"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Committee Reports. Representative Lang, Chairperson from Committee on Rules reports the following committee action on August 12, 2015: recommends be adopted, referred to the floor is Floor Amendment 1 and 2 to House Bill 683."
"The House will be in order. Members will be in their chairs. We will be led in prayer today by Pastor Robert Freeman who is with Kumler United Methodist Church in Springfield. Pastor Freeman is the guest of Representative Poe. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, turn off cell phones and rise for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Freeman."
"Let us pause. Oh, Gracious Spirit that calls us to move and act in respect of one another this day, we call upon You this morning. You always bend Your ear to hear us and to give us all, as individuals, all that we need when we call upon You. Turn Your face towards us, in spite of our shortcomings, as we seek Your wisdom and will for today. You have never failed us. And because of Your omnipotent power and omniscient wisdom, we ask that You would help us govern those whom You have brought up in Your steadfast fear and love. Keep us. We implore Your protection of our officials today and we yield to Your providence. We acknowledge that adversity is sometimes hard upon us as humans, but for every person who stands strong in their adversity, it gives hope to hundreds of others as they face adversity. Grant, Oh Lord, the tenacity of the House of Representatives today to do the things that are necessary that we might be a better people, a better state, a better country; thus, removing all of our 09900077.docx 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 fears and giving us hope. Give them a deep capacity for those persons whom they do not see but know the shadow of their pain is real. Give us the people… give the people the determination to support their elected officials. Give them each respect and help them to maintain respect and dignity for the laws of this great state. We know in doing so, we know that Your will will be done. Bless us as we govern today. In Your gracious name, Amen."
"Be led in the Pledge by Mr. Martwick."
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
"Roll Call for Attendance. Mr. Brown."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the record show that Representatives Andersson, Batinick, Leitch, Morrison, Reis, and Sosnowski are excused this morning. Thank you."
"Mr. Clerk, please take the record. We have 101 Members of the House in the chamber, a quorum is present. The Chair recognizes Representative Hammond."
"Thank you, Mr. Chair. Point of personal privilege."
"Please state your point."
"I would ask that all Members of the chamber join me in wishing a very happy birthday today to Diana Rauner, the First Lady of the State of Illinois.”
"Mr. Meier."
"Point of personal privilege."
"Proceed, Sir." 09900077.docx 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"I'd like to welcome our Page for the day, Cameron Heimann from Belleville. He goes to Belleville East High School as a member of the marching band there. And then his grandparents, Vergil and Janette Heimann from Clinton County. They're in the gallery right behind us."
"Mr. Butler."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Go right ahead, Sir."
"Today, I'd like to recognize one of the Pages on our side, Paul Fee. Paul, wave for us down there. This is Paul's last day. He's been on board since February. He's going to be a teacher's aide in North Mac High School. And thanks for all your work and good luck, my friend."
"Good luck. Congratulations. Bring Mr. Butler some popcorn before you leave. Representative McDermed."
"Thank you. When… back in the old days when I went to Nazareth, back when it was all girls in saddle shoes, on your birthday you brought the cupcakes. It's my birthday tomorrow and I brought the cupcakes. I would have brought a shot, which is what I think we really need, but cupcakes are acceptable and they're in the back and there are covered containers. So please, have a cupcake and let's have some energy this afternoon. Thank you."
"Thank you, Representative. Mr. Martwick."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a point of personal privilege.
"Please proceed."
"First of all, I’d like to thank Representative McDermed for the cupcakes. Thank you very much and happy birthday, a 09900077.docx 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 day early. But I'm also privileged to announce that I have, not one, but three Pages with me here today. And I have Kamil Lungu from Lane Tech High School, Jamaal Bakr from John Hancock High School, and I'm especially proud to announce that I have Agnieszka Kolpak who is a student at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and she is here for the summer, and she is joining us on the floor of the House of Representatives. So, if you'd please give them all a warm welcome."
"Welcome aboard. Thank you for being with us. Mr. Brady."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Please go ahead."
"I just, too, want to say thank you to my seatmate, Representative McDermed, and wish her a happy birthday, and thank her for the cupcakes as well. Happy birthday, Margo."
"Thank you, Dan."
"Thank you. Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege."
"You may proceed."
"We, too, in our row, were going to wish Representative McDermed a happy, happy birthday and thank you for the cupcakes."
Speaker Lang: "Why don’t we just have everybody thank Representative McDermed for the cupcakes. So, now we don’t have to do that one anymore. Mr. Bradley."
"I understand that last Friday was Leader Frank Mautino's birthday. So happy birthday, Frank, and welcome back." 09900077.docx 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"And Mr. Mautino is recognized."
"Not even for a rebuttal. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the cards, the well wishes, the stop-in visits, and support from all of you. It's nice to be back."
"Welcome back, Frank. We made sure we did not pass the budget before you returned. On page 4 of the Calendar, under the Order of House Bills-Second Reading, there appears House Bill 683. Mr. Bradley. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 683, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. This Bill was read a second time on a previous day. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendments 1 and 2 have been approved for consideration. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Bradley."
"Mr. Bradley."
"This is the Bill that's identical to the Governor's property tax proposal. I would ask for an 'aye' vote on this Amendment."
"Representative Nekritz."
"Is this lucky 13?"
"I think it's 12."
"Oh darn, next week."
"Mr. Sandack."
"Spon… Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor, of course, yields."
"I'm going to try a different tactic, Representative. Is there any intention by you any time in the future, like today, to move the Bill over to the Senate?"
"Yeah, if we get the votes, I'll consider that."
"Have you worked the Roll Call?" 09900077.docx 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"I've not had good luck with the Roll Call the last few times, but…"
"Well, traditionally, John, that would mean taking a… like a pad and paper and walking over and talking to people to see if you get the vote, not going for 12 or 13 times on the record and pretending to do a Roll Call, you know, via Amendment. How about doing a traditional, talk to your colleagues?"
"I… I called the Bill one time. I only got 8 votes on it, and then I called it again a day later and it got like 80. So, maybe that'll happen."
"Well, you know, what's amazing? ‘Cause your Leadership, your Leadership. But most of your colleagues don't follow the process you're undertaking. In fact, in my five short years in Legislature, I can’t remember anybody running the same Bill 12 or 13 times by way of Amendment. When is enough, enough? When… when can we stop this charade?"
"When you vote for it."
"Then work a Roll Call the traditional way. I… I respectfully suggest you stop putting these things on the board and stop wasting our time and go talk to your colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. Bradley to close, now that you've been told how to work a Bill."
"I'd ask for an 'aye' vote on Floor Amendment #1."
"Those in favor of the Amendment will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please take the record. On this question, there are 37 voting 'yes', 30… 09900077.docx 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 23 voting 'no', 27 voting 'present'. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"Floor Amendment #2 is offered by Representative Bradley and has been approved for consideration."
"Mr. Bradley."
"This is the collective bargaining prevailing wage portion of the Governor's proposal. I do not support this."
"Those in favor of the Amendment will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there was 1 voting ‘yes’, 68 voting ‘no’, 19 voting ‘present’. And the Amendment fails. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, on Supplemental Calendar #1, under the Order of Senate Bills-Second Reading, there appears Senate Bill 2039. Please read the Bill. Mr. Clerk, before you read that Bill, please read the Committee Report."
"Committee Reports. Representative Daniel Burke, Chairperson from the Committee on Executive reports the following committee action taken on August 12, 2015: do pass as amended Short Debate Senate Bill 2039; recommends be adopted is a Motion to Concur with Senate Amendment #1 to House Bill 745. Representative Gabel, Chairperson from the Committee on Human Services reports the following committee action taken on August 11, 2015; recommends be adopted is House Joint… House Resolution 679; recommends be adopted as amended is House Joint Resolution 77. Representative Greg Harris, Chairperson from the Committee on Appropriations- 09900077.docx 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 Human Services reports the following committee action taken on August 12, 2015; recommends be adopted is Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 972."
