Illinois Senate Floor Debate — August 13, 2017

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The regular Session of the 100th General Assembly will please come to order. Will the Members please be at their desk? Will our guests in the galleries please rise? The invocation today will be given by Pastor Shaun Lewis, Civil Servant Ministry {sic} (Ministries), Springfield, Illinois.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Please remain standing for the Pledge Allegiance. Senator Cunningham.

(Pledge of Allegiance, led by Senator Cunningham)

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Blueroomstream.com seeks permission to videotape. WAND-TV seeks permission to video record. Seeing no objection, granted. Mr. Secretary, Reading and Approval of the Journal.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Hunter.

Mr. President, I move to postpone the reading and approval of the Journal just read by the Secretary, pending arrival of the printed transcript.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Hunter moves to postpone the reading and approval of the Journal, pending the arrival of the printed transcript. There 1  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 being no objection, so ordered. Mr. Secretary, Resolutions.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Resolution Consent Calendar. Senator Barickman, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your point.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) I think we'll make that possible for him today. Mr. Secretary, are there any Motions in Writing?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Please print that on the Calendar, Mr. Secretary. WCIA Channel 3 seeks permission to audio and video. WICS/WRSP seeks permission to video. WBBM-TV seeks permission to videotape proceedings. Seeing no objection, permission granted. Senator Silverstein, for what purpose do you rise?

Purpose of an announcement, Mr. President.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 3  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 State your announcement.

That there will be a Democratic Caucus for one-half hour upon recess in the President's Office.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Althoff, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your announcement.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The Senate will now stand in recess to the call of the Chair for the purposes of a Democratic and Republican Caucus for thirty minutes. The Senate is in recess. (SENATE STANDS IN RECESS/SENATE RECONVENES)

Senate will come to order. Supplemental Calendar No. 1 has been printed and distributed. On Supplemental Calendar No. 1 is the Order of Motions in Writing to Override the Specific Recommendations of the Governor. This is final action. Senator Manar, do you wish to proceed? Mr. Secretary, please read the motion.

Senator Manar.

Thank you, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate. I move to override the Governor's veto on Senate Bill 1. I would just open up the debate by simply repeating what I've said many times on the Floor of this Senate Chamber, that the time has come to reform school funding in the State of Illinois. We believe to this day that Senate Bill 1 is a work product that represents compromise, that will lead to a system that is no longer punitive to children that live in poverty that attend underfunded schools in all parts of the State. I believe that the Governor's amendatory veto went well beyond anything that he described in his words prior to the veto action. There's many pieces to this debate. By our count, the Governor made over a hundred changes to this piece of legislation. I'd be happy to debate every single one of those if that's what the Body desires today. But with that, I think I'll just close my opening remarks and be open for any questions. Thank you, Mr. President.

Senator Barickman, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

Motion.

Senator McConchie, for what purpose do you rise? SENATOR McCONCHIE: To the motion, Mr. President.

To the motion. SENATOR McCONCHIE: Thank you, Mr. President. This is my first negotiation that I've been involved in, assigned to, was very thrilled. I really enjoy this particular issue and, having worked on the Governor's Commission, learned a lot about this process very quickly and was very appreciative of the -- lot of the goodwill that I learned on -- you know, from -- had people from both sides of the aisle and from advocates on the outside who were very interested in -- in being able to get us to a point that we change this system in the State in a manner in which that was going to be productive for kids everywhere. When I got into the negotiations, I -- a little unexperienced and I was a -- a little disappointed to get the feeling that there was not per se the interest that -- that I could see on other members of the commission on the other side of the aisle to actually come to an agreement and then I was very dismayed to actually read that that was the case in the press. In fact, in NPR, the sponsor said when he was asked whether he was willing to negotiate, he said, "I'm not the one with the problem with the 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 bill, so why would I offer anything against a bill that the Legislature passed, first one in two decades, to the Executive?" Now, we came to the table, we brought some ideas, we thought that they were, you know, some good options for -- you know, for compromise in this regard. And there was virtually nothing that was offered in return in writing. We got some verbal comments at times - well, we would be willing to maybe work with this - and then here we are today. And so I'm very disappointed to be here today. I also urge us to come back to the negotiating table. I believe that this is something that we can actually do in a good- faith effort on a real bipartisan basis and that we could do so quickly. I agree with my colleague in that regard. And I would urge a No vote on this motion. Thank you.

Senator Righter, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

Indicates he will.

Senator Manar.

