Illinois House Floor Debate — March 2, 2016

"The House will be in order. Members shall be in their chairs. We shall be led in prayer today by Pastor Shaun Lewis, who is the Director of Civil Servant Ministries, serving the political leaders of Illinois. Pastor Lewis is the guest of Representative Morrison. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their lap tops, turn off cellphones, and rise for the invocation and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Lewis."

"We'll be led in the Pledge today by Representative Sente."

"Roll Call for Attendance. Leader Currie."

"Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record show that Representative Arroyo is excused today." 09900107.docx 1  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Mr. Brown."

"Mr. Clerk, please take the record. There are 117 Members present, the House has a quorum. Mr. Clerk."

"The Chair recognizes Mr. Welch."

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

"Go right ahead, Sir."

"Mr. Speaker, I'd just like to take moment to recognize one of my constituents from the great Village of Broadview. She's a shadow for the day, has followed me today and parts of yesterday. In the Speaker's Gallery today, please give a warm welcome to Carrita Flie."

"Welcome to Springfield. We're happy you're here. Mr. Tyron to do some more introductions."

"Great group of people. Thank you for being here. Mr. Skoog."

"I rise on a point of personal privilege today."

"Please proceed, Sir."

"I have the honor and privilege to have John Barnes here, a football player of mine from St. Pete Academy for the last four years. He is the new 1A State Wrestling Champion at 41 and 0 record for this year. John has come a long way since freshman year with a 15 and 10 record freshman year, sophomore year of 29 and 12, last year taking third at 36 and 3 and this year, 41 and 0." 09900107.docx 4  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Congratulations, thank you for being here with us today."

"Along with John today we have his family, his dad and mom Ron and Nellie, brother Jeff, sister Jane, his grandparents Bob and Dorothy Barnes, his grandmother Mary Thorason, and Abbot Phillip. Thank you all for being here for this special moment on John Barnes."

"Representative Bryant."

"Please proceed."

"Thank you for joining us. We're happy you're here. Mr. Davidsmeyer."

"Go right ahead."

"Congratulations, happy you're here. Mr. Brady."

"Please proceed."

"Happy anniversary. I'm not sure this is way I would celebrate mine, but happy anniversary. Mr. Moffitt."

"Please go ahead, Sir."

Speaker Lang: "Welcome aboard. Thanks for being with us. Representative Mayfield on a point of personal privilege." 09900107.docx 6  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Thank you. I'd like everybody to say hello to Octavius Hayes, Jr. He is both my Page for the day and my shadow. He is from my district and he wanted to learn about the process. We're hoping to convince him to maybe run for State Rep, so I'm hoping that he enjoys his self. Everybody welcome Octavius. Thank you."

"Welcome. Thanks for being here. Mr. Jones with an introduction."

"Point of personal privilege Mr. Speaker."

"Go right ahead, Sir."

"Standing next to me is Kaliah Liggone, she's down here as my shadow for the day, and she comes from a record of service. Her mother is a school District 149 board member, but she's down here and I want you guys to give her a Springfield welcome as she learns about the process in Springfield today."

"Thanks for being here. Mr. Clerk, House Resolution 1048. Mr. Mitchell. Please read it."

"Mr. Mitchell." Mitchell, C.: "Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the gallery on our side of the aisle and they're standing, are the Class 2A Champions, the Tri-Valley High School from Downs, Illinois. You know, right now we don't have a heck of a lot to celebrate under this dome, and one of the positive things 09900107.docx 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 happened yesterday when we had Future Farmers of America, and today when we have young people, our leaders of our country, so we're very, very proud of you. Sports is important in life, teaches leadership. God bless you all and let's give a big welcome… and by the way, excuse me, I about forgot, this is also in Representative Brady's district, downstate we have big districts, and so, I would like to turn it over to Representative Brady if I may."

"Mr. Brady."

"Congratulations, guys. You look great up there in the gallery. Those in favor of the resolution will say 'yes'; oppose 'no'. The 'ayes' have it and the resolution is adopted. Supplement Calendar # 1, Order of Resolutions, House Resolution 965. Mr. Clerk, this is Representative Bourne’s resolution."

"Representative Bourne." 09900107.docx 8  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Glad you're here with us. Those in favor of the Resolution will say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it and the Resolution is adopted. Mr. Wheeler is recognized." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege."

"Go right ahead, Sir." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you. If I could have your quick attention please. Up in the gallery on the Republican side waving in the corner are two constituents from the 50th District, Patty Smith and her granddaughter Ragan Hunger, who are down here advocating on behalf of issues they're concerned with. Hope you give them a big Springfield welcome. Thank you."

"Welcome. Thank you for being here with us today. On the Order of Third Reading, there appears House Bill 4434. Mr. DeLuca. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."

"Mr. DeLuca." 09900107.docx 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 4434 says that if any tax levy year a municipality fails to adopt a tax levy ordinance then the county clerk shall automatically extend a rate for each fund for which the municipality levied a tax in the most recent levy year for which the municipality levied a tax for general purposes. The rate, when it is extended upon the equalized assessed value of all taxable property in the municipality, will produce an amount equal to the amount levied for that fund in the most recent year. Therefore, resulting in the inability to increase property taxes. House Bill 4434 will create a safe guard for municipal government and prevent the catastrophic loss of services in the event a municipal government finds itself in the unfortunate situation where they have failed to adopt a tax levy ordinance by the deadline which is the last Tuesday in December. I ask for your support and will be happy to answer any questions."

"Mr. Sandack."

"Sponsor yields."

"Sure, thank you. First, I would like to make mention that this is not specific to the City of Harvey. Okay, it is not specific to the City of Harvey, but I will certainly acknowledge that it was inspired by what's happening there. And what's happening there is they have failed to adopt and 09900107.docx 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 pass their municipal levy and therefore, they are facing this potential of losing all those dollars."

"That's correct."

"Well, that's a great analogy and because of what's happening in Illinois right now, you could use that has an example and say that if we didn't pass a budget by May 31, that our income tax dollars would evaporate. Same concept. Same concept. It would be nearly impossible to operate State Government if that would happen. So, same… same concept on a smaller level with a municipal government"

"It's a… it's a valid point and it's a valid concern. And the reason is, you have to put yourself in a situation of these residents that live in the community, the businesses that are in the community at no fault of their own, they're going to be put in a situation that could really be catastrophic where you could be losing police services, you could be losing fire services. Some of the most basic services that a municipal would provide."

"Well certainly in the City of Harvey, there's support for this and there's a ground swell. There's some opposition there as well."

"But across the State of Illinois, no, because I do believe that right now there is only one city, one village, one municipality, that is in this situation."

"Well, I know that if this was specific to Harvey, if this was specific to Harvey and only valid for one year that a lot of the opposition would go away. But that's not the intent of this. This is to create a safeguard for the future that in the event any other municipality finds themselves in a situation like this, that that safe care would exist. It would already be on the books. And keep in mind, this is very, very rare. This is very rare. This will only be a safeguard… probably 99.9 percent of the time, this will never have to be used."

"Specific to this issue?"

"I don't know the answer to that."

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

"Sponsor yields." Davis, W.: "Representative, who represents the City of Harvey?"

"I'm not sure." Davis, W.: "I do. And I guess the challenge is that while I can appreciate your desire to help the city, unfortunately, you and I didn't have a conversation about this Bill before you introduced it. Correct?"

"Before it was introduced, maybe not." Davis, W.: "We did."

"Shortly thereafter." Davis, W.: "Yeah, shortly thereafter, because I picked up the phone and called you."

