Last year, I recall, we were part of the… the budget process for a long time and then about two weeks out from the budget deadline, Republicans were excluded from the process. Are we being excluded this early in the process?" Harris, G.: "I think that the meetings have… there was one meeting where the Republicans chose to not attend. Other than that, you know, I think Republicans and Democrats have been in the meetings."

"That… that is not true. We were actually excluded and actually towards the end of the year meetings were actually just canceled because you decided to go it alone. So…" 09900043.docx 80  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "I'm sorry… sorry, I… I'm referring to this year. I wasn't…"

"…we… we can agree to disagree…" Harris, G.: "…going back to last year."

"…on… on last year and the prior year. We still have a Human Services working group committee meeting tomorrow morning, correct?" Harris, G.: "Yes."

"What is the… the topic of tomorrow's committee meeting?" Harris, G.: "There are still… I was going to say, sev… several hundred, if not a thousand lines that we need to consider."

"Will we be talking about community care?" Harris, G.: "I think we'll wait and see what the outcome of today's votes are."

"Well, will we be talking about 18 to 21, DCFS?" Harris, G.: "I think we'll wait and see what the outcome of today's votes are."

"I think we all know what's going to happen on these votes. I'm not going to go through the list of all these different Amendments, but I think we understand where we’re at. At what level is… is this funded for next year?" Harris, G.: "We're at $480 million and we give the department maximum flexibility to manage that within their budget and their discretion."

"And how… how did we come up with that number?" Harris, G.: "In working with a number of providers on what would be a successful maintenance level of funding to allow them to 09900043.docx 81  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 continue to provide services without interruption to families."

"What… what committee meeting did we get that information from? Do you remember which day we… we heard those… that information, where we heard those numbers?" Harris, G.: "I don't remember which day. We had a number of meetings with child care providers."

"I… I would say we never talked about numbers, so I would say this did not come out of the committee process whatsoever. I think that this… this is completely disingenuous and what you said earlier about… we had a chance to vote on that first Amendment, now we have a chance to vote on this. We are being given an all or nothing version. We're not being able to actually add something to the conversation, so I think it's ridiculous. We… we can obviously see that you put a lot of thought into this judging by how long it's been introduced and… and having to vote on it a few hours later. I hope that everyone in here really understands what's really going on. We… we are currently voting on Amendments to a Bill that will probably never be heard. We’re voting on Amendments to a Bill, and this is just going to be something that lands in your mailbox. I… I would just ask that if we're going to play a new game every day on this House Floor, I would just ask that I receive a copy of the new rules every day when we start the game. Thank you."

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

"Representative, we’re going to be going through a bunch of Amendments and I wanted to point out one comment that you made to a Member on your side of the aisle, and I… and I'm pretty sure I wrote it down correctly. In quotes, you said, 'We are restoring cuts to programs. Many people will go to bed tonight knowing that their funding will be restored.' Is that accurate reflection of what you said to one of your Member?" Harris, G.: "That… that very well could be."

"So the funding in these Bills is going to be restored. Is that… is that correct?" Harris, G.: "That would be my hope. This is certainly that step."

"And so, the funding involved in these 16… 15 Amendments equals about a $948 million increase over what the Governor has asked for. Is that accurate?" Harris, G.: "A lot less than that. Several hundred million."

"Well, it's… according to the dockets we have…" Harris, G.: "It… it is higher than what the Governor asked for."

"So you're… you're asking for more money that… which we don't have which, obviously, brings up the question, how are you going to keep your promise of funding these cuts so these people can go to bed tonight?" Harris, G.: "I would go back to the remarks I made at the very opening, Representative, in saying that, you know, we will have to, you know, cut in these areas, we'll have to cut in other areas. But we need to do it in a responsible way to cause the least harm to families, particularly those in vulnerable situations. And I think we're going to have to find new revenue." 09900043.docx 83  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"You're going to have to find new revenue? You couldn't do it in the fall, so you passed a sham budget hoping that your Governor would be re… reelected. You have three Members on your side that have vowed not to raise new revenue. You only have 71. The math doesn't work. So how are you going to get new revenue if you're going to exclude this side of the aisle and go on to all the little budget gimmicks you're going to do? So… you know, you just want to keep leaving us out of the program?" Harris, G.: "No, we're not excluding anybody, Representative, and this is not a revenue Bill. This is, you know, a simple series of Amendments regarding specific programs that are part of a much larger whole."