Well, thank you for the question, Senator Righter. So, as you're probably aware, I've explained this many times over the past few weeks. This is a critical question to this debate. So I appreciate that you -- that you asked it and we can have this discussion of the Floor of the State Senate. I would start here. I would start right here. A system that takes money away from school districts, predominately one school district, the largest district in the State that educates children that live in poverty, to give to other school districts that educate children that live in poverty is not a system that's going to lead to greater equity; and furthermore, the Governor's veto over time doesn't lead to greater adequacy for public education. So that's number one. Number two, I would say that, what I just described, is a reflection of the system that we have today, very much so. We have a system that takes from some, gives to others. We tried to craft a bill, because of the input of everyone in this Chamber, not just on your side of the aisle, but on -- on the Democratic 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 side of the aisle, that creates no losers, no red numbers, everybody moves forward together as one State. Number three, I have severe concerns -- and I understand that looking at a spreadsheet gives us a snapshot of what things would look like immediately, but we also have to weigh what that proposed system in the Governor's amendatory veto would look like three years from now or five years from now or ten years from now. And that to me is clearly not a system that is good enough for the 48th Senate District. Finally, I could have proposed a bill that gave all the money to downstate Illinois. I could have. It probably would have helped me get reelected. Wouldn't have passed. We have one State; we have underfunded school districts all over the State. Senate Bill 1, I think, represents compromise already. I think those reasons are why we're standing here today saying we still believe Senate Bill 1 should be the law.

Senator Righter.

To the motion.

Senator McCarter, for what purpose do you seek recognition? SENATOR McCARTER: To the bill.

To the motion. SENATOR McCARTER: To the motion. Over the last couple of weeks, I've learned a lot about evidence-based funding for schools. I've -- I've learned in the town halls. I've learned in -- after talking to my parents, teachers, as well as education leaders. You know, those promoting Senate Bill 1 have said that they want equity and they want adequacy funding for schools. They've repeated over and over again that our schools are underfunded and that all children deserve the same opportunity. I question the inequity for sure. I don't always question the adequacy in many cases. One, what I found when looking at the numbers, and I understand that these numbers seem to change daily, and then once we get numbers, we question whether the numbers are right. I understand it's difficult. But I will give you the award-winning school in my district, Germantown, who spends just over six thousand dollars, six thousand dollars, sixty-seven hundred and forty-six dollars, 12  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 and if you compare that to the fifteen thousand three hundred and seventy-eight dollars of Chicago, it's very difficult for the people in my district to understand this. It's very difficult for them to see the equity and it's even more difficult when we put forth a solution at sixty-seven dollars. How many years is it going to take for Germantown to catch up? You know, we're not anywhere near being the same and nor will we ever with this formula. While some kids get steak, my kids get hotdogs. Two, pension parity is brought about in the wrong way. Yes, we do bail out Chicago. But, yes, a lack of -- complete pension reform is desperately needed in this State. Although we move forward - unknown to many of the education -- leaders in education - with a pension cost shift of the new Tier 3 pensions in the last BIMP passed, we have yet to phase in a shift of the cost of the current pension burden to local districts. Three, why is -- I was asked, why is downstate pushing Senate Bill 1? Well, downstate is not pushing Senate Bill 1. The parents are not pushing it; the parents want consolidation. The teachers want relief from unfunded mandates, so they can be free to teach how they know to teach and what is -- and how it's best taught. The superintendents and the third party special interests, brokers like Advance Illinois, are pushing it. Many of them believe, by the way, that because of their many years of education and their masters' and their doctors' degrees that they are the only ones smart enough to make a decision on a funding formula. "Trust us", they have said, "we're the experts, we love kids, we'll do what's best." You know, the people in my district are smart enough to figure out an eight-thousand- dollar variance in what other people get. What this does, it puts in place a framework for a huge expansion, 3.5 billion dollars, of 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 education employment for the future with very little accountability for the important outcomes of kids, like performing better, graduating, and having the skills necessary to get a job. More money, even if they have to tax it more -- tax us more to get it - that's their answer. Number four, and I'm closing, we are promising an increase of funding to schools that we cannot honestly keep our word on. I'll support this amendatory -- you know, veto by voting No to override, but it just makes a bad bill a little better. We need to sit down and negotiate this honestly with the amount of money that we have and the amount -- the amount that the people can afford; otherwise, we're just setting ourselves up for the future progressive income tax, which will cause more people in this State to leave.

Senator Trotter, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

Thank you very much, Mr. President. To the motion.

To the motion.

You know, it just -- it's just not surprising to me, and shouldn't be surprising to anyone around here, why our constituents are so confused about Senate Bill 1. And it begins with some of the nonsense that we espouse here on this Floor. You know, the talk about steak in one area and hotdogs in others with a -- with a system that is historically - and I've been here twenty-nine years, so from my historical view - that's been traditionally, historically unfunded and, in most cases, underfunded because of the inadequacies of how we actually calculate how we're going to 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 give dollars to our schools has been the problem. And there's -- and we've been fighting to do that for a long time. These discussions didn't just start in the last two, three years that some of you got here and felt you knew the answers to the world. These are the problems that have -- we've been trying to address for a long time. For those who -- who say they have these diverse districts, well, I do represent the City of Chicago, but I also represent those cities in Kankakee County as well. So there is a divergence of what is needed. And what is needed is a fair, equitable system of how we get dollars to all of our communities. You know, the -- the simple way to do it, the simple way to do it is -- is -- is what happens, I guess, in everyday life, and this is just metaphorically speaking, just take a gun, take the dollars from one area and give it to yours. That's the simple way to make your schools better funded by taking it from somebody else. When are we going to work as an -- a collaborative Body to ensure that all of our children are recipients of the good that this State has? Maybe we don't have the resources today, but if we are not the dreamers for our children that this can get better, then how do you expect them to think this is going to be better? We have the capacity to make things work. Yes, we have to move some things around. Yes, we have finite dollars that are coming in, but that doesn't mean that we are not supposed to find a plan to make it get better, not worse. Senate Bill 1 has been a collaborative effort that has been well worked on. And I -- I know, and I'm -- I'm repeating something that we all hear all the time, that our Governor's head education guru said he likes ninety percent - ninety percent. Now, in my twenty-nine years, ninety percent is a hell of a lot when you're talking about trying to bring something 15  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 together that's going to deal with our diverse communities. Ninety percent is a heck of a lot. Taking dollars from one area to make your area maybe twenty percent better is not equitable. We need to pass this bill, Senate Bill 1. I want to thank all of the individuals who for the past few years, not just the last six months or two years, but has been working to bring equitable funding to all of our schoolchildren in the State of Illinois. And I ask for its affirmative vote.