"Correct." Davis, W.: "Right. No, so you didn't call me indicating that you were trying to do something to help a community of mine. And… and I want to be cordial and collegial about this, but we all know kind of some of the challenges with the City of Harvey, so tell me what safeguards are in the Bill that at least makes the city do what it's supposed to do before you get to something like this?"

"It doesn't… this Bill doesn't get into any of that." 09900107.docx 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Davis, W.: "It doesn't offer any safeguards?"

"No, it's specif… well, the safeguard is the Bill. But it's specific to not adopting or passing a levy." Davis, W.: "So, when you say not… well, I think the language you used was failure to adopt a levy, correct?"

"Yes." Davis, W.: "So, so what does that mean? Does that mean that the community votes and doesn't pass it or in the city of… in the situation in the City of Harvey that they simply don't vote at all. Which one of those isn't?"

"Well, what actually happened in Harvey's case was they sent the levy to the county with a 4-3 vote in opposition to it and it was rejected." Davis, W.: "So failure to adopt in this case means that they put it up for a vote…"

"They didn’t have the votes." Davis, W.: "…they didn't have enough votes…"

"Correct. Correct.” Davis, W.: "…to do so. So that's what failure to adopt in this case."

"Yes." Davis, W.: "So… but for the future what if there is no vote? So does that qualify under this Bill that if they don't vote on the issue that it can still be addressed in this manner?"

"Right, and it's drafted that way specifically. It's drafted that way specifically because there could be some other circumstances as to why they wouldn't meet the deadline, why a municipality would not meet the deadline to pass a levy." 09900107.docx 15  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Davis, W.: "Okay."

"So it's not only specific to the vote not passing." Davis, W.: "Right. So would you agree that this type of measure also eliminates local control?"

"I wouldn't say eliminates but there's…" Davis, W.: "Well…"

"…there's certainly a local control issue here with this legislation, sure." Davis, W.: "Well, when I say eliminates I mean you're basically saying that if the local jurisdiction cannot come to some agreement on this that the state would allow you to circumvent that and they could present a levy or… I know if they present anything per say, but they can still receive levy… an amount of levy dollars from the county without having to, you know, passing it on their own, work out their differences if you will."

"Right. Well, what this does is in the case of any municipality that does not pass their levy for any reason, it's going to provide that safeguard for the municipality. So that those dollars are not completely lost." Davis, W.: "Okay. Speaking of that. So, what in this Bill requires that municipality to pay salaries to handle its debt obligations? Does this Bill offer anything that says, if you get this resource, this is what you have to do? Or is that solely left up to them to determine? And since you focused on the City of Harvey, you know, we should be clear that the City of Harvey has had some challenges over the years where they were collecting water bill money from its residents and unfortunately, not paying the water Bill to the City of 09900107.docx 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Chicago. So again, we're talking about giving them money what are the safeguards in the Bill that obligates them to make sure that they do the right with the resources?"

"Well, we're not giving them any money. The state… this doesn't cost the state any anything…" Davis, W.: "You're right…"

"…the state's not giving them any money." Davis, W.: "…the state is not giving them any…"

"All this does is allow the municipality to get equal… the equal dollars that they received in the most recent levy. And intentionally, this was drafted narrowly to avoid all that because some of the examples that you just brought up would really be us superseding local control. And that's not my intent and that's why it's drafted narrowly." Davis, W.: "But you're…"

"Because if you wanted… if I wanted to start getting into how they could use the dollars, how they're required to spend the dollars because we're providing them the safeguard that would really be circumventing local control." Davis, W.: "Okay. But if a municipality has issues and you saying here, you can still have this money… I'm just asking… so we're just giving them a pot of money that they can do whatever they want to with."

"They can do whatever they want to anyway." Davis, W.: "I'm not…"

"And that's their local control." Davis, W.: "…I'm not disagreeing with you…"

"Okay, that’s…" 09900107.docx 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Davis, W.: "…but we're giving them the ability to get those resources and do something with it. Now whatever they do locally, obviously, they have to work that out between the trustees and the mayor or whatever the situation mean, the alderman and the mayor, they have to work that out. But I just wonder, are we just allowing something to take place and let's say they receive those resources, something happens, faulty deal, anything happens. So, now, we're the ones if you will, for those that vote on this or vote 'yes' on this have now allowed something bad, for a lack of a better word, to happen. So, I'm just wondering is this an arena that we really want to step into. We're… we're… how does this encourage cooperation amongst the administration of a municipality and its aldermen trusts? How does this encourage that cooperation?"

"Well, if there's a municipality that does not pass a levy by the deadline because there's no cooperation, because there's political gridlock, this acts as a safeguard. This will not promote cooperation, there's no cooperation there in the first place." Davis, W.: "But isn't that what we want though?"

"For them to get in…" Davis, W.: "Don't we want them to try to figure out their differences? Because this… and maybe I'm wrong in my interpretation, but this allows… this means that in any community in the State of Illinois if that mayor or village president doesn’t want to work with their elected body, they can just not even… that's why… that goes back to what does failure to adopt mean. Let's say don't even put the vote for 09900107.docx 18  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 a levy on their agenda and it doesn't happen. Are they still allowed to do this?"

"I thought I answered that and that is for any reason, not just for a vote, for any reason failure to adopt is what it means. So if you use your example, yes, I suppose that under this if a municipality wants to abuse it which I guess under any legislation we pass here there's a way to abuse it. That's certainly not the intent, that's certainly not the way it's drafted." Davis, W.: "And again, I'm not suggesting that you have…"

"And also keep in mind that if there's no agreement… to the example if there's no agreement, this is actually going to act as reducing property taxes. Because in most cases the overwhelming majority of municipalities on an annual basis, they increase their levy to cover their cost that increase on an annual basis. They will not be allowed to do that in this case. They will forfeit their right to do that in this case." Davis, W.: "Right. Because they're just looking at last year's levy…"

"Correct, correct." Davis, W.: "…and they're receiving those resources. But again, so again, you can characterize failure to adopt I guess in a number of different ways, but what if that… what if that administration doesn't even bother to put it on the agenda? What if… what if they decide not to put it on the agenda? So, while we're saying there's no cooperation, what if there's not even an attempt at cooperation because it's not even on the agenda?" 09900107.docx 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Well, like I said, under that example this legislation is not going to prevent that. If that is how a municipality chooses to function, that is their local control right to be dysfunctional and do that." Davis, W.: "Well, then… then why…"

"They can do that now." Davis, W.: "Then… then why are we encouraging that by allowing this type of legislation to move forward?"

"Well, it's not encouraging it." Davis, W.: "Well…"

"It's not encouraging it." Davis, W.: "I mean, maybe…"

"I don't believe it's encouraging it." Davis, W.: "Okay. You don't believe it's encouraging… I… I… Okay. Let me… let me ask another question. So, is the Illinois Municipal League opposed to this?"

"Yes." Davis, W.: "They are? And why do you think they're opposed?"

"I've talked to them. I've certainly talked to them. As you know, I chair the Cities & Villages Committee." Davis, W.: "I understand."

"So, it's very unusual for me to be sponsoring a piece of legislation that the IML isn't real happy with. But…" Davis, W.: "So, do you…"

"…we just sit… we just…" Davis, W.: "Do you know…"

"…fundamentally disagree that I think that this safeguard… by providing this safeguard to municipal government in the 09900107.docx 20  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 future across the State of Illinois is very important to have in place…" Davis, W.: "Okay."

"…for the, you know, .1 percent when it might be necessary to have." Davis, W.: "Let me… you narrow it down to one community, but again, what if others decide to take this path?"