"And now, Mr. Clerk, under the Order of Senate Bills-Second Reading, Senate Bill 2039. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2039, a Bill for an Act concerning Appropriations. Second Reading of this Senate Bill. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."
"Agreed Resolutions. House Resolution 696, offered by Representative Butler. House Resolution 697, offered by Representative Leitch. House Resolution 698, offered by Representative Evans. House Resolution 700, offered by Representative Feigenholtz."
"Leader Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Agreed Resolutions are adopted. Mr. Brown is recognized for an announcement."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Republicans request an immediate caucus is Room 118 for one hour."
"The Republicans will caucus immediately in Room 118. The Democrats will caucus immediately in Room 114. And the House will be in recess ‘til the call of the Chair. The House will be in order. On page 11 of the Calendar… Before we go there, the Chair recognizes Mr. Sandack."
"Thank you, Speaker. I appreciate the… the deference. A point of personal privilege, please." 09900077.docx 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Please proceed."
"And actually, an inquiry of the Chair at the same time. Last week, House Bill 576 was passed, which undid the COLA increases for Members of the Legislature. I understand it has yet to go to the Governor. I was wondering if the Chair could inquire and get back to us as to when it's expected to move for the Governor's signature."
"I am told that… Mr. Sandack, in answer to your question. I am told that we expect to send that to the Governor this week."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Thank you. Page 11 of the Calendar, under the Order of Concurrence, House Bill 372, Mr. Hoffman. Please proceed, Sir, on your Concurrence Motion."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Amendment #2 would provide for, in the instance of a township that has a sewer system, that they would have to perform a study, a cost analysis, that would ensure that the rates that are being charged are reflective of the actual costs."
"You heard the Gentleman's Motion. Those in favor of the 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 record yourselves. Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 97 voting 'yes', and 1 voting 'present'. And the House does concur with Senate Amendment #2 to House Bill 372. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Kay is recognized." 09900077.docx 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Yeah… Mr. Speaker, I'm so used to being ‘present’ that I hit my ‘present’ button and I meant to vote for Mr. Hoffman's Bill. Could you see that that is recorded, please?"
"I'm sure Mr. Hoffman is very happy, as well."
"I think he might be."
"The… the record will reflect your intentions, Sir."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Page 9 of the Calendar, under the Order of Senate Bill… Senate Bills-Third Reading, Senate Bill 2042. Mr. Crespo. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2042, a Bill for an Act concerning appropriations. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Mr. Crespo."
"Thank you, Speaker, Members of the House. Senate Bill 2042 does several things. Number one, it adds items requested by the Governor's Office to Senate Bill 42 which appropriated federal funds. It also includes funding for such things as life-saving cancer screenings, meals for home-bound seniors, and services for children and disabilities. It's a combination of federal funds, as well as GRF and other state funds as well, for a total of $1.3… close to $1.3 billion. Happy to answer any questions."
"Mr. Sandack."
"Thank you. A few questions of the Sponsor, please."
"Sponsor yields."
"Fred, this Bill is obviously different than what the Senate passed, yes?"
"Correct." 09900077.docx 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"And there's additional expenditures in your Bill, as amended. Isn’t that correct?"
"Correct."
"Some of those are federal dollars, correct?"
"Right."
"Some are GRF, correct?"
"R… right."
"And some are Other State Funds, correct?"
"Correct."
"So, how much of your Bill is adding on to the Senate Bill that's only federal dollars?"
"We're looking at 634,919,500 in federal funds, additional funds."
"In additional federal funds to what the Senate passed?"
"Correct."
"Okay. And you're aware because you're in touch with what goes on?"
"Speaker, I'm having a real difficult time listening."
Speaker Lang: "Ladies and Gentlemen, important piece of legislation. Can we give these Gentlemen your attention? Can we hold the noise down in the chamber? Mr. Crespo."
"I think you answered it. Thank you, Fred. So, other than the additional federal funds, obviously, this Bill will have to go back to the Senate for Concurrence. Isn’t that right?"
"Correct."
"Okay. In the interim, after the… the federal… the original Bill passed the Senate you're aware, because you're on top of things, that the Governor publicly announced his 09900077.docx 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 intention and his support, intention to sign, and support the Bill as originally passing the Senate, correct?"
"Correct."
"All right. So, since his publicly announced support, the House Democrats have amended the Bill, and I agreed to the adding of the federal dollars. I think that was a good addition. What I don’t understand is why you added GRF and Other State Funds to the otherwise clean federal Bill."
"Well, number one, we do include an item that the Governor's Office had indicated that they wanted to be included with the federal funds, was the funding for IEMA. So, we had to include that anyway, so we're going to follow the process and send it back for Concurrence. Now, we've also added items here that we feel are very important. As I mentioned before, the life-saving cancer screenings, meals for home-bound seniors…"
"Representative, no… no disrespect. My question is… I know they're important to you…”
"Yeah.”
"…and that's what the overall budget concept is all about. This was a clean federal pass-through Bill that everyone announced support for it. It came out of the Senate unanimously, had wide bipartisan support. The Governor said he'd sign it. We were anxious to work with you on that and then, come in, in addition to adding federal funds, you went and added additional things that I have no doubt that you think is important, but you're… you're clearly politicizing the process now because you've gone beyond the scope of what the Senate was doing by adding Other State Funds in GRF." 09900077.docx 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Well, we're not politicizing the… the process here. Let me also add that the five items that we've included for GRF, the… it's a requirement to get the federal funds. You have to… there's a component that GRF dollars have to be spent. So, there's a tie-in as well."
"Well, yeah, but that would mean we have to appropriate the entire Medicaid program and then we'd get all the federal funds that way too, but let's keep this process clean. Fred, I'm going to ask you to withdraw your Amendment. We can put the federal funds on it, have a clean Bill, 'cause it has to go back to the Senate anyway then, and we'll have a (sic-the) Governor sign some important legislation that will pass through, you know, federal funds, in a bipartisan, good government way, without this extra nonsense. Would you be willing to pull your Amendment back and just keep it a federal pass-through Bill?”
"No. We're going to try to pass this Bill as it is."
"Okay. And how many votes do you need?"
"We need 71 votes."
"Okay. Have you got 71 Members there?"
"Well, I think we have 93 Members here today or something like that when we add this side and that side. So, we have more than sufficient to get the 71."
"Well, if you don’t get the required 71, would you be interested then in amending your Bill so that we get something quickly to the Governor that does really… that does some important, you know, good things, which means getting these federal pass-through dollars to people quickly. Would you then am… amend your Bill so we can get something done today?" 09900077.docx 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Let me work on this Bill first."