Senator Hutchinson, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

To the motion.

To the motion.

So, I -- I'll be very brief. One of the things I've wanted to say was, the thing that is hardest for me in this whole debate is the regionalism that chokes us. This pitting school districts against school districts and regions against regions and parents against parents and at a time when we know that we all agree that the -- that the system we have right now doesn't work and has not worked for decades. So when I look at this and I hear the rhetoric about one particular school district, just that one school district, I don't represent any of the City of Chicago, but I need, when I talk about my babies in Kankakee, for people who don't live in Kankakee to care about that. And we all come here and we make votes on individual issues that aren't -- that don't arise from our own individual districts, but there's nothing any of us can do alone in a representative democracy. It requires all of us. And 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 that means, yes, sometimes we take votes where the sponsor of the issue that we're dealing with has to explain to us why we should care enough to say yes to that issue. And when it comes to education, if -- if we could all just realize that one of the reasons education funding reform has eluded us for as long as it has is because we come to this point every single time. We get to this point, where we think regionally and parochially about our own stuff, instead of acknowledging all these children as our children, all of them. So when I hear what will you say to your superintendents, what will you say to your parents, what will you say to those folks there, I would say this: I know there's one thing that every single one of us on this Floor have in common. There's one thing. That's the word State in front of our titles. I don't go by just the 40th District State Senator. I am State Senator Toi Hutchinson. I have to deal with issues that impact this State. And I care about kids, whether they live in Morris, whether they live in Charleston, whether they live in Cairo or Rockford, or East Saint Louis or the City of Chicago, or Kankakee or Olympia Fields, or any -- if a kid anywhere is struggling, it should matter to us wherever we are. This is one State, and on education policy, it's time we start acting like it. Please vote Yes.

And the final Senator seeking recognition, Senator Lightford. Senator Lightford, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

Thank you, Mr. President. To the motion, please.

To the motion. 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017

It's -- it's very difficult to listen to so many untruths - just downright ignorance, just lies, for any Member across the aisle to stand up and say that we're not negotiating with you. I'm -- I'm so offended, because I pride myself on negotiating some of the biggest pieces of education legislation that's passed this Chamber in the last eighteen years. I can speak to that, I'm not twenty-nine years, like Senator Trotter, but I can speak to my tenure here and what I pride myself in. And I think one of the things that you guys left out was that you keep bringing issues and new items to the table. Every meeting we have, you bring a new initiative. Private vouchers - you brought private vouchers to the table and didn't want me to ask any questions. How do you negotiate without answering questions of the person you're negotiating with? So let's tell the real truth here. Let's not just pick a day, a moment in a particular meeting, where Senator Manar may not have given you the answer that you asked for, but let's talk truth. You keep bringing items up that were not even a part of the Governor's amendatory veto. We're talking about things that have zero to do with discussions that we've had for the last three years. You keep asking for things and not wanting to compromise on anything else. That is not how you negotiate. You can't come to the room and say these are my items and this is what you have to accept. That is not how you negotiate. I don't have to agree with you in your items, but I have to be open-minded enough to say, well, let's visit the issue. And then, I hope that if I asked a question, I can get an answer. So let's talk truth about the process in itself. You guys don't want to deal. The only deal you want is fully what you want. A deal is when you 18  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 kind of go back and forth and you pull and tug and maybe you leave the meeting not getting everything that you want. That's how you reach a compromise, not adding items onto the table that were not a part of the Governor's commission, that were not a part of EFAC, that were not a part of the working groups, and that were not a part of this latest working group that the Governor called after we spent three days down here doing nothing. Then he decided to seek Members from each caucus to sit us down. Let's tell the whole truth. So this ridiculousness about Chicago doesn't lose, it's not true and you guys know that. And constantly, constantly pitting districts against districts. I think one of the things Senator Hutchinson didn't say was that you're pitting children against children. That's what we're here for, we're here for the children. And if these children have needs, no matter if they're in Senator McCarter's district, I want his kids to eat steak too. I do. But his kids can't eat steak if he wants kids up north to eat Vienna sausage. At some point, we have to be more realistic about what it is we're debating and what we're asking for. We've allowed this issue to fall into such a political climate that it makes my soul sick, because you're going to take this to a place where school districts will not be open on time and those school districts that do will have a set amount of money that can only last them for a period of time before they cannot meet payroll. Is that really the legacy we want to have during our tenures as legislators, is that we shut down the education system? I don't want to have that on my shoulders. I don't want to go to sleep with that on my heart. So stop with the nonsense and tell the truth. If you guys really want to get something done, we could - we could. You give, we give. You take, we take. You give again, 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 we give again. That's how it goes in negotiations. You can't keep starting over. You have a bill that you filed that the advocates did not agree with. We heard your bill in the subject matter hearing and it did not garner the support, because the bill doesn't get at the root of the problem. It does not fix the funding inequities. It does not. So you can't just pick out one group and say, oh, Advance Illinois. What about the School Management Alliance? Your go-to. They're in support. The management teams are in support of Senate Bill 1. The superintendent organizations are in support of Senate Bill 1. Everybody's in support, but you. Here we are again - you. You're the problem. You know, it -- Mr. President, I'm -- I'm going to close, because the more and more I think about the disrespect of saying that we're not there to negotiate in good faith -- I know every meeting that I've entered into, I've entered into that meeting in good faith, thinking about the opportunity that we have to make sure that we close the academic achievement gap, the opportunities that all of the measures, all of those twenty-seven points in the evidence-based model, what they could actually do to help children. It -- it excites me. It gets me so excited to be a Member of this Body, to know that we can finally solve that problem. But when we continue down this path, it's so -- it's just so dishonest and it makes no sense that we're here on a Sunday afternoon in August having the same conversation that we've been having for the last three to four years. The Governor's amendatory veto does not solve the problems either. He has a couple provisions in there that can be considered. Overall, it creates a bigger problem and it does happen as the years progress. We would be putting a -- a piece of legislation, policy in place, in 20  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 statute, that would decimate over a period of time what we're actually trying to accomplish. And we all know that is not our goal. So, is Senate Bill 1 the answer? It's definitely the answer over everything else that has been presented and proposed. I think it's the right thing to do. Ask for an Aye vote.