"But Representative, you just said that you've restored the funding when this passes. How are you going to restore the funding? How are you going to pay for this if you're not… if you're excluding us, you can't get it by the Governor. So how are you going to keep that promise to those people that you just said you were going to restore their funding to?" Harris, G.: "I hope that the budget, when it finally passes and is approved by the Governor, will reflect these amounts."

"Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Bill or the Amendment or the many Amendments. I know you all have your press releases ready to go, ready to say how we restored funding. When it doesn't happen and we're here all summer, how are you going to take that back? Because that's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to take it back 'cause we're not here. This isn't… this isn't going to happen. We all know it's not going to happen. It's fun. It's 09900043.docx 84  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 fun to talk about. It's fun to hoot and holler, and someone gets up and brings up the past that, you know, we're excluded, so we didn't be part of it. I know it's a game. It's, you know, it's fun for your side of the aisle. The adults on this side are trying to do things correctly. You got a lot of adults on that side of the aisle, too. I'm not trying to be critical, but I'd like you to come to the table and everybody work on this stuff. This is getting ridiculous. Getting ridiculous. Ladies and Gentlemen, we're better than this. And I've said it before. I'm starting to wear my 'we're better than this' speech out, but it happens all the time. It happens all the time and this is another one and we got, you know, like eight more of these to go and I… we know it's going to be 70 to whatever it's going to be and it's not going to solve a thing, and it's going to make our sides separate even more when the people elected us to come together and do things correctly. And it's just not going to happen."

"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative Harris, is this the same, less or more than Early Intervention budgeted for 2015." Harris, G.: "It is slightly less."

"How much less is it than what 2015 was budgeted?" Harris, G.: "In this Bill, it is 82,500,000. In the FY15 post- supplemental, it is 85,718,700."

"So I couldn't hear the first number. So what's the difference roughly?" Harris, G.: "It's about 3.2 million…"

"Less…" Harris, G.: "…lower."

"…than supplemental 2015?" Harris, G.: "Right."

"And why?" Harris, G.: "I think in… in recognition of the fact that we have all said that, you know, each and every program, as important as it is, we’re going to have to cut and we're going to have to trim in order to make our budget balance. When we are talking about being fiscally responsible and having to make 09900043.docx 86  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 tough decisions, that means some things will have to be reduced. On the other hand, there are some things that were proposed to be totally eliminated which are being fully restored. This is one of those that is fully… that is partially reduced."

"And which tough decision was made… the 3 million, give or take, who made the tough decision to reduce it by 3 million and what impacts will occur on the department for that tough decision?" Harris, G.: "We are hoping there will be very minimal impacts on the providers and the children which is where we, you know, really need to focus our attention that through different deficiencies and providing services that they will be able to absorb these cuts."

"What cuts? What's being cut? What 3 million…" Harris, G.: "About $3.2 million…"

"…I know and what… what will that do… what will that do to the department's budget?" Harris, G.: "And again, we are leaving as much discussion… rather than dictating this age, this developmental delay, we are giving the maximum opportunity to the providers and the department to run the program to the best of their professional ability as experts in this area to manage these cuts. And I think that's a good way for us to go rather than you or I trying to determine how kid's with developmental delays ought to be taught or given therapy."