"Okay. Keep that in mind if you wouldn’t mind. T… to the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think there's any doubt that the intentions to add additional federal funds is a good thing. We can all agree to that. The additional GRF and Other State Funds is a thwarting measure. It gets in the way of good process. It clearly gets in the way of getting something done today because the Governor, as you all know, announced he will not sign anything with a poison pill. Whether you think it's a poison pill or not, doesn't matter. It's not what the Senate sent over and it expands the concept and the construct of what we were trying to accomplish in a bipartisan basis. I'm going to ask my friends on our side to vote 'present'. I'm going to ask my friends on the other side, should it not get 71 votes, let's amend the Bill and get something done today and get federal pass-through dollars to the recipients that need it as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. Harris." Harris, G.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, to the Bill and to the last speaker. I just want to clarify exactly, you know, what the intention is and you know, we talked about this in our Appropriation Committee this Monday to be sure that Members on both sides of the aisle understood that no one was trying to do something, you know, tricky or… or otherwise, by adding items into this Bill that required fed… state payment for federal funds. There are different kinds of ways we receive federal funds in the state. There are direct federal grants; there are also matching items, and then there is a third category of things called Maintenance of Effort. And I 09900077.docx 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 think in our opening remarks in the Joint General Services and Human Services Appropriation Committee, we made that clear. Child care, Early Intervention, breast and cervical cancer fall in the second and third of those categories. You know, if we do not make certain payments as a state, we either lose federal match or we would lose on our Maintenance of Effort in subsequent years. So, these are directly related to federal funds. The GRF funds must be expended in order for us to receive these federal funds. I think they are totally appropriate. And the speaker before me said, well, you know, what… then we'd have to appropriate the entire Medicaid program. Well, I just want to remind the speaker before me that the Governor has gone into court, and the Governor and his departments have said they already agree to pay every dollar in the state Medicaid program through the consent decrees, Beeks and Memisovski. So, that’s already happening and I just wanted to remind the Gentleman that. But he said one other thing that just really struck me, is that the breast and cervical cancer program could get in the way; that women with breast cancer could get in the way of getting this deal done. What we're talking about here is the Emergency management Authority for this state. We heard from the Mutual Alarm Box System, the fire departments who provide fire and emergency services to this state. We heard from ILEAS, the Illinois Law Enforcement Authority that provides joint terrorism training and support for law enforcement through the state to respond to natural disasters, to respond to floods and tornadoes. Those are all very important things, but to say that somehow caring for women with breast cancer 09900077.docx 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 would get in the way and that you would stop funding for these things because somehow women for breast cancer need care, I think is the wrong way to put this. I hope you'll reconsider your remarks. There may be things that you would consider you don’t want to vote for, but don’t tell a woman with breast cancer, don’t tell a family that have kids who need Early Intervention, and don’t tell somebody who is relying on the state to help them with child care so that they can go to work that they are ones standing in the way of us doing the right thing. Thank you."
"Mr. Davidsmeyer."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"We went through a lot of this in committee yesterday. When we received this Bill, 2042, from the Senate, do you know what the vote count on it was?"
"I think it was pretty close to unanimous. I think. I haven’t looked. I don’t remember."
"Yeah, I believe it was unanimous. And I believe it would be unanimous here today. What happens… since you added this Amendment, what happens now?"
"Well, we're hoping to get 71 votes, and send it back for Concurrence."
"Wh… what’s the process for this Bill to become a law?"
"We need to get 71 votes today, and send it back to the Senate for Concurrence." 09900077.docx 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"So, without that Amendment, if we pass that here today, which it would pass, I would guess near unanimously, what would happen?"
"Well, again, as I mentioned to the previous…”
"Now…”
"…speaker, the Governor did ask that we include an item on this Bill, so we had to follow this process regardless."
"You… you can talk about that as much as you want…"
"It's a fact."
"…the question was, what happens if this Amendment was not added, what would happen with $4.8 billion in federal spending?"
"Go back to the Governor."
“It would go directly to the Governor today. You could send it to him today to be signed, correct?"
"Again… Go ahead."
"So… And I asked you also, you know, I… I have a respect for you. I served on General Appropriations Committee with you last year and I thought you ran a great committee. You worked with us really well. So, I do have a respect for you and I said, I'm sorry that you're stuck in the middle. And yesterday, you said, no, no, I'm not stuck in the middle on this. So, was it your idea to delay $4.8 billion in federal spending…”
"I think, collec…”
“…by putting it on this Bill?”
“It was our idea as a try and attempt to fund these critical services to the people we represent."
"So, it wasn’t your idea." 09900077.docx 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"In light of what happened yesterday with JCAR. By the way, I want to applaud my… my fellow colleagues on this side that tried to preempt the rules that are… it was a disgrace for child care. In light of that, we're hoping to give these folks some hope. So, I think collectively we feel very strongly about these issues. There's a federal component to this as well we need a GRF component to get those federal dollars."
"But now, let… let me ask you this. You've been here… you said yesterday, you've been here for 9 years. I've been here for 2 and a half. I understand the process. So, if you would have taken this Amendment and added it to another Bill, that could have gone to the Senate. That could have passed here or not passed here, it could have gone to the Senate, it could… and then go to the Governor. But this Bill would have passed clean. We would have sent $4.8 billion for services that are needed in the State of Illinois that could have been provided today. But by adding this Amendment, you've delayed the process, correct?"
"I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question? I got a little distracted."
"I said, by… by adding this Amendment, you have completely delayed the process."
"The pro… It's a moot point in the sense that the Governor…”
"It’s not a moot point.”
"…did ask that we add the IEMA component to this Bill. So, the process is going to be like this regardless." 09900077.docx 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"So, that’s a little bit a stretch of the truth because the reality is 2042, as a clean Bill, would have provided service for, I believe, the WIC program, domestic violence, food banks, child care, rehab services, alcohol, substance abuse, DD community services, senior health insurance program, senior meals program, congregate meals program. We went through all these services that this Bill would provided for without this Amendment. So, by adding $6 billion in federal funds to this Bill, you delay it a week, right?"
"You know, as I mentioned this in committee yesterday, Representative, that we keep talking about the delay. Again, I repeat, the Governor did ask us to include an item to this Bill. Secondly, in terms of delays, the Governor's delayed this since May. I mean, we sent this to the Governor back in May when we passed the budget Bill and he had the option of using the line-item Veto, take the things that he didn’t want. So, this process has been delayed because the Governor delayed it since May."
"You know, you… you can talk about the delay, so… so… the delay since May, you're saying what's another week. What's another week, right? That’s what you're saying to me.”
"No.”
"What's another week of delay?”
"No. No, what I’m saying is…”
"That’s what you're saying to me."
"You're talking about a delay. I'm talking about the denying services to, again, breast and cervical cancer screenings, Early Intervention, and… and Meals on Wheels for 09900077.docx 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 seniors. We can't deny these folks the services that we've been delaying… that the Governor's been delaying since May.”
"You're taking a clean Bill that passed near unanimous out of the Senate, that would pass near unanimous out of this House, that would provide $4.8 billion to needed services, and you're adding a Bill that is a poison pill. You added general revenue into it, which pushes this into the greater general revenue budget discussion. You're trying to pull in a political battle to something that didn't need to happen. This is all stuff that we care about, but it has to be part of the bigger discussion. The $4.8 billion and the other, I believe, $600 million of federal funds that you added, we wouldn’t argue about. But adding it to this Bill was not the right thing to do. You're delaying it by at least a week, and I would argue that if this Bill passes today, that it’s going to be gut… vetoed by the Governor and we're going to delay it even further."
"The Governor can veto it. He has some tools available to either use line-item Veto and get what he wants. Now, I really take exception and I… I repeat what Representative Greg Harris mentioned before. We keep calling this a poisoned pill. So… so, to talk about life-saving cancer screenings, meals for homebound seniors…”
"I’m not saying those services…”
"…services for children…”
"I’m not saying those services are…”
"And yesterday, they called this muddying the waters. They called this yesterday in committee that this is a waste of time." 09900077.docx 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Those services are not a poison pill. I'm saying throwing this into the middle of the general revenue discussion is the poison pill. Don't put words in my mouth. You are delaying $4.8 billion in funds that could be going directly to services. You’re… you're delaying 90 percent of the funding for 10 percent of other things. And… and you're trying to make this a political problem and it's not. The $4.8 billion is something we can agree on. I think that the people of Illinois send us here, they want us to work together, and the clean Senate Bill 2042 showed that we can actually work together. It showed we can actually work together. Why can't we pass that funding? Why can't we table this Amendment? Why… why can’t we table this Amendment, and just move forward with $4.8 billion? You can add this Amendment to another Bill, have a separate vote on it. It can go through next went after the Senate and go to the Governor later, but this could pass today. It could have an effect today."