Lu {sic} (Lee) Milner from the Illinois Times and Rich Saal from The State Journal-Register seek permission to photograph the proceedings. Is there any objection? Seeing no objection, leave is granted. Now, I see that Senator McCann seeks recognition. For what purpose do you seek recognition, Senator McCann? SENATOR McCANN: Thank you, Mr. President. To the motion, please.

To the motion. SENATOR McCANN: I was elected in November of 2010, the same day that Governor Quinn was elected to his full term as Governor. And when I took office in January of 2011, I quickly realized that there was one- party control of this building and of this State. I realized that one party controlled the second floor, the same party controlled the third floor here, that no matter what I wanted to introduce and move forward, it had to get through that gauntlet; that no matter what anyone on this side of the aisle and, quite frankly, there are many folks on the same side of the aisle as that party who had great ideas and those ideas didn't get to move forward because of that one-party control, and quite frankly, Mr. President and all of my colleagues in this Chamber, I was disgusted by that and I still am. But I have come to realize something over the 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 last couple of years - there is one thing worse than one-party control and that is one-man control. This is not a perfect bill. Senate Bill 1 is not. I believe the -- the author of the bill has confessed to that. The AV is not perfect. The scenario by which we have come to be here today is probably one of the most imperfect scenarios known to man. And if we think about the budget that we took two years to settle on and how that stretched out and how many people that bankrupted, we think about how far are we willing to go on this? How far? Schools are supposed to open this week. Schools are supposed to open this week, and as one of the previous speakers said, "We are State Senators." We are supposed to be statesmen and stateswomen. We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the nation and the State, not to protect one party over the other, not to protect one person over the other, but to take the commonwealth into consideration and do what's best for the people of Illinois. I believe that there should have been Joint Committees of the Whole that where held up until this point, so that we could have all participated in the crafting of the language of an agreed upon bill, so that everyone around the State could have come and given testimony. It could have all been done in daylight, but it wasn't, here we are. So, it comes down to this. Are we going to fear the Governor? Are we going to fear his political operatives? Are we going to fear his money and his friends' money, or are we going fear the mirror? The mirror, when you go to shave in the morning or apply your makeup, are you able to look yourself square in the eye or do you have to look at your cheekbone and your chin and your forehead as you move around? I intend to look myself square in the eye, as I intend to vote Yes to override, not because I believe it's a perfect bill, not because 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 I want to pick a fight, but because the children, the families, and the people of this State deserve better than they've been getting for the last several years. Thank you, Mr. President, for the time.

Senator Rooney, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

To the motion.

Senator Brady, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

To the motion.