"I couldn't disagree with that. Of course, I thought this would be a great dialogue in front of one of those providers or some of the providers and the department, because 09900043.docx 87  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 that's what you do in committees. You have the actual dialogue as to what impacts, if any, rather than saying, well, I just hope they can absorb it and deal with it. That's the process that we typically do and that's the problem with your process right now. You don't know what you don't know, and we're not… and while you may have had significant subject matter hearings, we're not having a subject matter hear… hearing now. We're amending an Appropriations Bill without knowing a revenue number and without really knowing what's going to… what the impacts are going to be. To the Amendment, Mr. Speaker. I… I suspect some other of my colleagues will step up, but the game continues. We know the Roll Call. It's just a waste of time, energy, resources, and a darn shame."

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

"Generally, when we do the budget we talk about not only the programs that… that the state provides, but administration of those programs. If we… if we are keeping programs even or lowering them just a little bit, how are we going to be able to afford to administer these programs? Who is going to do that?" Harris, G.: "The overall department… are you referring to the department head count? Is that who you're referring to…"

"Yes…" Harris, G.: "…Representative?"

"…yes." Harris, G.: "That is not addressed here. That is still something that we have yet to address as budget talks go forward." 09900043.docx 88  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"So by funding these at… at higher levels and not including… including the actual administration of these programs, are… are we going to provide a disservice to these programs by not being able to administer them properly? Are we going to have to lower our head count to make up for the increase to the program?" Harris, G.: "The… these are… my understanding of these programs is they are privately contracted programs, Representative. And, you know, our… the supervisory headcount at the department comes and goes and these departments continue to provide their services."

"So the State of Illinois doesn't have any staff that handles these programs?" Harris, G.: "I think they have staff that do grant oversight and, you know, grant processing and those kind of things that handle a number of programs of which these might be included."

"Okay. To the Bill… or to the Amendment. Once again, I just want to say this is… this is a half thought out process. We’re not really talking about funding and implementing these programs. We’re just talking about one, simple line item that's just trying to make a point, a political point, by the other side. Once again, all or… al or nothing approach. Very disingenuous and I hope that everybody here understands what's really going on."

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

"Just wanted to go over this, the cost of this project, Early Intervention, which we know is an excellent program. Was that 82,500,000?" Harris, G.: "Eighty… 82.5."

"Okay. So again, about the process. This was something that we brought up in just committee the other day, correct?" Harris, G.: "Early Intervention has been discussed many, many times 'cause I think it's one of the… when you… when you talk to families, you know, who are involved in this, if you remember, in…"

"Right." Harris, G.: "…Chicago in the spring, we had one mom who had gotten out and gotten 13 thousand petition signatures just herself to maintain Early Intervention after it had been in the Governor's, you know, cuts earlier this year which were later restored. So I think this is an incredibly important program to families in the FY16 introduced budget. It was funded at only 64.6 million, so the level that we're proposing it at in this Amendment is far in excess of that. And I think it recognizes its importance."

"Thank you. And I certainly agree that all of us that are on the Human Services Approp Committee know how important this program is. In fact, years ago when I first came in, this program was having a problem being funded and we looked at it and that's when we introduced a sliding scale so that we could continue to provide this program for people who could afford to pay for the some of the services. So the other day, when we had quite a few people come in and testify to this, Representative, I thought when we left there, again, it's 09900043.docx 90  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 going back to the process, we were looking forward to bringing this subject back up in the working group to try to see how we could fund this at what we wanted to fund it at and not eliminate part of the eligibility which I think was on the table as a question. Wasn't that the eligibility issue?" Harris, G.: "Yes and… and in this proposed Amendment we are not making any mention of the 30 to 50 percent developmental delay. We are taking that out. We are increasing the funding because we realize that after listening to those moms and dads come in that the 30 percent that was in the introduced budget probably would have caused more hardship than any of us would have wanted."