"Again, we have this Bill that the Governor requested this funding for IEMA. Number 2, we're really correcting something that the Governor's office delayed back in May. And number 3, th… the 10 percent that you make reference to, we care a lot about that 10 percent and I think…”
"I do too. I do too.”
"…you do care too. So to help us support us, get us the 71 votes, and then the Governor can do whatever he wants."
"This delays the 90 percent. I care about the 90 percent too. So, you're delaying the 90 percent based on the 10 percent." 09900077.docx 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"No, they're included in this Bill."
"You're delaying it, right?
"Well, this has been delayed since May, Representative. We're correcting it now.”
"You can keep on your talking points. You can stay on your talking points and they're great talking points, and I appreciate that you came to the floor prepared with the same talking points that you had in committee, but the reality is you're delaying $4.8 billion for seniors and for other services that need to happen in the State of Illinois. I think you care about this stuff. I agree that you care about this stuff, but the problem is you're delaying it. I think you're put in the middle of this. I think you're saying, no, no, no, I haven’t been put this position. I think you've been put in a horrible position. You’re… you're the… you’re not a bad guy. Table this Amendment and let's move forward with passing the actual Bill. I urge you to table the Amendment and let us pass $4.8 billion in federal spending that will go to help people today."
"Mr. Clerk, Rules Report."
Clerk Hollman: "Representative Currie, Chairperson from the Committee on Rules reports the following committee action taken on August 12, 2015: recommends be adopted, referred to the floor is Floor Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 2042."
"Representative Bellock."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields." 09900077.docx 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Representative Crespo, in reaction to… about needing the general revenue funds to draw down the federal funds, those… all general revenue funds should be negotiated but they can be negotiated when we negotiate the entire general revenue funds. Isn’t that correct?"
"I believe so."
"I'm… I'm sorry, I couldn't hear."
"I believe so. I'm having trouble with sound."
"Okay. Thank you. So, I'm pretty sure that that's accurate, that we can negotiate those at a later time. So, to the Bill, Mr. Speaker. We had a lot of discussion on this yesterday at the combined Human Service/General Service meeting. And I think what came over from the Senate, and I applaud Senator Steans for her work on that Bill to try to have a clean Bill that's a bipartisan Bill, because the people of the State of Illinois are sick and tired of the tug of war. They want a budget for the State of Illinois. I see this compromise as a clean Bill to move forward with somewhat of a partial solution to move almost $5 billion of federal funds to help agencies and to help people in the State of Illinois, while the regular budget is still… the end is not near, or people cannot see that. So, I would ask all of us to support the underlying clean Bill that both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted whole heartedly as a compromised solution, and that they expected us to move along, so that this money could get decided upon today and go to the Governor. I would ask all of us to support that underlying Bill and show the rest of the people in Illinois that the Legislators down here 09900077.docx 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 are willing to compromise and work on solutions to help people in our state. Thank you."
"Mr. Kay."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"Thank you very much. First of all, I have a number of questions, Representative Crespo, but I'd like to clarify the record before we go any further. I heard something said by a previous speaker about Representative Sandack disparaging a program, and women in a program, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so forth. And that simply is not true. And I think if we're going to come in here and we're going to talk about the people's business, we need to tell the truth. I mean, that's where good government starts. So, let's… let's start with that and let’s not have any more of this nonsense that we're hearing about Representative and Representative not supporting women. That's simply not the case. Representative Crespo, I'd like to begin by suggesting that we talk about due diligence. Have you done your due diligence with respect to putting together the financial aspects of this Bill?"
"We work with staff on doing that."
"I'm sorry. I can't hear you."
"The staff helped us do that, right."
"Well, let me… let me harken back then to some of the questions I had yesterday. Do we have answers to the financial questions I had yesterday as to how much we've spent, how much we have on hand, what our contingent liabilities are, and what we intend to spend this year above and beyond $32 billion? Do we have those answers?" 09900077.docx 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"A… I said yesterday in committee, Representative, there's some consent decrees that they're still trying to figure out how much that's going to cost the state. This, I know for a fact, that this Bill, coupled with the Bill that the Governor signed, House Bill 3763, which dealt with education funding for K-12, amounts to $7.65 billion. That's all we know right now. That’s a fact.”
"Well, that’s…”
"The other stuff is very dynamic number; we're trying to figure that out."
"Well, it may be dynamic, but did you take the time to get the the answers to the questions that I just asked, which I asked yesterday?"
"We… we're trying to get the answers from the administration. As a matter of fact, I believe they met yesterday in committee and they're all over the place. So, it's very difficult to give you a factual number until we know from… from the Governor's Office what those numbers are."
"Mr. Crespo, do you… do you really care how much money we spend in this budget this year?"
"Absolutely."
"So, how do you think we're going to spend… we're on a track right now to spend $38 billion. Are you aware of that?"
"All I know is the Bill that I have before me right now."
"I'm sorry?"
"All I… All I know is the facts I gave you right now; how much money we have in this Bill and what the Governor signed when he signed the education Bill, the totals." 09900077.docx 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Well, would it surprise you to tell… if I told you that we're on track to spend $38 billion?"
"Representative, we passed the Bill. The Governor could have curtailed the spending back in May."
"That’s not my question, Sir."
"But that’s the answer I'm going to give you."
"I… I… you know, why is it you just can’t… you know what we do in here? And it's not just you. We get into this thing called wor… word salad. We throw a bunch of words up in the air. We throw them around, we mix it up, we throw it in the bowl and we say here it is, and that’s word salad. And I'm tired of it. If I can't get an answer, just tell me you don't want to answer my questions."
"I gave you an answer, Representative."
"I'm sorry?"
"I gave you an answer."
"Well, let me back it up a minute. So, here we go again. What if I told you that we were going to spend $36.2 million, what would you say then?"
"Again, we passed a spending plan. We sent it to the Governor, and… just for the record, too, we're talking about process here, Representative. The budget process starts with the Governor's administration, when he presents a budget to this House and the Senate, and that budget, presented by the Governor was out of balance by over $3 billion. So, the process has been flawed from the get-go.”
"Well…”
"So, hopefully, you'll be as… hopefully, you ask the Governor the same questions." 09900077.docx 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"You know… Mr. Speaker, I guess this isn’t going to go anywhere. I… what I guess I'm going to say is to the Bill. We're going… we're on a track right now to spend more money that is simply inconceivable, we'll never pay for, and that's wrong. There is no way we can pay. No way that we can pay. I understand, and I hope everyone listens today, I understand that we're in a historical struggle in the State of Illinois between a guy who wants to be the gatekeeper, and a guy who wants to be a gatecrasher. Now, if you want to be a gatecrasher, you can go ahead and vote. You can vote for this Bill. You want to be a gatekeeper, then you're going to vote 'no' or you're going to vote 'present'. We've had gatecrashers for 30 years. We haven’t had a gatekeeper but for 8 months. Vote 'no' or vote 'present'. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. Harris." Harris, D.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question of the Sponsor, please?"
"Sponsor will yield." Harris, D.: "Representative, what is the effective date of this Bill?"
"It's effective immediately." Harris, D.: "So, it's effective immediately. So, how many votes is it going to take to pass?"
"Seventy-one, as I stated earlier." Harris, D.: "Assuming that everyone on this side of the aisle is not supportive, I don’t know that you have 71 votes on your side of the aisle." 09900077.docx 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Representative, we're debating this Bill with both… both sides and I'm looking at the entire universe here and I'm hoping to get the 71 votes." Harris, D.: "Well, I… I hear you. I just question whether or not you're really are going to be able to put this Bill out today. Let me ask you that did put in, in this Amendment, it does contain a general revenue funds addition, correct?"
"Correct." Harris, D.: "Of about how much?"