"There's no advantage for them. And like I said, if a municipality chooses to intentionally abuse this in some way by ignoring their levy, it doesn't benefit them at all. Doesn’t… there's no benefit for doing that." Davis, W.: "Well, what…"

"They're actually reducing their own revenues." Davis, W.: "Well, let's put it into context of an election. So, what if the mayor doesn't have control of his or her board and they use your tool to make sure they at least have some resources to operate to get into the election cycle when they hopefully may run trustees or aldermen that are more supportive of them to help them get passed this? So…"

"But your… your question… the point you're making is assuming that a municipality is willing to risk all of those levy dollars, all the dollars that they have coming to operate their community. I mean, that's the…" Davis, W.: "Well, but you're taking away…"

"…that's the point…" Davis, W.: "You're taking that away by allowing them this opportunity to say, if we fail to adopt that we can petition the county and still get at least what we received the previous year. So, you're even taking… taking that away." 09900107.docx 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"I would have to question any local official at a municipal level that would intentionally try to have their community lose their levy, lose the dollars that are collected through their municipal levy." Davis, W.: "Don't you… don't you agree that…"

"That is very questionable behavior. That would be derelict behavior…" Davis, W.: "Well…"

"…to do it intentionally." Davis, W.: "…in that way. But in this situation, we're talking about aldermen who are asking for transparency in government, wanting to know how dollars are spent, and if they've held up the levy, which we know they have because they're trying to get this information, you're basically saying to them, what you want doesn't really matter because here's an opportunity for you to… for the administration to still receive resources and be able to continue to operate how they choose to operate. Whatever debts they have to pay, maybe they'll pay them."

"That's true. But this legislation focuses on, as I said earlier, focuses on the residents and focuses on the businesses in the community. They're the ones that will suffer." Davis, W.: "Well, again, I just… I just have some real challenges with what you're suggesting and… and I would offer that as right now probably very bad public policy to put something like this in place. Mr. Speaker, to the Bill. Ladies and Gentlemen, I can appreciate what the Gentleman is trying to do, but for those of us… all of us who represent a variety of municipalities, what we want to encourage amongst our 09900107.docx 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 municipalities is that even in the situations where they may philosophically disagree that they need to work together to get over their indifferences and be able to pass the appropriate levy so that their municipalities can operate. I think this is a little bit of a reach for the State of Illinois to get that involved in local jurisdictions and local politics. I think the Bill, while well intended, doesn't have what I think are necessary safeguards to make sure that if we're about them paying their employees, paying their debts, this Bill just makes or says here's some money, hopefully you'll do those things. And I think that in and of itself is a little challenging. When we talk about… and again, admittedly the city that he's trying to help is one that I represent and it is… it is very challenging in that community has been in that way… been that way for several years. But to circumvent the local folks who are trying to work in their community, who are trying to, you know, trying to encourage that cooperation amongst the mayor and the… and the local aldermen that this is a way to, in my opinion, to circumvent that. Again, I think this is potentially setting a very bad precedent and it opens the door for any municipality that any of us represent to decide, you know what, this year maybe I'll use that tool in hopes of possibly getting something better the following year. Again, I just think it's bad public policy and even if we agree that there needs to be help, I'm not sure if this is it or certainly I'm just not sure if this is it in its current form. Maybe there's ways to add some things to the Bill that will strengthen it so that we know that once the resources are received that that municipality 09900107.docx 23  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 is indeed doing the right thing with it and that this is about paying employees, in particular, we want to make sure that that happens. We really want to make sure that that happens. So, while I'm not always a vote 'no' kind of person, encourage you to vote your conscience, but I think this Bill is bad public policy and I, at the very least, will be voting 'no'. Thank you."

"Mr. Sullivan."

"Mr. Breen."

"Sponsor will yield." 09900107.docx 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Immediately."

"Well, right now they have no levy. So, I guess the answer to the question would be yes."

"Yes, it is."

"No."

"Not in this legislation."

"Mr. Fortner."

"Sponsor yields."

"No."

"No." 09900107.docx 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"That's correct."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Yes, that is correct."

"That's correct."

"Yes, that's correct."

"Yes, that's correct."

"Mr. Andersson."

"Sponsor yields."

"I'm not sure I understand your question."

"Try it again."

"You're saying if this… if this becomes law and this in in place… this legislation is in place and a municipality fails to pass a levy."

"Yes, that's correct."

"I do. And it's a… it's an excellent point now that I understand the point you were making. Is that, yes, it provides for the revenue but not how the revenue is spent?"

"It doesn't get into those specifics."

"Mr. DeLuca to close."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your questions and a good discussion on this. It's a simple concept. It's a difficult issue. A couple things I'd like to remind you of is, first, this is not a tax increase. 09900107.docx 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 The Bill was amended specifically for that purpose to avoid… to avoid and make sure that it could not be abused or utilized in a way that would result in a tax increase. Next… we're going to pull the Bill out of the record. Thank you."

"The Bill shall be taken from the record. A wonderful debate, however. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."

"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. Bennett is recognized."

"Please proceed."

"Hello."

"Thank you for being with us. Members will rise. The Chair recognizes Mr. Acevedo on a point of personal privilege." 09900107.docx 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. You know, folks, there are some parts in our life that we take for granted. We sit there and read the paper and we hear about all the killings not only here in the State of Illinois but throughout the country. We turn on the news, we hear the same thing. Truth of the matter is all life matters. But I will tell you this. Since the beginning of the year, 15 police officers have been killed in the line of duty. And I stand here today because I want to honor them because as gunfire erupts and people run away from it, the law enforcement officers run toward the guns. So, in the last couple days, on February 27, '16, officer Ashley Guindon from Virginia, Prince William County, her first day… her first day on the job, she went to a domestic violence call and was killed in the line of duty. Just yesterday, Officer David Hoffer from Texas, end of watch 3/1/16. Ashley, end of watch, 2/27/16. So, remember, let's not take life for granted and let's… let's respect law enforcement like they should be respected. And I ask for a moment of silence for these two officers."

"Thank you, Members. Thank you, Mr. Acevedo. You can sit. Page 16 of the Calendar, under the Order of Resolutions, there appears House Joint Resolution 77. Mr. Smiddy. Out of the record. Page 17, House Resolution 77. Mr. Ford. Please proceed, Sir."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move for the adoption of House Resolution 77. And it simply allows employers to postpone part of their payments to the state. Move for the adoption." 09900107.docx 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Those in favor of the Resolution say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. And the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. House Resolution 797. Representative Gabel. Out of the record. Representative Chapa LaVia."

"It's been a while, Speaker. You look marvelous up there."

"Thank you. Much appreciated."

"So, I want to let everybody know in April we're going to start our Retro Fit Caucus competition, weight loss and how many steps someone takes and it's for everybody in the Capitol. So, we'll start giving you some more information, Representative Moffitt and myself. This will be his last year doing it. It might be my last year of doing it, who knows. But we'll get you the information in the next week or so. But I just wanted everybody to know and get ready for it. Thank you."

"Mr. Anthony."

"Go right ahead, Sir."

Speaker Lang: "Happy you're here, gentlemen. Thank you. Representative Williams is recognized."

"Thank you. I have a point of personal privilege."

"You may proceed." 09900107.docx 34  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Just a reminder, Green Caucus meeting today, 4:30 in D-1. See you there."

"Mr. Hays is recognized."

"Thank you, Sir. Mr. Tryon is recognized."

"Thank you, Sir. Mr. Sullivan is recognized."