Senator Manar, to close. 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank all the speakers for rising on this important occasion to talk about this issue that we find ourselves dealing with on an August Sunday afternoon in the State Capitol. I don't know if this debate is about a process or if it's about a policy, because we heard a whole lot about process and we heard a debate about negotiating. I would just offer this bill as evidence that I am willing to negotiate. This isn't the bill that I proposed four years ago. This is wildly different. I was not the original sponsor of the evidence-based model, as you all know. This bill is evidence of our caucus's desire to negotiate, not for the sake of negotiating, but for the sake of ending the least equitable system of school funding in the country. This bill is evidence of a negotiation. Point number two, there were a lot of things mentioned in debate, like management rights or mandate relief. I like to call management rights the diminishment of collective bargaining rights for teachers. I would note that those items, along with the item that Leader Lightford mentioned, a tax credit bill or a voucher bill, those three things are not either in the veto or in the underlying bill. Those three things don't show up in either the veto or the underlying bill. If they were as important as they seem to be, one would think the Governor would've put them in the veto message, but they're not there. Number three, we need to talk about this amendatory veto. If this amendatory veto was so good and represented good policy and had all of the data behind it that Senate Bill 1 does that proves without question that it will make our State more equitable and more adequate when it comes to funding public schools, one would think that someone would have filed a 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 motion to accept the amendatory veto, which anyone can do, by the way. Our rules allow for that, but nobody did that. I waited until, I think it was 1:25 p.m., before filing the motion to override, deliberately, because the President of the Senate and others in our caucus were involved with discussions late into the evening and even this morning. As I've said on many occasions throughout the course of the last couple weeks, my goal and my goal has always been not to go down the road of a divisive override vote, but to have an alternative that both Democrats and Republicans and Governor Rauner could agree with. This AV represents a total rewrite of what Senate Bill 1 is. There are pieces of this amendatory veto that haven't had a single minute of public hearing, specifically the TIF provisions and the PTELL provisions - that are just trickery. The Governor's AV would say we're going to pretend you can tax that property that State law prevents you from taxing and we're going to count that as if you could, even though the law says you can't. And we're going to correspondingly reduce your State aid. As that goes on, the burden of that, as property values rise, gets heavier. What's the point of that? Ask yourselves the question, what's the point of those two provisions? It's to divest the State from the responsibility of funding public education. That's the only conclusion. That's the only conclusion. There was debate about the hold harmless. There's an area where I think we can have a compromise, I do. But the question that needs to be asked isn't this - it's not should school districts get money based on the number of students that are going to class and should that go down if the enrollment goes down? That's not the question. The question is, should the school district be cut if they're already underfunded because of that one 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 metric? And the answer is no. The answer is no. Governor's veto doesn't take that into account. So when you represent a district like I represent, PTELL changes hurt downstate underfunded schools, TIF changes hurt downstate underfunded schools, and the hold harmless provisions hurt downstate underfunded schools. Now, those charts are pretty slick; it's a snapshot in time. We have no idea what that's going to look like three years from now. I can just tell you from my own experience on this issue over the last several years, that it's not going to be pretty for downstate underfunded schools. That's the debate here. The debate isn't about process or negotiating. It's about policy. Finally, previous speaker used the word "embarrassing" - used the word "embarrassing". The Governor was on Fox News the other day and the Governor said -- the Governor said that he championed a bipartisan school funding bill through the Legislature. The Governor said that, and then moments later, the Governor took credit for vetoing the bill that he moments earlier said he championed. Can anybody explain that to me? That deserves an explanation. This is a thirty-year debate that's coming to this moment in time in this Chamber. I have no idea what that means. I have no idea what it means. I'm not embarrassed about this bill. But when I hear things like that, and I have a laundry list of 'em by the way. Governor said he agrees with ninety percent of the bill. Then he said he was going to sign it if it had only reflected what the Senate did, not the House. Two days later, he said he's going to veto the whole bill. Three weeks later, he says he's going to offer an amendatory veto. That's five different positions in five weeks. That isn't leadership. That isn't bringing sides together to answer this age-old question in the State. That's 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 what we need from the Governor. That's what I was hoping this amendatory veto was going to be, a road map to bipartisan agreement. It is not. It is not. And then, finally, I would echo the remarks of my colleague, Senator from Macoupin County. This issue weighs on my conscience - it always has and it will continue to do that. There are kids in every part of this State - every part of this State - that don't get what they need because of the failure of the Legislature and of the Governor, past and present, to get this right. For years and years, this debate has gotten to this point and sometimes not even to this point and things have -- have sent it off into the direction of failure. Something happens here. There's a disagreement between Members, between the House and the Senate, between the Legislature and the Executive, between the State Board of Education and others. There's no consensus around the State for how to solve the problem. Over the years, there have been various reasons why we haven't been able to fix this problem. This veto isn't going to be one of those this time. It is not going to be the reason we stop this time. Kids deserve better than what they're getting today. Senate Bill 1 should be the law. I ask for an override motion -- an override vote from my colleagues. Thank you.

The question is, shall Senate Bill 1 pass, notwithstanding the specific recommendations of the Governor. All those in favor will vote Aye. All opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On that question, there are 38 voting Aye, 19 voting Nay, none voting Present. And Senate Bill 1, having received the required three-fifths constitutional majority, is 29  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 declared passed, notwithstanding the specific recommendations of the Governor. Ask the Committee on Assignments to please come to the President's Anteroom immediately. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, Resolutions.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Mr. Secretary, are there any further resolutions on {sic} the Consent Calendar?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Resolution Consent Calendar. Senator Haine, for what purpose do you rise?