"General revenue funds total would be 634,919,000." Harris, D.: "Of GRF?"
"Of GRF.” Harris, D.: "Okay. So…”
"I'm sorry. I’m sorry. Let me back track. That’s the federal funds.” Harris, D.: "Okay.”
"GRF, 584,892,000." Harris, D.: "So, about 585 million in general revenue funds. And I can tell you that, other than the general revenue funds, if you look at just the federal funds, I would think that you would get an awful lot of support from this side of the aisle. As a matter of fact, an Amendment has been filed to House Bill 1914 that adds all of the federal funds that are included in your Amendment #2, which is for th… the federal school agriculture, for terrorism preparedness, for emergency preparedness grant. So, the Republicans, and just looking at Republican and Democrat, were willing to be helpful and cooperative to pass those federal funds. The issue is the general revenue fund, the addition of the general revenue 09900077.docx 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 fund, which causes a problem because we don't have a budget. Let me ask you, do we know what level we're spending general revenue fund at now?"
"I think a response to a similar question earlier, Representative. You know, when you factor in how much is… how much is being spent for education K-12, and you add this portion that we have today, I know that’s 7.6… 7 billion 65. There's some consent decrees that it has to go out the door and we met… There was a name in the Governor's Office administration, yesterday, and we don’t have an answer yet." Harris, D.: "Yes. And if I may address the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I know… the Gentleman just said how much we have spent to date on the appropriation, the education appropriation, that was funded and also what would be funded in this Bill. But Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, we have no idea on how much our general revenue funds are being expended, currently, because we're not operating with a budget. We're operating under consent decrees and court orders. Are we spending at a $32 billion rate? Are we spending at a $34 billion rate? Are we spending at a $38 billion rate? We don’t know. You know, when a business looks to… to locate in Illinois, people say, well… they look at the tax rates. And what are the tax rates? Are the tax rates too high; or is the workers' compensation rate too high. And those are factors that come into play. But you know another factor that comes into play? Can the state govern itself? We can't govern ourselves. That’s what a business leader says. We can't pass a budget for the fiscal year. In reality… seriously. In reality, and I borrow a phrase that a colleague on the Democrat side of the aisle mentioned to me 09900077.docx 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 yesterday, we can’t even close the state right. I mean, we're operating without a budget, yet, the Tribune reports that 80 percent, 80 percent, of our potential revenue is already going out the door because of consent decrees and court orders, and we rush to court to make sure that the… the state employees get paid. We have continuing appropriations. We have court orders, we have consent decrees that are keeping money going out the door and we, the General Assembly, that’s supposed to be responsible for keeping track of these things and passing appropriations Bills so that we know how much money we are spending and that it equates with the amount of revenue that's coming in. We have no idea, no idea whatsoever, how much money we are spending because of the way we are operating. It's an embarrassment. And it doesn’t reflect just badly on one side or the other. Sure, we're going to take a vote here and, perhaps, some of the Republicans are going to vote 'no' and… and then those mailers are going to out and say, oh, you Republicans, you hate all those people that… that need the women and children care, and child care, and women, children and infants, and all those programs that support the poor. You know what? This reflects badly on all of us, on all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike. So, to pass this Bill, in this form, doesn’t help the process at all when we know if it were only the federal funds, if it were in the form that it came over from the st… from the Senate, it would fly out of here on a unanimous Roll Call and go to Governor's desk today. And oh, by the way, it’s my understanding that a clean Amendment… a clean Amendment, minus GRF, has just come out of Rules. Amazing how that happens. Ladies and Gentlemen, an 09900077.docx 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 additional $585 million in general revenue funds, which we don’t know how much we're spending, makes us look even worse than what we are. We know that we can put a clean Bill on the Governor's desk, fund these programs using almost $5 billion in those federal funds. The only vote… the only vote that is appropriate on this Bill is either a ‘no’ or a ‘present’ vote, because we know we're going to have the opportunity, I think, to put a clean Bill on the Governor's desk very soon. Thank you."
"Mr. Cabello."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield my time to Representative Sandack."
"Mr. Sandack."
"Thank you. Will the… will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor yields."
"Fred, I… We were just served, a few minutes ago, with another Amendment to your Bill, Amendment #3. And unfortunately, I think we're… maybe we'll get there because of time. Your B… the Amendment #3, I'm told, we're reading it as we sp… as we have this conversation, gets rid of the GRF components of your current Bill that’s on the board. Are you aware of Amendment #3?"
"Yep."
"Okay. So, the conversation you and I had from the get- go and what Representative Harris talked about, i.e., making the Bill clean, that was in the spirit of what was sent over and what the Governor says he'd sign. Is Amendment #3 consistent with that sentiment?"
"I'm sorry, Ron. What was that?" 09900077.docx 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Is Amendment #3 consistent with what the Senate came ov… sent over and what the Governor said he'd sign?"
"If… if we get to that Amendment, I'll be more than happy to talk about the Amendment.”
"Would you just answer my question, Fred?”
"We're talking about Amendment #2 right now."
"I know, but we've wasted a heck of a lot of time with you saying you're going to try and get 71. You're not getting 71 votes. It's not going to happen. How about we work in a bipartisan fashion and pass a clean Bill, which is what we all want to do in a bipartisan fashion. Let's get rid of the show trials and actually work in a, you know, in a collegial manner. Withdraw this Bill and… and I guess we have to wait ‘til 1:32… but then let's run the clean Bill, assuming it's clean, and we'll all put votes on it, please. Would you do that?"
"We're going to attempt to pass this Bill. We…"
"To the Bill. Obstinance in the face of reality, there are no… There are not 71 Democrats here. So, we're not going to get 71 votes on this Bill. It's not going to happen. And amid this discussion, and Amendment #3 is filed, which may… which may, be a completely clean Bill consistent with what the Senate did and what the Governor said he'd welcome. And what Republicans on this aisle said we'd like to work with you all on and, instead, we're going to go through this continued show trial, the continued game of politics, and gotcha politics, at that. What a shame. Can’t we get to something that we can agree upon? Let's use our time far more 09900077.docx 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 wisely, people. We keep coming here and doing nothing productive. This is another example of that."
"Leader Durkin."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can you advise the… the Body to lower the discussions? This is an important Bill. I'd like to make a few comments."
"Go right ahead, Sir."
"Thank you. You know what, I… I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we know exactly what this Bill in its form is about. And Representative Crespo, I've known you for years, you're a fine man, but this Bill is not going to pass. You have 11 Members that are missing. We're not going to support the Bill in its form. There is a Bill… an Amendment, Floor Amendment 3, which is currently… has been kicked out of the Rules Committee, which we will support. And a matter of fact, I'll go even one step further. The Governor does support Floor Amendment #3 to this Bill. So, why don’t we cut out the nonsense, table this Bill in… in this form. Let's go right to Floor Amendment 3. Let's get this over with, and let's not go on with the charades, 'cause we know what's going on right now. This Bill won't pass, Fred. You know it. I know it. Let's not go down this road where we're just continually going to have mail pieces against… negative pieces that are part of this, I think, a very unfortunate summer that we're going down. We finally have reached some type of an accord on a very important issue. And when the second floor says that… the Governor says he's going to support that Amendment, I think it means a lot. And I'm willing, and I'm ready, to waive the posting, whatever the time requirement is, to get right 09900077.docx 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 to Floor Amendment #3. So, why don’t we just get rid of this, table this Amendment, do whatever the procedural Motion is to mo… to stop this process on this amended Bill, and let's go right to Floor Amendment 3. What do you think?"