"Please go ahead." 09900107.docx 35  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Thank you, Sir. Mr. Davis, whose name was mentioned in debate." Davis, W.: "Yes, it was, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. So, two announcements. First and foremost, I really want to thank Representative Tryon for the leadership he has exhibited with regard to the Diabetes Caucus. He's taken that challenge on and has raised significant money that can be used for a diabetes research to support Members who want to have events specific to diabetes in their districts. He has done a tremendous job and exhibited fantastic leadership. So, could I just ask the Members in the House and the Body to give Representative Tryon a great round of applause for all of his work. And like he said, if you come on the 12th, you get a chance to see me, but not just me, you get to see Team Big Strike… Team Big Strike 'cause we are not the reigning champions, but we do very well. But what we do well is we dress well. So, the challenge is on for some group, some other bowling team, to come and have a bowler's shirt better than ours. Because it's not only how you bowl, but it's how you look. So, we challenge you to dress better than we do. So, we 09900107.docx 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 appreciate Representative Tryon. And the second thing, like Representative Sullivan talked about, a lot of you are familiar with the very fantastic House party that we have called Stone Jam. I think many of you have been there. And because we don't have a lot of time in March to be here, I want to say that Stone Jam will be April 5 which is the first Tuesday when we get back to Springfield. So, you are encouraged to come that evening, put your dancing shoes on, put your jeans on, come have a good time at Bar Oasis on Adams Street. So, we look forward to seeing you on April 5. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Supplemental Calendar #2 is being distributed. Mr. Brown."

"For one hour. The House will be in recess 'til the… Republicans are caucusing in Room 118. Democrats are on your own. The House will be in recess 'til the call of the Chair. The House will be in order. Mr. Clerk has distributed Supplemental Calendar #2. And on that Order under Total Vetoes, there appears Senate Bill 2043. Representative Kelly Burke. Representative Burke, when you're ready." Burke, K.: "Just a moment, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move to override the Veto of Senate Bill 2043. We had extensive debate on this Bill not too long ago. It was several hours long, so I don't think I need to rehash all the elements of the Bill. But I would ask for a 'yes' vote on the override."

"Leader Durkin."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Bradley."

"To the Bill. Last evening, John A. Logan College laid off 55 people. They're down from over 800 people to almost 600 now. Thirty-five full-time faculty, 20 nonteaching positions, these are real people with real lives. These are things that got funded before the last few months. These are things that… the backbones of our community, these folks are vital parts of our community before the last few months when they haven't got their funding. We have an opportunity to take a step today and do something, make a stand for working men and women. We have this opportunity to make a stand for our communities. I don't know you explain away a 'no' vote on this. So, I stand in support of the override of the Veto and let's get these schools funded."

"Mr. Brady."

"Mr. Harris." Harris, D.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quick question of the Sponsor if I may."

"Sponsor yields." Harris, D.: "Representative, tell me again what is the… what's the total appropriation here in this Bill?" Burke, K.: "Seven hundred and twenty-one million dollars. That's for the Monetary Award Program funding, operational and base grant… equalization base grants for community colleges and some federal… some matching maintenance of effort funds for federal money that have already gone to the universities for adult literacy and career and job training." Harris, D.: "Okay. Seven hundred and twenty-one million dollars and that's all, I believe you said, that's all General Revenue Funds, correct?" Burke, K.: "That's correct." Harris, D.: "Okay. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I don't know if there is anyone in this House who doesn't want to vote for this. Is there anyone in this House who does not want to fund community colleges? Is there anyone in this chamber who doesn't feel that those students who need their MAP grants shouldn't get their MAP grants? I think we all 09900107.docx 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 believe that's the case. There is no question but those community colleges need the money. There's no question but those students need the MAP grant. Now, I know all of you know this, but if I may, because we have folks in the gallery and watching, let me… let me put a couple of things into the record. And it's been referred to here by some of the previous speakers. How's does this money get paid? What's the procedure? What happens? Well, the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission prepares a voucher. And they send the voucher over to the Comptroller's Office just like every other agency does it. They send the voucher to the Comptroller's Office and then the Comptroller's Office is expected to write the check and pay the voucher. The problem is there's a glitch. There's a glitch here. And what's the glitch? There's no money in the till to send the check out. That's a problem. You know, if there's no money in my bank account, I'm not supposed to write checks. I get in trouble when I do that and that's the situation here with the State of Illinois on a much larger scale. There's no money in the account to write the check. Okay. Have any of you been in the basement of the Capitol recently? Yeah, probably. Have you seen a printing press down in the basement? Probably not, at least not one that does what they do at the Federal Government. The Federal Government can print money. As a matter of fact, they've printed about a hundred-plus billion dollars more than what the bills are or what money they had in the till to pay the bills. We can't do that. We actually have to have the money in the account so that the Comptroller can write the check. She doesn't have the money 09900107.docx 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 in the account. So, what happens to that voucher that goes over to the Comptroller's Office when she gets that voucher for a total of $721 million and what's the… I think MAP is what, 168 million or thereabouts, something like that. What happens to that voucher? Well, it gets put in this big, long queue. And you heard referenced earlier, the queue is now about 700… excuse me… the queue is not about $7 billion worth of vouchers that have to be paid. Now, the Comptroller has some latitude on what vouchers get paid, so you could say, well, we'll take the voucher for the MAP grants and we'll pay that voucher for the MAP grants. Well, there's a glitch there too. And the glitch there is that some judge somewhere… well, we know where it is… who has no idea what state finances are has said, well, when those bills come in on certain items like certain Medicaid items, you, Comptroller, have to pay them. Doesn't matter how much they add up to, but you have to pay them. I don't know if any of you have talked to some of your Medicaid providers, especially those who provide services to some of the developmentally disabled, I don't know if any of you have talked to them recently, I have. You know what, they are flush with cash. They are flush with cash because as soon as the bill comes in the Comptroller has to pay it because there's no appropriation in place. Because the nice thing about an appropriation, it's put an upper limit on how much can be spent. But when the judge simply says you gotta pay the bill, you gotta pay the bill. And now, we're $7 billion in debt. So, now this voucher for 720 million… $721 million is going to over to the Comptroller's Office and it's going to sit in a queue. Well, who else is in that queue? And 09900107.docx 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 for you folks downstate, have you talked to, let's say, your dentists recently. The dentists downstate, as an example, under the health care program that we provide in the State of Illinois, they provide health care, they provide dental care to state employees downstate. And downstate they have a lot of state employees. Not so much in my area, but there are some, but downstate they have a lot of employees. And the health care for those employees is provided by the dentists and the doctors downstate. And guess what? You know those vouchers in the Comptroller's Office, $2 billion of them are for health care providers, health care providers. So, the dentists don't get paid, the doctors don't get paid. That's the problem. It is terribly, terribly unfortunate that we do not have the money because we haven't passed a budget that we don't have the money to pay the bills. But passage of this override and an enactment of the appropriation doesn't suddenly put $721 million into the General Revenue Fund. For those folks in the gallery who are expecting the money for those community colleges, who need the money for those students who desperately need their MAP grants, don't hold your breath. I wish I could say something differently, but don't hold your breath. There's… there's no revenue there that's going to allow the Comptroller to write the check. What a terrible injustice we do by enacting an appropriation for $721 million to pay a bill that we know that cannot be paid. This appropriation brings in no money. It doesn't put any money into the General Revenue Fund. What it does, as clearly as I can state it, it digs our hole deeper. It puts this great Land of Lincoln into a bigger financial quagmire 09900107.docx 45  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 than we're already in. I urge you… it's a… we want to vote for the Bill. I understand. We want to vote for the override. We want the money out there, but the way to do it is to get a budget in place to make it happen, not this way. I strongly urge a 'no' vote on this override."