"Well, I guess that's my point is that we thought that this program was very important as we did autism and a few… well, a lot of the other programs, but again, my point today on the floor right now, is about the process of looking forward to going back into the working group so that we could try to look at some numbers and maybe some other line items which we’ve done in the other years when we thought we could maybe lower some of the line items in some respect, and keep the ones that we have. This way my concerns are that you're going forward, putting everything back in, and that when it comes to the end, I don't know where we’re going to have the funding for this. And, again, I brought up before about the unpaid bills. They're not just out there. Those unpaid bills go to the providers, doctors, nursing homes, small business people, and I'm just… my concern is that we need to pay our bills and get back on track and we want to take care of the most vulnerable. And until we do something to correct that 09900043.docx 91  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 problem, there is still going to be the problem of those people not getting services that we need to serve. Thank you."

"Will the Sponsor yield?"

"I heard the beginning introduction. It's been a little loud here, Greg. Repeat, what does 2015 have to do with this Amendment right here?" Harris, G.: "I was saying that it had to do with the program. The program was, you know, eliminated on World Autism Day, if you recall, by Governor Rauner. Later, it was restored when the Governor got the COGFA report on revenues. In the Governor's FY16 budget, this program was eliminated again and this Amendment would fund it for FY16 at a $4 million level. So I was just recounting the history of the ups and downs on this issue…"

"Oh, all right. Because if we're going to recount history, I… I mean, we can go back 12 years. We can go back to a bunch of budgets including last year's 2015 budget that was entirely unbalanced, and we knew we would have problems post the election. So I just want to know, are we going to be doing the historical or are we going to be looking at your Amendments one by one as to what they try and do here and now?" Harris, G.: "I was just trying to go back a week."

"Oh, all right. To the Amendment. I'm going to go back more than a week. I'm going to go back a year because this sham of a process ought to be instructive when we put things in its context. The… the Sponsor talked about 2015. This House and our friends in the Senate had to take votes to fix a bad budget that only one side of the aisle put upon the people of the State of Illinois. And so, when we revisit a week or two ago and try and buttress this process with whatever happened a week ago, let's look at what's really gone on for 12 years. 09900043.docx 93  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Twelve straight bad budgets, completely unbalanced, spending more than we have and running Bills like this. This is the kind of process we’ve… we've grown accustomed to and it’s a shame. I thought with the new Governor and the collegiality that was at least demonstrated on day one, that we would be working together. This is not working together. This is ramming a bunch of brand new Amendments to Appropriation Bills filed about an hour ago on a partisan basis down our throats, so that some folks can champion back to their districts. Look what we've done. All we've done is waste time."

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

"I just want to clarify something. In the… in the Governor's proposed budget, is he proposing to cut all autism line items or is it just a specific program?" 09900043.docx 94  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "All GRF… for the Autism Program. Now, there may be in DD…"

"For T… for TAP, TAP, The Autism Program." Harris, G.: "…The Autism Program…"

"But there are other line items that fund other programs for autism, correct?" Harris, G.: "There may be other programs where people could go, you know, with DD or mental health issues that could impact autistic children. You're absolutely right."

"Okay. That was just for clarification. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Amendment. Again, we have talked about quite a bit today about the importance of using the committee process that we’ve established to ensure that we have the best possible product going forward. That process gives us time, that process allows us to bring people who are affected by these programs in and discuss what the impact to them and to the services they provide, how they'd be impacted by the proposals we have before us today. I think it's very important that we use the Committee process to achieve that; therefore, pursuant to Rule 68, I make a Motion to commit Floor Amendment #7 to the Human Services Appropriation Committee."

"Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative, same kind of questions as previous. Any communication with DHS with respect to Floor Amendment #8?" Harris, G.: "I think in the Governor's introduced budget that this line item had been eliminated and it would've been the position of the department that they supported that."

"Okay. I'll try it again. Have you had any communications with the director of DHS with respect to your Floor Amendment #8?" Harris, G.: "No."

"Thank you. How much… what's the difference between the appropriation in Floor Amendment #8 with the 2015 budget?" Harris, G.: "In the… the pre-supplemental budget, it was 9.485 million. In the post-supplemental budget, it was 9.2716. And in this Amendment before us today, it is an even 9 million. So it is a cut on top of a cut."