Mr. President, I rise on several points of personal privilege.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your points of privilege.

First of all, I just want to say that -- thank the good Lord I'm here to actually be on the Floor to vote. And -- and I want to again call the attention of the Chamber to the fact that Anna and I and our family are engaged in this ongoing project to save the Social Security system. And I want to announce I have four grandchildren here in the gallery: Madeline, Eleanor, Gabriel, 30  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 and Zavier Jaworski of New Jersey. They're looking at the Senate operating and my eldest daughter, Cecilia. And I want to announce that since I was here last, we've had three grandchildren - Edward Burkett, Cecilia Stirton, and Mary Alice Balan. And I -- I -- and I also want to say that I appreciate so much all the letters and calls, emails that I've received over the past six months. And I -- my heart goes out to those that are in much worse shape than I am, suffering from cancer, and certainly we have a great medical establishment and hopefully the good Lord will intercede for them too. Thank you very much.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) We all missed you. (at ease) Mr. Secretary, Committee Reports.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Raoul, for what purpose are you seeking recognition? 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017

Point of personal privilege, Mr. President.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your point. And can -- can we keep the noise down a little bit in the Chamber, please? Thank you. Senator Raoul.

Thank you for that, Mr. President, because I -- I brought with me a very important guest to the Chamber today, my new bodyguard. His name is John Moore. He is a junior at the Wolcott School in Chicago, where he will be heading up the Social Justice Club there. So, if we could give him a warm Senate welcome, I'd appreciate it, and he's here with his mother, Lisa Moore.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Welcome to Springfield. Senator Righter, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your point.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Welcome to Springfield. Senator Biss, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

For purpose of an introduction, Mr. President.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) State your introduction.

Thank you. Members of the Senate, I am pleased to be joined today by my relatively new Legislative Director in my district office, John Amdor. John came to me from working for a House Member, so he's surprised that he's allowed here on the Senate Floor. And I told him that he should expect that he'll be surprised by a lot of things about the way the Senate functions, as compared with how things work across the Rotunda. Please join me in giving John a very, very warm Senate welcome.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Welcome to Springfield. With leave of the Body, we'll turn to Supplemental Calendar No. 2, House Bills 2nd Reading. President Cullerton, on House Bill 2505. Mr. Secretary, please read the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 3rd Reading. We will now turn to House Bills 3rd Reading. House Bill 162. Senator Bush. Mr. Secretary, please read the 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) This is final action. Can we please keep the noise down? The conversations can happen afterwards. Senator Bush, on your bill.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Kind of ironic on a day that we're talking about education that we're also going to be talking about something else that's important. But HB 162 extends the EDGE credits to June 30th, 2022. Makes several changes to the program. Happy to answer questions, but there -- I know of no objections to the bill and I'm asking for an Aye vote.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Senator Althoff, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Any further discussion? Senator Brady, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Senator Bush, to close.

Thank you, Mr. President. I would just ask for an Aye vote.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The question is, shall House Bill 162 pass. All those in favor will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? 35  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 Take the record. On that question, there are 56 Ayes, no Nays, 1 voting Present. House Bill 162, having received the required constitutional majority, is declared passed. House Bill 3163. There's been a letter placed on file changing sponsorship to Senator Manar. Senator Manar seeks leave of the Body to return House Bill 3163 to the Order of 2nd Reading. Leave is granted. Now on the Order of 2nd Reading is House Bill 3163. Mr. Secretary, are there any Floor amendments approved for consideration?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Manar, on your amendment.

Thank you, Mr. President. This amendment becomes the bill and it would make House Bill 3163 identical to Senate Bill 1 as it was sent to the Governor by both the House and the Senate. I would ask for the amendment's adoption.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion on the amendment? Senator Barickman, for what purpose do you rise? Seeing no further discussion on it, all those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, and the amendment has been adopted. Are there -- there any further Floor amendments approved for consideration?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 3rd Reading. Now on the Order of 3rd Reading is House Bill 3163. Mr. Secretary, please read the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Manar, on your bill.

Thank you, Mr. President. With the amendment that was just adopted, House Bill 3163 becomes identical to Senate Bill 1 as the General Assembly passed it to Governor Rauner. This has been, obviously, an issue that we've debated extensively, but I'd be happy to take any questions on this bill. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion on the bill? Senator Barickman, now, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Never thought we'd be double-teamed by Barickmans. Senator 37  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 McConchie, for what purpose do you seek recognition? SENATOR McCONCHIE: Question of the sponsor.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) He -- he indicates he will yield. SENATOR McCONCHIE: Thank you. I'm just curious, why do we believe that this effort is necessary that we're doing this today?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Manar.

We just overrode the Governor's veto on Senate Bill 1. That goes over to the House. This is just putting another bill into the legislative process in the effort to try to bring some finality to the discussion that we've been having.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator McConchie. SENATOR McCONCHIE: To the bill, Mr. President.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the bill. SENATOR McCONCHIE: I'm hoping -- hopeful that perhaps this is a sign that, you know, there may be some negotiations in the future that we may be able to productively engage in. However, given the content of this, I will also encourage a No vote on this at this time. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Senator Manar, 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 to close.