"Representative Hammond."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Franks."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to speak to the Bill. I read the COGFA numbers this morning and that next year's revenue will increase by about $215 million. That will help pay for about half of the MAP grants that we're talking about in this Bill. People I heard on the other side talking about 09900107.docx 49  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 we don't have any money. Well, there's a lot of ways to pay for this; it's a question about priorities. Do we stop the corporate giveaway programs that we have where we're giving hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to corporations, most that don't even pay taxes in the state, incentives that you think they're or going… already going to do anyway? Well, there's ways to pay for this if you really care. Education funding for K through 12 is vitally important. We've heard that from the Governor. He said it was the most important thing. And he told all of us last year not to vote for that but then he signed that budget, the K through 12, and then had that as his biggest achievement last year. So, I do believe in the K through 12 education is vitally important, but so is higher education. And I agree with the Governor that we need reforms with higher education. We need to cut administrative costs and we need procurement reform. Now, just because we pass this that does not preclude the need for these reforms that must also be forthcoming. This is not a perfect Bill, but it's the only one that we have to help our kids and our schools. Because if we delay, there's going to be real consequences. And I cannot stand idly by and let our schools crash and burn and let our students down and require them to take on more debt. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a real possibility of losing a whole generation of students if some of our schools are closed or if they lose accreditation. We're losing population in Illinois. When those kids go out of state and go to school, it's more likely that they're not going to come home. Then it makes it harder to attract employers and to grow our tax base. This has real, 09900107.docx 50  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 real consequences. And I also cannot stand idly by while it's clear that this is only a political fight between our Leaders while real people are suffering. I am so sick of the politics under this dome. Last time I checked, we're all Leaders, every one of us. We don't need permission from our Leaders to do the right thing. We can think for ourself. We were sent here by our constituents to do the right thing. Now, it's interesting that I read the governments… the Governor's comments on Monday where he said I was sticking with him on this Bill. We've never had a conversation about it until today. Yesterday was the first day it was brought up to me by a staff. It's about an hour ago I saw that the Governor put out a statement saying that I'm succumbing to Speaker Madigan's pressure. Let me tell you that that isn't true. Here's what happened. I reached out to the Speaker this morning. He didn't call me; I reached out to the Sponsor two hours ago. She didn't ask me for my vote. I reached out to them because circumstances have changed. Since we had this vote last, our schools… the credit are being downgraded. They're not going to be able to borrow money anymore. They're going to go out of business. There's layoffs. There's that loss of accreditation. I want to vote for this, but I also want to make sure that going forward that we have the necessary changes that we really need. Now, I'm hearing the other side talk about, well, if you vote for this this is a… this is somehow a tax hike. I want to be very clear. This is not a tax hike. In my entire time in Springfield, I have never voted for a tax increase and I'm not going to start now. The voters know that. I'm the one person they can count on at 09900107.docx 51  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 least from McHenry County who isn't going to vote for a tax increase. Now, I've seen… seen from both sides, the Governor and the Speaker, they're pushing for higher revenues through increased taxes. Now, I think we have a better way to do that than raising taxes. This isn't a tax hike because we have no budget. All of our money is fungible. How can the Governor argue that this is a tax increase while at the same time saying we have to increase funding for K through 12, but if we spend money on… that's not an increase… but if we spend money on higher education, that's somehow a tax increase when we don't even have a budget. Please someone explain that to me. It's clear that we are not going to have a budget for fiscal year 2016. Let's just admit it. There's just too much politics going on here. It's not about policy anymore. It's about the election in two weeks. And then it's about the election in November. So, any pronouncement that this will somehow be an unbalanced budget because we do this is laughably ridiculous. I would respectfully suggest to the Governor, and I did this morning, that we need to cut administrative costs. Now, he's the one who appoints the trustees to the universities. I would ask that he ask the trustees that he appointed to slash administrative costs by at least 20 percent. I would also ask that maybe we pass some of the provisions in my Bill that I filed to get rid of tax breaks that aren't necessary such as tens of millions of dollars that were giving away to fund for offshore drilling for oil. Perhaps that money could be spent on higher education. So, which brings me to where we are now. We need votes from the other side of the aisle to make this happen. 09900107.docx 52  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 I hope some of you will have the guts to stand up to do the right thing because I don't think that you want to really allow our colleges to lose their accreditation and make our students go further into debt or worse not to go to college at all and take away their opportunities because you'd rather play political games and follow the Leader. Now, if you really believe that our higher education is important and MAP grants are important, this is the only Bill that you're going to have a chance to vote on now. Now, we'll be able to do those reforms later, but this is what we have now. We're not here for another month. In another month, we're going to be another billion dollars in debt because every day that we don't pass a budget we're spending $33 million more than we bring in. On June 30, we're going to have $10 billion in unpaid bills. We need to fix this. We ought to be staying here working on the budget. This, my friends, I… part of the budget. I didn't vote for the prior Bill because I thought that maybe we'd actually were going to have a budget but that isn't true. So, now we have to talk about what our priorities really are. And if you really believe that higher education is important and that MAP grants for poor kids are important, this is your only chance to show that. And also, what's also very important… understand this. This Bill is only an Appropriation Bill. It does not require the Governor to spend a penny, not one penny. All we're doing… all we're doing when we pass this Bill is giving the Governor the option, if he chooses, to spend that money. Without this Appropriation Bill, he will not have that option. Now, if he has that option then it's up to him whether he does it or not. But if we don't 09900107.docx 53  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 pass this Bill, he does not have that opportunity and those kids don't have a chance. We have to give those kids a chance. Stand up for what you believe in. Quit following the Leaders. Vote 'aye'."

"Representative Scherer."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. Today I rise to try to urge an 'aye' vote. We all know the situation in the room. We know we're going to have to work bipartisanly to get this passed. I can just only pray today that the people, who in their deepest conscience, know that the right thing to do is to provide MAP grants for children who weren't born into rich families. I'm just praying that you will push the green button and give them an opportunity. It's one button away from passing. And somehow you have to live with your conscience tonight when you go to bed all by yourself and think did I do the right thing tonight or not? It's not funny. It's people's lives. We're talking about whether someone goes to college. And I'm really tired of people who don't have to worry how they're going to go to college laughing about stupid stuff. If you were a student in my room, I don't even want to think what we would be talking about in the hall right now. You were elected to represent the people in your district and no one else. And you were sent here to do the right thing not laugh and make up dirty jokes… and I can't hardly even stand it. When we're talking about kids’ college, you're going to sit there and laugh, seriously? I'm glad that the Representatives when I was young weren't doing that 'cause I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't have been able to go to college without my MAP grant. How about (inaudible)? Let's 09900107.docx 54  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 just hope it's not your family, not your niece or your nephew that's counting on this adult education. I'm glad to say I'm open to looking at other problems. Heaven knows, we all agree, there are a ton of problems that we have right now. But the revenue for this is there if the people in this room choose to put it there. That's the bottom line. You chose to fund offshore drilling in a landlocked state, I might add. You chose to give extra money to education, thank God someone had some sense on that one. But now, today, for some reason… for some reason higher education and MAP grant funding just isn't important enough, but oil drilling, corporate loopholes is. I need someone to explain that to me. These kids, when they get out of school, they have one chance and this is it. One chance, and it's just so sad that that child had to happen to be born into a poor family and happen to go to college the year that this General Assembly, the 99th sits here. Because the people in this room can't get their act together to take care of the youth the way people 50 years older than me had their act together and they could do it. I strongly urge someone on the other side to please listen to your conscience 'cause what comes around goes around. Thank you."