"It's a cut of how much net from 2015?" Harris, G.: "That would be $485,000 from the FY15 pre- supplemental." 09900043.docx 97  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"Thank you, and…" Harris, G.: "That… that one was all zeroes. I could do that math in my head."

"And it was well done at that. Thank you. And with respect to the 400 thousand reduction, do we know which services and/or what impacts that the… the reductions will have with respect to the delivery of services?" Harris, G.: "This has always been a line item that we budget for and… I'm trying to think of an easy way… it… it is sort of demand-based. We… we try to provide adequate appropriation to cover all the needs. Historically, this looks like it should be adequate."

"All right. Well, it's 400 thousand less than last year, so is there some reason that you think demand will be less and require less services?" Harris, G.: "Again, we can only look at… you can't predict the future on an item like this. You can do your best to look at past experience and also realizing, as I said before, we understand that on each and every line, you know, we’re going to have to think, you know, can… can we cut this? Is it part of our job to find cuts even though they may be difficult? But I would say funding it $9 million is much better than providing zero funding."

"All right, thank you. To the Amendment. And… Mr. Speaker… thank you, Mr. Speaker. I get it. You know, we're… we want to go play softball and go do other things, and maybe this isn't that important because, in essence, there's a little bit of pro forma going on. The Sponsor delivers an Amendment and we pretty much know the Roll Call because, well, 09900043.docx 98  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 none of this really matters except for purposes of outside mailing and… trying to play gotcha politics. I'll remind my colleagues here that appropriations matter, that good budgeting is actually one of the most important things that we do and none of this is good budgeting. Not any of this exercise has been instructional in moving the needle forward. We're going to be right back at it, folks. We're going to be right back at it and, hopefully, we'll be at it in committee and, hopefully, there'll be some notion of bipartisanship. For the life of me, I don't know why after this exercise the notion of a working group, committee hearings, and actual communication between our side of the aisle and the… the folks that are doing the… the continuing damage here makes any sense. But I'm hoping some sense and sensibility will eventually occur and that we'll get back to doing the people's business in a responsible manner."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please excuse Representative Charlie Meier for the duration."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Due to a potential conflict, I'll be voting 'present'."

"Thank you. A few questions of the Sponsor."

"Representative Harris, you said this is an important appropriation. I think every one of these line items, every one of these Amendments, every topic you've brought up is important." Harris, G.: "I think I said so, too."

"Yeah. And I appreciate that. And I think these kind of items and… that are very important to human beings, that affect the citizens of Illinois deserve the most important type of calm, deliberative, and actual good process so that we…" Harris, G.: "And I've been trying to be calm and deliberative, Representative." 09900043.docx 100  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015

"Yeah, well, today you are and that's great, except this isn't good process. This isn't open, transparent. This is nonsense. A really good process would be a committee hearing where the directors and the providers and those affected are actually in the same room. And yes, we have a committee vote and a recommendation of do pass to the whole floor. That's how it's usually done. That's how we’ve done it in the past. I think this is important. I think we’re not giving it the importance it deserves. To the Amendment, again. I'm disappointed that we continue to play this game. Unfortunately, we’re required to continue to vote 'present' because we're here to do the people's work. We’re just not being given an opportunity."

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

"There's a word called déjà vu. It's almost like we’re reliving what happened about a year ago now. You guys passed a budget that clearly, by all definitions, was not funded and we had to come in and fix that in FY15. And we're trying to move forward to 16. But déjà vu comes in because here we are again. You have another budget that, once again, you said you hope there'll be revenue. Your side of the aisle won't pass it on their own, so you need to work with us, but you’re trying to ram this down our throat once again. Déjà vu. Is this what's going to happen the entire session now, Representative? Are we… are we going to have more of these appropriation budgets like this?" 09900043.docx 101  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 Harris, G.: "I think what… what we have before us are these, you know, 16 items that account for about 2.6 billion out of a, you know, $32 billion budget. So to say that it is not funded, this is funded. This is what's before us today. I think that there are ongoing discussions in multiple venues, some which all the Members are privy to, others which only some of us are in talking about issues, such as the Local Government Distributive Fund and group health. So there are a lot of moving pieces. Also, you know, Medicaid, which is our… one of our single largest expenses. So together, we’re going to have to come together as we always do on a complete budget."