I would just simply ask for an Aye vote, Mr. President. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The question is, shall House Bill 3163 pass. All those in favor will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On that question, there are 37 Ayes, 19 Nays, none voting Present. House Bill 3163, having received the required constitutional majority, is declared passed. It's going to be a long walk home for her. For the record, the Presiding Officer would have voted Yes on that bill. Senate Bill -- now on 3rd Reading, Senate Bill 3-3-1. Senator Muñoz. Senator Muñoz seeks leave of the Body to return Senate Bill 331 to the Order of 2nd Reading. Seeing no objection, leave is granted. Now on the Order of 2nd Reading is Senate Bill 331. Is there any Floor amendments approved for consideration?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Muñoz, on your amendment. SENATOR MUÑOZ: Thank you, Mr. President. The amendment becomes the bill, which I ask for its adoption and I will explain it on 3rd Reading.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, and the amendment has been adopted. Are there any further Floor amendments approved 39  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 for consideration?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 3rd Reading. Now on the Order of 3rd Reading is Senate Bill 331. All… Mr. -- Mr. Secretary, please read the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Muñoz, on your bill. SENATOR MUÑOZ: Thank you, Mr. President. As amendment -- as amended, just allows the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to impose fines up to a hundred dollars, rather than a thousand. We had a bill that ran through the Chamber this past Session and it wasn't the intent, so we worked with the Department, as well as the industry, making it fair. So everybody is in agreement. I know of no opposition to the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, shall Senate Bill 331 pass. All those in favor will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On that question, there are 56 Ayes, no Nays, none voting Present. Senate Bill 331, having received the required constitutional majority, is declared passed. With leave of the Body, we'll go to Senate Bills, Concurrences. Senate Bill 734. Senator Raoul. Mr. Secretary, 40  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 please read the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Raoul, to -- to explain your motion.

Thank you. The House amendment limits the number of terms that members of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority can serve to three terms.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, shall -- Senator Rooney, a late light. Senator Rooney, for what purpose do you seek recognition?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any further discussion? As this will consider -- this will need a three-fifths vote. The question is, shall the 41  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 Senate concur with House Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 734. All those in favor will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On that question, there are 45 Ayes, 6 Nays, 1 voting Present. Having received the required constitutional majority, the Senate concurs with House Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 734, and the bill is declared passed. Senate Bill 1446. Senator Koehler. Mr. Secretary, please read the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler, on your motion.

Thank you -- thank you, Mr. President, Members of the Senate. This is a -- a gut-and-replace. Amendment No. 2 says that managed care organizations contracts -- that contracts with the Department of Health {sic} (Healthcare) and Family Services must be executed through the Procurement Code. Currently, these contracts have been carved out of the Procurement Code. Just a little background on this: In February of last year, there was a RFP put out that would increase the number of Medicaid MCOs to eighty percent, which would cover a hundred and two counties. Some think that it may go well beyond that eighty percent. This would -- this bill would really bring that back into the regular process, which would make it, I think, much more transparent as well. So I'd be happy to answer any questions. 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Senator Syverson, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Indicates he will yield.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

The -- the selection was made. My understanding is that contracts have not been executed, so this would really force the -- the whole process to start over with going through the regular Procurement Code.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Syverson.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 Senator Koehler.

That's -- that's hard to estimate. There are some of us who - and on both sides of the aisle - who think that this is really a troublesome way to go, because we have not at all seen any demonstrated savings in what we've --- we've done on this. I have a problem with -- with taking a system of -- of -- this is a -- this would be the State's largest contract ever, a nine-billion- dollar contract for Medicaid services. You know, what we see right now is that the State is picking up the ACA health insurance costs, because these are -- are private for-profit corporations. That's estimated to be somewhere around a hundred and twenty million dollars. We see that the administrative fees are nearly fifteen percent, maybe not quite fifteen percent, but that we are -- are putting out over eight hundred million dollars in -- in MCO administrative fees this year. If we take this to -- to move it up to eighty or even a hundred percent, we're talking about well over a billion dollars. And then we look at the fact that these are corporations that have stockholders that have to have a return on an investment and we know right now that MCOs take 1.5 billion dollars out of this State as an annual profit. How does this help the Medicaid system? We -- we -- we see in our communities, hospitals, physicians, nursing homes screaming that they can't get their claims paid. Part of this, I think, is because there's just not enough money in the system, and if we continue to expand this, there's going to be less money in the system to actually do what Medicaid is supposed to do and that is provide healthcare for seniors and for poor individuals.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 Senator Syverson.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Righter, for what purpose do you rise?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Indicates he will.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