"Mr. Tryon."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Mitchell." Mitchell, C.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll speak to the Bill. Couple of the previous speakers addressed themselves to the folks in the gallery, so I… I will… will do the same. And I'm not going to talk about sort of, you know, anything involved in the desires of the other side, because I think we do that too much and I think this is wrong in some ways with our politics. But I will say there is a peculiar fiction sort of being pedaled today. The… the time line sort of goes like this: We, that being the Democrats, sent the Governor a budget. He vetoed that budget saying that he would not pass that budget until we passed his extreme right wing agenda that lowers the wages and standard of living for families. That's how we got to this place that we're in right now. Now, someone else… I want to say it was the Gentleman from Arlington Heights… mentioned court orders. What's interesting about the court orders, and they're now forcing 90 percent of State Government, is in addition to being consent decrees, in many cases, including that of employee pay, the Governor's Office supported those court orders in order to try to take political pressure off himself and putting additional pressure on our finances. There is no one on this side of the 09900107.docx 62  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 aisle who believes that what we are doing today is the best solution. But the problem here is that Governor Rauner and politicians he controls, that being the other side of the aisle, have caused this crisis. So, you don't get to hide now behind people with ventilators. You don't get to hide behind the payments due and not otherwise be made. We are all willing and able to negotiate on revenue and spending cuts or efficiencies if the Governor is willing to take these nonbudget issues off the table. Until he does so, this is the best option we have to fund MAP grants for higher education. There are times when we are individual Legislators and there are times when we are one state. This isn't just going to be good for Chicago State University or DePaul or Roosevelt or other universities that might be in or around or affect my district. This is going to be good for Eastern Illinois University and Western Illinois University and Northeastern Illinois University. And you, as Representatives, are going to look those folks in the eye and explain why you didn't vote for this Bill if you don't vote for this Bill today. If you believe that the fortuitous circumstance of birth or position should determine only where we start and never where we finish then you believe in the promise of higher education. And if you believe in that, you have to vote today to fund it. Do the right thing. Vote 'aye' to override the Governor's Veto."

"Representative McDermed"

"Mr. Phillips. Mr. Phillips."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Welch."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. MAP matters. MAP matters. MAP matters. That’s the message that I've been hearing from students in my district. They're calling. They're writing. They're rallying. Students at Dominican University, Concordia University, students in my district that go to Chicago State, that go to Northern, that go to Eastern, that go to schools in your district. MAP matters. Stop playing games with these students’ lives. What are we doing here? This isn't a game. This is peoples' lives at stake. You all want to build the economy. How can we build the economy without good education? Come on, people. Listen to our students. The only person opposed to this Bill is the Governor. Look at all of the proponents to this Bill. All of the proponents listed here including the universities in your districts. Why? Because MAP matters, MAP matters, MAP matters. I urge you today to vote 'yes' to override the Governor's Veto."

"Representative Scherer, you spoke in debate. For what reason do you rise?"

"I just wanted to respond to the Gentleman that mentioned…" 09900107.docx 71  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"Your name was not mentioned, Representative. Your name was mentioned in debate. Well, then go right ahead."

"Just for the record, I just wanted to make the point clear that I've never in my life have voted for any corporate loophole for offshore drilling. And on behalf of 130 thousand students, I urge an 'aye' vote."

"Mr. Davidsmeyer."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Kay."

"Absolutely."

"Mr. Drury."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Bill. I want to talk to all the people up in the gallery and I'm going to make a kind of unusual request, but I think it's important if everybody in the gallery could just stand up for one second. I want you to look down. I want to make sure that you all can see something. Seriously, if you could all just stand up because this may be your only opportunity to see something like this. 09900107.docx 79  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 I'm being totally serious. You are now looking down on a delusional deliberative Body. Okay. And… and it's important because you… we've been hearing now for over an hour and… and I… I want to apologize on behalf of my colleagues. For over an hour we have heard from Republicans and from Democrats who are both saying we want to help you while at the same time, the very same time they're talking about things that are going to hurt the very… the very things that you are after. So, let's talk… Jack… Jack… Jack, you had you… Jack, you had your time, thanks. So… so, I'm going to start with the Republican side of the aisle and then I'm going to move to my side. We keep hearing about these… these other Bills. Well, can't we look at the other Bills? Those other Bills… if we would only run those Bills that would help the State of Illinois. That would help us out of this… this bind and we would gladly vote for those Bills because it's about math with a ‘th’ and it's about fiscal responsibility. Those Bills are about borrowing money from another fund that we can’t repay. Okay? So, they're against a Democratic Bill that they say can't be funded with $700 million because they have a way to borrow $700 million from somewhere else that will hurt some other constituents, probably people that you know. Okay? So, that's the truth about those other Bills. Now, when we talk about the Assembly as a whole, we've passed a number of temporary stopgap budgets since June. Since June we've funded a lot of things. Okay? MAP grants have not been funded by choice because all of these things we've funded have been a choice. And you were put… I don't know if it's at the end of the line, the middle of the line, somewhere in the line, but… but in December or November… 09900107.docx 80  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 I forget when it was… MAP grants was part of a Bill and then it was taken out, strung you along. And what the decision was at that time was that the mayors of this state were more important than you. That it was okay to not fund you for a little longer while we fund the cities. And if we fund MAP grants today, there's going to be people behind you. There's a constituent in my district who is being kicked out of his group home in Wisconsin because we are not paying for him. And his funding is not up for a vote today. And his funding won't be up for a vote tomorrow and it won't be up for a vote for all of March, because apparently he's not important enough to get funding. So, why am I saying all of this? Because this whole process that you're watching today… this whole process that you're watching today isn't about you. It's about a bunch of Legislators trying to make themselves feel good about doing something before we go on a month hiatus. Okay? Whether you get your funding or not, and we've done this before, we… we passed these Bills and the funding doesn't ever come. But we can say we voted for it. We can say we helped you. We can put it in a campaign mailer. And if we didn't help you, oh, I'm sorry, too bad. And that is not the way government should work. It is the exact opposite of public service. It's the exact opposite of our public duty. It's the exact opposite of a profile in courage. It's the exact opposite of everything everybody in this chamber, spectators, Legislators, staff members that we should expect from ourselves and from our government, the exact opposite. And so, I keep hearing, well, let's get an answer. Let… let's lock ourselves in this chamber for four months and get a budget. That's the solution. That 09900107.docx 81  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 is absolutely not the solution, absolutely not the solution. Because what we have done every time we have funded one of these stopgap measures, if we're a Republican, we have empowered the Governor to keep the budget impasse going because we have let some pressure out and if we're a Democrat, we have… we have empowered our Leaders because we have let the pressure off. And so, as long as there's no pressure because today MAP grants is a big pressure point and we got to fund it and if we fund it, you'll get your funding and you'll go away and you won't put pressure on us. They are empowered to keep this impasse going and we have done that since June. And I've likened it to two people on heroin that this legislation is like heroin. It makes us feel good when we vote for it. And it's pushed on us. And we don't realize that we're hurting everybody around us. And I stopped voting for these Bills and I can tell you what it feels good to be off the heroin. So, what is the answer? What is the answer for the rank and file? How does the rank and file actually do something to break the impasse? And the answer isn't locking ourselves in this room. The answer is to stop voting for this stuff. The answer is to stop empowering this Leadership that keeps thrusting this upon us because if we don't give them an out, we can get a solution. We can get a budget that will fund this constituent in Wisconsin. We'll fund all these things that we want. We'll fund MAP grants. Would have done it in December if we didn't stop the pressure when the mayors came to us. So, maybe today's the day. But we have to be accountable. We have to do our job. We have to have courage. We have to stop being wimps. And this conversation today has 09900107.docx 82  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 been a disservice to all of you because it is not about helping you. It is about helping us; it's about making us feel good whether or not you get what you want. And I just hope you'll all keep that in mind. I don't know how this vote's going to go, okay? But however it goes, keep this in mind and keep the pressure on your Legislators, keep the pressure on the Governor, keep the pressure on the Leaders because this is about you but somehow you have been forgotten and that is pathetic."