"So Greg, I consider you my friend. Do you think today is going to help with that process or hurt that process? Honestly?" Harris, G.: "I think time will tell."

"Time will tell. That's nice. Déjà vu, Ladies and Gentlemen. That's what we’re looking at. That's what we’ve been looking at for a long time. You guys funded a budget last year that you had no intention of ever fully implementing because it just didn’t have the money. You didn't have the money and you… you can't pass a vote. You got 71 Members; you can run this place. You're trying to right now. But you can't fund it just like you couldn't fund last year's budget, and that's why we had to help bail you out of last year's budget. And so, we're going to try and pass this. This will not become law. It won't, but you'll get your press pop. You'll have a lot of fun and maybe you'll tell those people that they can sleep at night. But they can't because we’re right back to where we were. If anything, we've made it worse today because 09900043.docx 102  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 you're trying to break the cooperation that we've been trying to build. And that's what happened today. You broke that. You guys, through your Leader, broke cooperation and good will that people have been trying to do. I can't speak from everybody, but I'm fairly certain that's what, in essence, is what's being thought of right now."

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

"I just… I just want to… I'm a freshman. I'm new learning all of this. I just want to understand the process and what we're doing here. You’re, on an hour's notice, you're asking us to vote on $2.6 billion worth of funding?" Harris, G.: "And for those who have been in our Appropriation Committee, I don't know which ones you serve on, these are topics which we’ve been discussing since the Governor introduced his proposed budget some months ago."

"Well, I understand that those are… those are topics for your committee, which it seems like that's why it would make sense for the people that are in that committee to vote on it. I'm not in that committee and you're asking me, a freshman, to vote on $2.6 billion worth of spending with an hour's notice? Is that not correct?" Harris, G.: "I think, you know, all of us end up voting on the entire budget and all the revenue sources and the pension and Local Government Distributive. That is… that is what we are called upon to do when we come here. It is one of our…"

"No, I understand that. I'm hoping to have more than an hour to review the budget. So I'm asking, is it correct that 09900043.docx 103  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 you've given us about an hour to review $2.6 billion worth of spending?" Harris, G.: "I don't… I think several hours have passed. Now, and as we get closer to May 31, you know, the one thing we'll find, you know, all of us who have been here that, as the clock ticks closer to May 31, any number of issues come upon us very quickly, and we're all called upon, well, you know, to look at these items and evaluate them very… very rapidly."

"You know, I… I'd actually like to address the gallery here 'cause you… you're saying this is open, transparent. I'd like the people in the gallery to raise their hand to let me know if they think voting for $2.6 billion of spending with an hour or two hour's notice is a good idea? Please raise your hand in the gallery if you think that's a good idea. You know what, there's… there's room on the other side of the aisle for you. Welcome to the Illinois Legislature. One person. The reason… the reason I rose and I wanted to speak earlier, this is sad. I'm disappointed as a freshman because I've tried, whenever I've could, to find solutions to the issues that we face in this state, ways to provide better services, maybe more efficiently. There's a million articles about… about the waste in this state and here we're just being thrown $2.6 billion worth of spending with… with an hour to review it. I mean, it almost brought me to tears when I found out this is the way the state operates. The reason I rose, you mentioned about the growing homeless population. The reason things are bad in this state is because this is the way we’ve been operating as a state the last decade or so. And maybe if we improve the way we operate together in a 09900043.docx 104  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 43rd Legislative Day 5/6/2015 bipartisan way, we’d have better solutions. Maybe we would have less homeless, maybe we would have more people working, maybe we wouldn't have so many jobs leaving this state. This is not the way a functioning state operates. Thank you."