"We… You know what? In light of what happened… special… in light of what happened yesterday in JCAR, Leader Durkin, where we, again… there’s an attempt… there's been an attempt to attack the middle class and folks who need services. And yesterday in JCAR, we had an opportunity to preempt the Governor's emergency rules and make sure that these folks, these single moms that need help with child care, are not going to be able to get their child care. This now becomes even more important, to let these folks know that there are services out there that we don’t want to deny those services to them, and please join us. And if the Governor doesn’t like it, he can use a line item… a line-item Veto, which he should have done back in May."
"Representative Crespo, you're doing the thing… the things that the public is despising about this process right now. You know that this Bill, right now, is meant to fail. It is nothing more than politics. You know it. I know it. I've given you a representation of where our caucus is going to be on Floor Amendment #3 and the Governor is going to sign it when it gets to his desk. Let's stop this nonsense. Let's stop the games. Let's get to the business of providing services to the people of the State of Illinois on this federal funding Bill, which is a disaster wh… what happened with this Bill when it came over here. People are sickened by this process about 09900077.docx 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 what happened with the Bill. Don’t let that happen with this Bill, Fred. You're a better man than that."
"Mr. Mitchell." Mitchell, C.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. I went back to get some water before speaking, and I went to check and got my water on the other side of the aisle, and I was wondering, it being a clear substance, if maybe it might have been replaced with vodka or something like that because there’s no other way that some of the comments that have come from the other side of the aisle about whose fault this is, could possibly have been said by somebody who was in their right mind. There just isn’t a way that could have happened. So, let’s walk this down because what should be emphasized, and it’s been said, but let me say it a little louder, the Governor vetoed this spending in the first place. The reason we’re here is because the Governor, rather than using his line-item Veto, rather than taking his Amendatory Veto power, decided to veto this spending, right? And here’s the deal. We’ve had a very intellectual conversation about this, I appreciate that. And I appreciate bipartisanship, I do a lot of bipartisan work. But here’s the deal. I represent the hostages in this crisis. A lot of them live in my district, right? I have a mother who’s a 15-year survivor of breast cancer, so this thing about breast cancer screenings being a poison pill is insane. Furthermore, I have mothers who have called my district to, not next month, not next year, but next week, don’t know if they can go to work if they don’t have child care, who have to choose between whether or not they take care of the child that they love, or go to work. 09900077.docx 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 And all of this, by the way, is being held hostage to an agenda, pushed by the Governor, that undermines the wages and working conditions of working families. Something that half the people on your side don’t support, but that people are going along with implicitly. And then, your question is about show trials and mock trials, and you dare to be indignant at this side of the aisle. You dare be indignant at this side of the aisle over process and these sorts of things when there are people, next week, who don’t know how they’re taking care of their child or going to work. The kind of work that people say, on your side of the aisle, say should be happening so that people can have a chance at the American dream. And… and we’re the ones who are the problem? None of that actually makes sense. And believe it or not, to the folks who comment on whether or not this Bill is going to pass, I can’t speak for that side of the aisle but I can say that over here, we put up Bills because we believe in them. Because we believe they’re the right thing to do. Because we believe that they ought to pass as is. And we believe that right now, the child care crisis, the crisis of breast cancer screenings, is so important that this funding cannot wait another minute. And if the Governor believed that, too, it would already be signed into law. You stop the charades. You stop the show trials. You stop being used in a tool as… as a tool in a process that is attempting to underline… undermine the wages and working conditions of working families and then we can advance this Bill. Vote ‘yes’."
"Mr. Hays." 09900077.docx 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. You know the notion that somehow we file Bills that we believe in, surely, you’re not serious. At least six or eight times, your side files a Bill, gets up and said I’m not for this concept. Please vote ‘no’. Happened repeatedly. That notion is absurd on its face. Seventy-five percent of the General Assembly, three chambers, the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, the Republicans in the House, agree, pass this forward to the Governor. I said three weeks ago, we should lock the doors of this chamber and we should call our families and tell them we’re not going to be home next week or the week after that, or on Labor Day, or until this is done. I… I’d call for that again, but I would say that when I explain to my constituents what actually goes on here, sometimes I have to thank you, because I couldn’t make this stuff up on my own. I couldn’t make up on my own that 75 percent of the General Assembly has finally reached an agreement on an issue and that we’re playing out this clown act once again. While the debate is going on, the Bill that will actually pass is b… the Bill that will actually pass is being cooked up in the back room. I can’t even make that stuff up. I say, in the interest of doing what’s right; I say in the interest of sh… stopping this sham, I ask our side of the aisle, don’t vote on this nonsense at all. I’m… I move the previous question. And I say let’s get on to the serious business of this Body."
"Mr. Hays, there’s only one speaker left. I’m sure you’ll indulge Leader Mautino. We haven’t heard from him in some time. Leader Mautino." 09900077.docx 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Gee, thanks, Lou. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I do rise in support of the Amendments. The GRF component is critical and it is important in the areas… five of the areas: LIHEAP, breast and cervical cancer screenings, Early Intervention, Meals on Wheels, and child care. And it’s more important, just because of the way those line-items function, and how they work. The GRF payments to child care program have to go in on a monthly basis. If they don’t, we put at risk $500 million of federal funding from there. And the program, yes, without that provision in this Bill, can limp along poorly for a very short period of time. And that is true with the other items, other than LIHEAP, that have a Maintenance of Effort. So, although the Senate sent a good Bill, there are pieces that every person in this chamber care about that, structurally, cannot happen without Maintenance of Effort. And they cannot happen, other than for a very short time without causing us to lose federal dollars, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, for programs that mean a lot to everyone in this room. And so, for that reason, I commend the Sponsor on including those very important items that every one of us care about. There’s no one in this room that says they’re not in favor of continuing to fund breast and cervical cancer screenings, of Earlier Intervention, of child care for those. But the true reality is there is a GRF function that you cannot tie into the bigger picture on these programs. That GRF is important so we do not have to pay back the Federal Government, and so that those systems that are important to all of us do not collapse, or be forced to limp along, while we go on with the other discussions that are 09900077.docx 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 important too. So, I say… I would ask for a ‘yes’ vote on this Amendment just because of the thought and care that’s been put into the programs that all of us are concerned with and that all of us know, sooner or later, very shortly, we are going to have to fund. And so, with that, I’d ask for an ‘aye’ vote."
"Mr. Crespo to close."
"Thank you, Speaker. And I want to thank all the Members who had some thoughts on this Bill. Let me go to something that was mentioned earlier that… is accusing us of politicizing the system or the process by… by including services for our most of most neediest citizens. I’ll tell you what’s political though, all the mail pieces that we’ve been receiving on this side. Actually, we have a downstater, Representative Cloonen, who I understand just got her seventh attack mail piece. That is political. It makes it so difficult to work on something when you’re being attacked all the time. So, it’s kind of… It is audacity to say that it’s… helping the folks that we’re here to serve and represent is political, is… is nonsense. A couple of facts: the $584 million in GRF represents 1.8 percent of Governor Rauner’s revenue estimate of $32 billion. That’s all it is. The items that we have listed in this Amendment are critical services, but also, there’s a timeliness issue here. For example, the fact that we’ve delayed the payments to the LIHEAP program has already set them back two or three months. What does that mean? You’re going to have citizens that you represent, come December, come January, who need their services restored so they can heat their homes. They’re not going to have that because we’ve 09900077.docx 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 already delayed that. Even if LIHEAP got the money they needed today, it’s already been delayed two or three months. That’s critical. You’re talking about breast and cervical cancer screenings. You talk to the folks… the ladies out there who need that service. You’re going to tell me that’s not critical? Early Intervention for kids with a disability, that’s not critical? Meals on Wheels for seniors. You tell them that that’s not critical. And child care, especially in light of what happened yesterday during the JCAR meeting. Again, I think we’re correcting something that, unfortunately, the administration, for whatever reason, did not take care of back in May so this process has been delayed since May. The Governor could have line-item vetoed the things that he didn’t want and he could maintain the federal funding in place. So, it’s been delayed for a while. And here’s the thing about the budget, we keep talking about numbers and that’s just one component of our budget. But there’s that social responsibility part that gets in the way, I guess, for some people, and we need to deal with the social responsibility component as well. And that’s what this Bill does. And to my colleagues on that side, you know, voting ‘no’ is an easy vote, but at some point, we need to stop practicing 50 shades of ‘no’. You’ve got to stand up for something. I hope you stand with us on this one and help the folks that need these services today. Thank you."