"Representative Ammons."

"Thank you. To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I've listened to this debate over and over again and I appreciate my colleague who did somewhat of a memory lane walk about legislation and how it makes us feel good. But the reality is, this does not make me feel good. I remember coming into this Body and voting for the first budget that we sent over to the Governor's Office out of this chamber many of which included a higher ed budget that could have been signed along with the K through 12 budget but was rejected by the Governor because he wanted certain reform agenda items in that higher ed budget. And therefore, we are here because of that Veto. I want to remind people that we can't fund mental health services, drug treatment, K through 12 afterschool programs, Boys and Girls Club, Meals on Wheels because we sent a budget that was sent over to the Governor, could have been line itemed vetoed, but instead he entered us into the worst spiral in history. There is no history that we can return to that reflects the moment that we're in, no history. There's never been a time where we went without a budget this long and the impasse is actually 09900107.docx 83  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 fed, you're right, it is fed by the politics and not the budget. I do want to highlight a few things because this is a political Body and political Bodies are driven by certain infrastructure, outside forces, et cetera. The students should be one of them. And I would rather not vote 'yes' on an override, but I can never see myself voting 'no' for a MAP grant. And so, in this case, I am forced to vote my district which is Parkland College which really needs the money for this MAP grant right now because they are laying off staff as we speak. So, I have no choice but to vote 'yes' for Parkland College. And no one called me… and I just want to clarify for the record… I didn't receive a call from staff or the Speaker on this Bill. I am very capable of determining whether my district really needs this money. I can do that on my own. I also want to draw our attention… I hope we can get out of this budget impasse at some point because we need to get on to campaign finance reform. This is the reality of why this is going to go down without Republican votes because our colleague last week received $53 thousand a week before this vote comes to the floor. And you tell me this has nothing to do with who's paying. It's from the Citizens for Rauner, Incorporated. So, as I track this money… I encourage the students to do the research… track the money to see who's paying for what and that's exactly where your vote is going. So, if you are concerned about your district, you drop the money off the table and you vote for those students from Chicago that go to Eastern Illinois University because that is their way out of the ghetto. Help those students by voting 'yes' on this Bill and help those students to vote 'yes' 09900107.docx 84  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 tomorrow and the next day on higher education funding that will fund the entire institution. And finally, let me just say for our Republicans who may not know this, that this agenda is an agenda. This is an agenda of consolidation and privatization, and don't you ever think that we will not remember that this is driving us to privatization of public institutions on every level and don't forget that. The public needs to know that this is a corrupt finance system that needs to be changed and you'll see a difference in votes as well."

"Mr. Batinick."

"Representative Ives."

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

"Sponsor yields." Wheeler, K.: "Representative, good to see you." Burke, K.: "Good to see you." Wheeler, K.: "Please remind me of the amount of money being appropriated in this Bill?" Burke, K.: "Seven hundred and twenty-one million dollars." Wheeler, K.: "And its funding source?" Burke, K.: "General Revenue Funds." Wheeler, K.: "And since this Bill was presented back on January 28, have we adopted in this Body a revenue estimate that we are required to adopt according to Illinois State Law?" Burke, K.: "We have not." Wheeler, K.: "Do you have any insight as to when we might except… expect to do that?" Burke, K.: "About as much insight as you do." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you. To the Bill. Echoing the thoughts of some of the other speakers, it is the responsibility of this branch of government to submit a balanced budget, an actual balanced budget. In my first Appropriations Committee meeting, some of my colleagues explained to me that the first 09900107.docx 87  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 step in that budget process is to adopt a revenue estimate so we can have honest discussions amongst ourselves and more importantly, with the constituents and taxpayers. And until we adopt a revenue estimate and do a real budget, a real balanced budget, we really aren't being honest with those taxpayers and we shouldn't continue to spend General Revenue Funds until we do so. Thank you."

"Representative Flowers."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was reading where Governor Rauner proposed for his 2016 budget increased in spending on Corrections for the coming fiscal year. And if it passed, the Department of Corrections or IDOT, we'll have over $1.4 billion to work with up from $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2015. So, that's the Department of Corrections. That's their budget. They will have an increase. And I checked with my appropriations person just to find out how much money we've collected to date, just for today, how much money has came… or come into the budget for today. An earlier part of day, we received $365 million and later on this afternoon… and I don't know how much it is now, I'm sure it's much more… we had received an additional $50 million. I said all that to say that every day, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have money coming into the state. And one of my other colleagues said earlier that Senate Bill 2043 does not bring in money to the State of Illinois. By passing this Bill, one of my colleagues said that this Bill would not bring in money to the State of Illinois. I beg the difference. By passing this legislation, Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be bringing in money to the State of Illinois because a college educated student becomes 09900107.docx 88  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 a tax contributor. A person is going to a junior college that’s getting retrained for this new existing jobs out there or the thousands of unemployed people who are being trained for the jobs in the junior colleges, they, too, will become tax contributors. So, Senate Bill 2043 do bring in more money and by not voting for this Bill, what we're saying is that the rich… the rich can have and the poor can have not in regards to an education. And by being rich chances are you don't have to worry about living in poverty or doing anything that will cause you to enter into the Department of Corrections where they are getting a budget increase. But… but by not voting for this Bill, what you're saying that the poor is not entitled that we really do live in two Illinois and if you cannot afford to feed your family or to get a good education or job training, what you can do where we have given a budget increase to, is go to the Department of Corrections. That is not the message… that is not the message that we want to send to the young people here in the State of Illinois who have taken out loans… have taken out loans to better their… better themselves. They are not asking us to give them any handout. They said if you get out the way, they can do it themselves. The money that they're asking for in regards to the MAP gran is less money because we're only giving them two thousand and some-odd dollars. We are only giving the MAP students two thousand and some-odd dollars; whereas, if you were to become incarcerated, we will give you $25 thousand per person. So, you tell me, Ladies and Gentlemen, what is the best investment for the State of Illinois and tell me, Ladies and Gentlemen, that this Bill is not an Appropriation 09900107.docx 89  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Bill? This is a wise investment and we do not want to send the wrong message to the people and the children. If we can fund elementary education at 7 billion, surely we can fund higher ed who would make an instant contribution into the Department of Revenue before we can get a decrease out of the Department of Corrections. Let us vote 'yes'. Let us send a message that MAP money do matter. MAP money does matter. Let's vote for the children. Let's not hold them hostage. Let's vote for the young people. Let's vote for education and job training. Please vote 'yes'. Thank you."

"Mr. Sandack."

"Your request is acknowledged, Sir. Representative Bryant."

"Sponsor yields."

"Mr. Franks, your name was mentioned in debate. I assume that's why your light is on. I also assume you'll be restrained in your comments, Sir."