"Those in favor of the Gentleman’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? Please record yourselves, Members. Have all voted who wish? Mr. 09900077.docx 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 54 voting ‘yes’, 2 voting ‘no’, 4 voting ‘present’, and the Bill fails. The Chair is in receipt of a Motion from Leader Currie on Senate Bill 2042. Having voted on the prevailing side, she moves to reconsider the vote. Those in favor of her Motion will vote ‘yes’; opposed, ‘no’. The ‘ayes’ have it. And the vote is reconsidered. Senate 2042… Senate Bill 2042 is restored to the Order of Third Reading. Mr. Crespo moves that this Bill be moved back to the Order of Second Reading for purposes of Amendment. Is there leave? Leave is granted. And the Bill is placed on the Order of Second Reading. Leader Currie moves that all applicable rules be waived for purposes of hearing Amendment 3 immediately. Is there leave? Leave is granted. Mr. Clerk, please read Senate Bill 2042."
"Senate Bill 2042, a Bill for an Act concerning appropriations. This Bill was read a second time on a previous day. Amendment #2 was adopted in committee. Floor Amendment #3 is offered by Representative Crespo."
"Mr. Crespo an Amendment 3."
"Thank you, Speaker. Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 2042 includes 3 things. It funds the federal portion of ISBE. They’re getting additional funds from the feds. It also includes funding for IEMA, federal funding as well. And it also includes a debt service for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority."
"Those in favor of the Amendment will vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Please take the record. There are 98 09900077.docx 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 2042, a Bill for an Act concerning appropriations. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"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? Mr. Thapedi. Please take the record. On this question, there are 98 voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. And this Bill, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Chair recognizes Leader Durkin."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Go right ahead, Sir."
"I have a… I was just going to ask a couple questions of the Sponsor of the Bill, but… I just want to thank the other side of the aisle for coming to sense on what is an important issue, which we should not have to gone on through this exercise over the last half hour. I’m not quite sure what happened with Representative Crespo over the last 15 minutes when I asked you to pull this out of the record, and let’s get to the House Floor Amendment #3, which we just voted on. As I told you, we supported it. What’s important is that we’re not adding GRF to that Bill. It was a clean Bill when it came over here. It’s in a good position right now. It’s going to go back to the Senate on Concurrence. I feel confident that it will pass the Senate. And I also feel very confident that the Governor will sign the Bill. I just think it’s unfortunate 09900077.docx 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 that we’re going to go through this process in which we’re going to continue to have… We can talk about a lot of things, what happened at JCAR, what happened last week, but the fact is you guys are r… you guys are running the ship here. And you’re constantly putting votes up for p… for strictly for political purposes and that’s what happened on the last Bill. I hope we can move away from that. What happened right now, coming to an agreement on Floor Amendment #3 is the way we should be operating moving forward. So, I just hope that as this summer goes along, I know the tensions are… are getting higher, but I think this is an example where I think that we could build on, as opposed to going down this path of child’s play strictly for political purposes and I think that’s unfortunate. So, I’m glad we did pass this Bill. It’s important. We… As I said earlier, we should not have gone through this nonsense with Floor Amendment #2. Floor Amendment #3 is fair. It’s responsible for the citizens of Illinois. And I can say today that we did the right thing for everyone in this State."
"Mr. Franks."
"Thank you. A point of personal privilege."
"Proceed, Sir."
"I like what my friend just said. He’s 100 percent right that we ought to be working together and getting things done. And this Bill that we just passed unanimously, it’s overtime that we did so. I mean, it was embarrassing to me when McPier did not make its bond authority payment and now they’ll have the ability to do so once the Senate comes back next week and does that. I also want to thank the Governor today for his 09900077.docx 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 leadership and explaining to the University of Illinois trustees that they ought to reject a $400 thousand payment package to someone for staying but then leaving under a cloud. Now, how is it that a chancellor can make a salary of $550 thousand a year and then get paid another $100 thousand a year retention bonus, and then leaves under a cloud? I mean, is it that bad that we have to pay people to stay? Is $550 thousand a year not enough? We’ve created a monster over there and we’ve got to rein it in. I mean, and think about the pension obligations when someone makes almost a million dollars a year. The state university employees are already well-compensated and those that have the highest pensions in this state are university employees. So, I appreciate the Governor for talking to the trustees and I hope that they follow his lead. I also want to thank Representative Batinick, and he met with me recently to tell me about the procurement problems at the universities in Illinois. And he indicated that if we could change some laws, that would decouple from Central Management Services, that the universities would be able to save approximately $100 million a year in procurement costs. So, what I would suggest, if we’re trying to move forward in coming to a balanced budget, is that we cut the higher education budget by approximately $100 million and encourage the Governor to… to direct the trustees of each of these institutions to cut approximately 25 percent of their administration. Coupling that with the procurement charges would not affect any classroom dollars. Now, I have asked numerous times for individuals to help provide ideas on how we can cut the budget and I appreciate some of the responses 09900077.docx 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 that we’ve heard. So, I’d like to suggest now, that we get serious and fix the budget on our own because it’s our constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget. Though it may be not seem necessary anymore since the judges, apparently, are replacing the Legislature on how moneys can be spent. However, I prefer that the Legislature do our job and that we not cede our authority to the courts. We should not be meek bystanders while Leaders remain entrenched. It is not the Governor’s fault, I agree with much of his agenda, and it is not the Speaker’s fault. The fault lies with us. We have an obligation to pass a balanced budget. So, I’d like to go through some of my ideas with you, where we could balance the budget without a tax increase, Ladies and Gentlemen. You know this proposal would save approximately $3,871,000,000, and I’d like you to join me. And I’d like my friends on the other side of the aisle to help me introduce this Legislation and serve as cosponsors. And if you have additional ideas, we can make additional Amendments to the Bill. But let me lay out some of the things that I think we need to do right now to balance the budget, because some of the criticisms on the underlying Bill that we just voted on, that was rejected originally, was because of the additional revenues. I believe that this solution will get us the revenues we need without any tax increases. I want to thank Representative Kifowit for giving me this idea. One of the things we ought to look at is eliminating the single sales factor, which was put under the 90th General Assembly. At the time that this passed, it indicated th… the idea was that we would create thousands of jobs in Illinois, manufacturing jobs. However, since the 09900077.docx 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 single sales factor has gone in, we’ve lost almost 200,000 manufacturing jobs. Only five companies are able to take advantage of this tax break. By eliminating the single sales factor, we would generate an additional $150 million, conservatively, per year, for the State of Illinois. Some estimates are as high as 216 million, but that would be $150 million right off the top. We ought to look at removing the foreign dividend exemption, which is $220 million a year. Removing the domestic dividend exemption is another $15 million. Decoupling from the Federal QPAI deduction is another $65 million a year. Replacing the noncombination rules is $20 million a year. The offshore continental shelf exemption is $25 million a year. Eliminating the enterprise zone and foreign trade zone utility exemption is over $41 million a year. Now, one thing we heard the Governor talk about in his budget address was cutting the Local Government Distribution Fund by 50 percent. Now, if we took a more moderate approach and cut the local government distribution fund by 10 percent, that’d be an extra $127 million a year for the State of Illinois. But we’d be able to replace much of that money by streamlining the vendor discount system, which would save the state $90 million a year, but then give the locals another 57 million; thereby, reducing the cut to the Local Distribution Fund to only 70 million or about 5 percent. Now, if we… if we eliminate the collection discounts that we’re giving for people who pay on time, that’s almost $48 million a year. Okay. And removing the E-10 exemption is another 120 million. I have another $2,845,000,000 here that I’m happy to go through with you, but I’m asking folks to 09900077.docx 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 give us more ideas. I think this is the path out. This will be additional revenue for the state. We’ll be closing exemptions that very few get to use and those that are taking most of these profits are those that are not even being… paying taxes in the State of Illinois. Please join me. I plan on introducing this legislation. Give us your ideas and let’s get this done together."
"Mr. Riley."
"Mr. Speaker, I’ll be brief. On Hou… on House Bill 3072, I want to be recorded as a ‘no’."
"Record will reflect your intentions, Sir."
"Thank you."
"Representative Ives."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to a point of personal privilege."
"Go right ahead."
"And actually, as a response to Representative Franks and… Mr. Franks, I appreciate your comment. I appreciate your ability to want to save money in any way possible. And I think one of the biggest things that we can do to not just save money, but to actually get additional revenue is, is to grow our economy in the State of Illinois. And that’s what we need to focus on. And here’s what we know about growing our economy. We need actual taxpayers here to fund the government that we need and to support all our constituencies. But the truth is, Illinois continues to lose billions of dollars in revenue and many tens of thousands of taxpayers and that’s been the history. In fact, if you look at over last year, we ranked 50th. In fact, we had more out-migration than any other 09900077.docx 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 state. We lost residents to every single other state in this… Illinois did. Every single state, we lost residents to every single one of them. We can’t continue to bleed residents. So, what’s creating that? Well, I agree with you in your… your fight against property tax increases ‘cause property taxes have been a problem. So, what we need to do is pass some of the turnaround agenda. We need to pass the turnaround agenda so that we can limit the excesses of collective bargaining, not all of collective bargaining, but the excesses of collective bargaining that are driving up property taxes and driving up costs to government. In fact, the AFSCME contract is proposed. In the next 4 years, if they get what they want in 1229 and it goes to in… interest arbitration, you’re looking at a $2 billion increase at the state level in costs. Now, you… you did talk about quite a few things, 25 million here, we can 3 million there. None of that’s going to be… it’s going incomparable to the $2 billion we are on track to lose should 1229 as a Veto be… if you override that Veto or if we don’t get a good contract, a good, fair contract with AFSCME. So, I suggest we have honest discussion about the turnaround agenda that when you talk to people on the street, they absolutely approve of: term limits; redistricting reform; workers’ comp reform; tort reform; collective bargaining; freezing property taxes that way. So, let’s get on with it. Let’s have a full discussion about all of that, and let’s actually drive the Illinois economy because we know we can do it. We have lots of good, natural advantages and we’re not taking advantage of those. Thank you."
"Mr. Pritchard." 09900077.docx 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To follow up on the last speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Board of Higher Education was meeting in my district yesterday, and they shared some information that kind of picked up on that notion of how do we get more revenue by growing our economy? And they talked about how, through 49 thousand graduates from our public higher education institutions last year, are going to add $2.8 billion in new taxable revenue to our state. When you look at the research activities going on at these public universities, 1.5 billion new dollars were brought into our state through the research education activities at our higher education institutions. There are lots of societal benefits that we’ve been talking about today of providing services for people, that if we have an educated workforce, they’re going to have more job opportunities. They’re going to be able to take care of their families and get off of public financial aid. They’re going to be able to stay out of prisons because they have a way of life and the dollars they need to support their family. They’re going to be able to provide better opportunities for their families. Ladies and Gentlemen, our higher education institutions offer great financial opportunities for our state. We need to keep them in our priorities, and certainly, as we’re about to start a new school year, we need to know the issue of affordability is still on the front burner, that a lot of students are going to be depending on MAP and PELL grants to go to higher education, and that the universities are fronting the money because we have not passed a budget so that students will be able to go to college. And I encourage you, as you go back 09900077.docx 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 into your districts, to encourage students that are going to college, to go ahead; that the university will have that money there for them if they are MAP eligible and PELL eligible. I encourage you to look at higher education as a way to get out of our financial problems."
"Mr. Sullivan."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to move the previous question as it relates to points of personal privilege."
"Mr. Harris. The chair recognizes Mr. Wehrli."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."
"Proceed, Sir."
"If I could have the Body’s attention, please. On August… on August 6, the Naperville community and the Naperville Police Department, specifically, lost one of its own when retired Officer Joe Matchett, lost his battle with cancer. Officer Matchett served in the United States Army as a military policeman and on July 1, 1985, he joined the Naperville Police Department. During his career, Officer Matchett served as a patrol officer, field training officer, police canine officer, traffic officer, member of the honor guard, and the advisor to the police department’s explorers post. Officer Matchett was also president of FOP Lodge 42 from 2002 to 2007. During his career at the Naperville Police Department, Officer Matchett received 3 metarious unit awards, 2 chief’s commendation, 2 supervisor commendations, and over 100 letters of appreciation from various schools, police departments, and citizens. Naperville truly did lose one of its best in a man that I was glad to know and call 09900077.docx 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 friend. Please join me in a moment of silence for Officer Joe Matchett. Thank you."
"Thank you, Representative. Members can be seated. Page 13 of the Calendar, Order of Resolutions, House Resolution 627, Mr. Harris. Please proceed." Harris, D.: "Thank you… thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Resolution 627 deals with something known as positive train control, which was an Act that was mandated by Congress for safety on the railroads. The difficulty is that there is insufficient dollars and insufficient technical capability to implement by December the 31st of this year, which was the final implementation date. What this Resolution does is ask Congress either to delay the implementation date or to give the Federal Railroad Authority the authorization to issue delays to commuter railroads, like Metra, which are making a good faith effort to implement positive train control, give them the authority… give the Federal Railroad Administration the authority to give Metra a delay if they’re making a good faith effort to meet it. And I ask your support."
"Those in favor of the Resolution will vote ‘yes’; opposed ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 93 voting ‘yes’, 2 voting ‘no’. And the Resolution is adopted. And now, leaving perfunctory time for the Clerk, pursuant to House Resolution… Well, halfway through my sentence, we’ll suspend that sentence and recognize Mr. Sandack." 09900077.docx 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015
"Thank you, Speaker. You may have been getting to the next Session day. Rumor has the 25th. Is there a schedule that we can get for the remaining month of August and maybe, unfortunately, September?"
"I do not have a schedule, Sir, but I will make an inquiry for a schedule for you."
"Thank you."
"We’ll start the sentence again. And now, leaving perfunctory time for the Clerk, pursuant to House Joint Resolution 85, the House will adjourn until Tuesday, August 25 at the hour of 12 noon or until the call of the Speaker. The House is adjourned."
"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction and First Reading of House Bills. House Bill 4271, offered by Representative Bennett, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. House Bill 4272, offered by Representative Christian Mitchell, a Bill for an Act concerning education. First Reading of these House Bills. Committee Reports. Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, Chairperson for Committee on Rules reports the following committee action on August 12, 2015: recommends be adopted, referred to the floor is Floor Amendment #1 to Senate Bill 2038. Introduction of Resolutions. House Resolution 699, offered by Representative Ford, is referred to the Rules Committee. A letter from the Secretary of State dated August 12, 2015. To the Honorable Speaker of the House: In compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of the State of Illinois, I am forwarding herewith the enclosed House Bill from the 99th General Assembly as vetoed by the Governor 09900077.docx 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 77th Legislative Day 8/12/2015 together with his objections. House Bill 3304. Respectably signed, Jesse White, Secretary of State. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned." 09900077.docx 53