"I will. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've listened to the debate more and I appreciate some of the comments and I agree with a lot of them. Mark Batinick talked about the fact that 16… No, he's not going to talk. He's not going to talk. I know Mark. He's not going to talk. Here's the deal. He talked about 16,500 people leaving the state and not being able to be… to go to school. That's 16 thousand students. Folks, this 09900107.docx 94  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 is a crisis. That's like an entire northern Illinois university disappearing every year. Think about that. Sixteen thousand students not going to school. It's higher, he says. This is… this is a crisis. Now, one of the individuals talked about meeting in the well and having five of us meet. I think it's a great idea, but you know what, it's not enough. What I would suggest is that we all stay here tomorrow, even after adjournment and we can do this on our own because I've been asking for a long time that we should be having a Special Session. I've asked the Governor to call us because he's the only one who can keep both the House and Senate in. He's not willing to do that at this point, but it doesn't mean that we can't do it on our own. We can. This is our chamber. We are the Illinois General Assembly. We can meet informally. We don't have the Open Meeting Act violation of the local ones. We can sit here on the House Floor. We could… we could do plebiscites. We could talk about what people will vote for, what they won't vote for, how we can come together. Now, we have an opportunity to bring this back. It's clear today, folks, that this Bill is not going to have enough to override the Governor. It's not going to happen; I wish it would. Because I think that we need to try something different. We need to try something different. I have voted against every Appropriation Bill for years. It's gotten… Here's the irony. When the Gov… when the Speaker brought his… his budget to us, I didn't vote for it because it was $4 billion out of whack. Then the Governor brings his budget to us and none of us voted on it because you guys didn't bring it forward but it was two and a half billion dollars unbalanced. The irony is if we 09900107.docx 95  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 would have signed either one of those budgets, we'd be in better shape than we are today. We have an obligation to the citizens that we represent to stop the bleeding. Mr. Kay, you're a hundred percent right. Let's meet tomorrow afterwards. Don't talk, you agree. Let's meet tomorrow. We don't need to do a show of hands. When we adjourn, see who wants to stay. Let's talk; let's see what we can do. Let's see if we can move some things forward because otherwise I don't think that we're doing our job. And I'd also call on the Governor again to call both the House and Senate in, in perpetual Session dealing only with the budget. It's the only responsible thing to do."

"Thank you for being restrained, Sir. Representative Kifowit."

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

"Sponsor yields."

"Representative Burke, we've had a lot of talk on the floor and a lot of backward-looking talk. And I… I'd like to focus on some forward… forward-looking measures of procedural. We've had talk about a revenue source and those kind of things and it's… it's, again, just to reiterate, this Bill only gives the authority to spend. Is that correct?" Burke, K.: "Yes, that's correct."

"So, theoretically speaking, these other revenue Bills… if this Bill passes, these other revenue Bills could be discussed and applied to this Bill retroactively. Is that correct?" Burke, K.: "Absolutely. This Bill is in the same format that all our Appropriations Bills that we, by custom, put forth. It 09900107.docx 96  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 pays out of the General Revenue Fund. That's the… that's the identified revenue source, General Revenue Fund."

"So, then, funding for the General Revenue source… the General Revenue Fund, when identified can, in essence, fund this Bill." Burke, K.: "Yes. And there's a variety of moneys that come into the General Revenue Fund from income tax, sales tax, and many other sources."

"So, I guess the point is, is when individuals talk about this need to pair up immediately an Appropriation Bill with a revenues Bill it's technically false." Burke, K.: "That's correct."

"And then going forward, would you… you had already mentioned that you would work collaboratively with a revenue Bill as a trailer Bill to this Bill." Burke, K.: "Absolutely. That's always been my pledge. And I will continue to do that starting tomorrow morning."

"To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. So, individuals like to use those nice little quips that we hear from the other side of the aisle, smoke and mirrors, a hoax, a lie, this isn't real, this is delusional. The point is, is procedurally this is real. Procedurally, this is what we've done. We've had trailer Bills. We've had Appropriation Bills. We've worked to find a solution. We've actually passed Bills and then the next time around, both sides of the aisle, will follow up with a Bill that works, that solves the problem. The fact is nobody… nobody has claimed this Bill solves the problem. Nobody has claimed that this is a panacea of… of awesomeness for this problem. It has been said on the other side of the aisle that 09900107.docx 97  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 their Bills are the most phenomenal Bills in the world, if only they saw the light of day. The point is that's not true either. The point is calling names, quipping little snippets for the newspapers is not what's going to get the job done. It was mentioned that if there's no… if there's no money in the checkbook, how can you write a check? Well, the point is, is you have the authority to write the check. This is giving the authority that when the money appears, if the Governor deems it necessary, that he has the authority to write the check. The Governor is the individual who spends the money. The General Assembly gives appropriation authority. That is the proper, correct, non-quippy reality that there is today. So, the fact of the matter is, if we do not give authority, we are setting back our students for a substantial amount of time 'cause the House is not in Session until April 4. This is the responsible Bill. It is the respectable Bill. It is the proper Bill. It is not a delusional Bill. And I will apologize for my completely out of line colleague because I take my job as a United States Marine Corp, as a veteran, and my public duty very seriously. And I think that we all in this Body take our duties very seriously. This Bill is the right Bill for our students. Our students in the gallery, you are forewarned of the procedure. This is just giving the authority to spend. It does not spend the MAP grant money. And therefore, it is our duty to convey our constitutional authority for appropriation to our students, to the MAP grant recipients, to our college to preserve our higher education institutions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Representative Burke to close." 09900107.docx 98  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016 Burke, K.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. I'm certain you're all cheering for the content of that Bill and that this means it's going to be 118 or 117 to 0. But I want to thank you again for a spirited and insightful debate on this issue. And there have been a lot of… a lot of words put out there to describe… to describe this Bill. I'm a little ha… well, I guess, I'm happy that we seemed to retired sham and moved on to some other colorful adjectives. But this Bill is… this Bill is not a sham. This Bill is a sincere effort to fund the higher education system. It's not perfect. It's not complete. You’ve had my pledge to continue to fund… to look for funding solutions for the four-year universities just as soon as this vote is over. But I want to caution that I hear some… some concerns from the other side that it's… somehow this is bad for taxpayers. I'll tell you what's bad for taxpayers: closing universities, shutting down the higher education system, limiting access to universities. Students are taxpayers. The folks who work at universities are taxpayers. The people who live in towns that are supported by institutions such as Carbondale, DeKalb, Macomb, Charleston, Champaign, Urbana, Chicago, University Park, Bloomington. Those folks are taxpayers too and when their biggest economic engine in those areas goes down or suffers because of the crippling effect of our inaction, we're going to hear from it. This Bill is good public policy. It is something that we should all be supporting especially those who have those public institutions and private universities in their districts. I urge a 'yes' vote on this Motion and thank you for your time." 09900107.docx 99  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016

"The Lady has moved that Senate Bill 2043 pass, notwithstanding the Veto of the Governor. Staff will retire to the rear of the chamber. Mr. Sandack has asked for a verification. Members will vote their own switches. Those in favor of the Lady's Motion will vote 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On this question, there are 69 voting 'yes', 48 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. And the Motion fails. Mr. Clerk, committee announcements."

"Representative Williams."

"Point of personal privilege."

"Please proceed."

"Just wanted to let everyone know, unfortunately, we're going to have to cancel the Green Caucus meeting for today. It just got too late, but we'll reschedule it as soon as possible. Thank you."

Speaker Lang: "Thank you, Representative. And now, leaving perfunctory time for the Clerk, Leader Currie moves that the House stand adjourned 'til Thursday, March 3 at the hour of 10:30 a.m. Those in favor say 'yes'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the House stands adjourned 'til Thursday, March 3 at the hour of 10:30 a.m." 09900107.docx 100  STATE OF ILLINOIS 99th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 107th Legislative Day 3/2/2016