Yes, I -- I do have some problems. I think that what -- what's different about this is the scale. We're talking now about, and -- and the Department itself had said, eighty percent. I think it's going to be -- if we're going to a hundred and two counties, we're looking more at ninety percent and above. The scale of this, it -- it -- it changes really the -- the -- forever, what we do with Medicaid dollars. My biggest disappointment was that after we had passed the SMART Act -- and we had talked about, you know, this was going to be one of the goals in the SMART Act, was we were going to try to get into some managed care. Well, we've done that in a big way. The ACEs, which were the hospital-based accountable care entities, were a part of that discussion. I remember that distinctly, because I -- I promoted it, I asked the question every time we had meetings on it, and all of a sudden, lo and behold, those are completely out the window. Now, I think that that would have been excellent competition for the managed care organizations, because hospital-based entities have the 47  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 networks, they have the follow-through. I mean, I have asked everybody who comes in and complains about how the MCOs are working and how they are not getting claims paid, and even when I've sat down and talked with the MCOs about how they think that the system is working wonderful, I asked, you know, what kind of coordination and what kind of, really, teamwork are you providing with the physicians, as an example, and those that are doing casework and I'm hearing no evidence that that is really being followed through at all. That was the whole point of the ACA passing in the first place and that was to look at quality outcomes. The higher the quality, the lower the costs in healthcare. So, really what is different about this is the scale at which we're now trying to go.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Righter.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

If -- if you'll remember, I did not wait that long. I filed 48  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 a bill last spring, early. And because that bill was not going anywhere at that point, I, you know, saw this as one way of trying to accomplish the same thing. So I didn't wait till the last minute. I've been pursuing this ever since this thing was first announced.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Righter.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

Yes, I -- I absolutely am not looking out for any special interests in this. I have no -- no contact with any of the MCOs. That -- that is the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't operate that in the first place -- operate that way in the first place. Here's the -- here's the bottom line. If -- you know, just because it's late in the game, and I'll -- granted, it's late in the game. 49  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 A bad process shouldn't be pushed forward just because it's late in the game. We should backup and do this thing right. This is a nine-billion-dollar contract, the largest contract in the history of the State of Illinois. We should take and pay attention to this.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Righter.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator McCarter, for what purpose do you rise? SENATOR McCARTER: To the bill.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the motion. SENATOR McCARTER: To the motion. Ladies and Gentlemen, I -- I don't -- I honestly don't necessarily question the effectiveness of managed care. I do question the cost of it. That's why I filed Senate Bill 1058, which says that the maximum administration costs on a managed care contract can be nine percent. My cosponsor is the sponsor of this bill. I have no problem with profit. That's how I make a living in my business. I don't have a problem with managed care companies making profit. But, here we are in a terrible fiscal situation, terrible, and if we're not willing to take a look at a nine-billion-dollar contract to see if we can't negotiate -- as much as fifteen percent down to nine and save four hundred and fifty million dollars to take care of the deficit on the budget that was just passed, we're not good stewards of the people's money. Perhaps, this is going to slow it down. Well, 51  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 perhaps, it'll cause those negotiating this contract in the administration to take another look at how managed care can take a haircut with the rest of the people in this State. I think it's a fair request. Am I slowing down the process by voting for this? Perhaps. But I specifically asked the administration, negotiate on our behalf, on the people's behalf. Let these people cut their fees and get closer to New York at six percent, just a little closer for the -- on behalf of the people of this State. I urge an Aye vote.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose, for what purpose do you rise? Senator Rose.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Indicates he will yield.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

I don't -- I don't know that there's going to be any costs to the delay. Could be cost savings. If -- if what Senator McCarter is advocating takes place, it'll be a -- a large savings. So there's no way to estimate that.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose. 52  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

Well, let's -- let's back up for a moment. Let's understand that, you know, I didn't come into this discussion or this issue just when this bill -- this amendment was filed. I've been working on this for a couple years. I submitted legislation last year as well, in addition to being cosponsor for Senator McCarter on his bill, trying to raise issues about what we're doing, where we're going on this whole thing. So, again, I -- I don't think that it's a valid argument to say just because we're at the end of the process, just because the selections have been made, we can't stop this. No, I think it's always a good time to try stop and have better policy and better decisions.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose -- or Senator Koehler.

The legislation indicates that until the actual contracts are signed that this process could be reversed. So once the contracts are actually signed -- I mean, the awards were -- were -- were given in terms of who was selected, but the contracts have not been signed.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler.

Those aren't contracts. That -- that was a selection process. They were selected. The contracts have to be negotiated.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) 54  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 Senator Koehler.

Well, I think that -- that the whole process needs to be a lot more transparent. I mean, one, and Senator McCarter raised a very valid point, why are we paying almost fifteen percent when there are other states, like New York, that are paying six percent for -- for Medicaid MCOs? You know, it's estimated here that, this year, we are going to pay over eight hundred million dollars in terms of the administrative fees to the MCOs we have currently, which is about sixty-five to seventy-five percent. You know, if we go up to eighty percent, ninety percent, ninety-five percent, we're talking about a lot more money. We're talking about over a billion dollars. We pay - I don't know if you know this - we pay the ACA tax. These are for-profit corporations. We, the State of Illinois, pay their tax for them. That's about a hundred and twenty million dollars. And, again, we talk about -- and -- and profit is not a bad word, but all that profit is going outside of the State. When we specifically eliminated ACEs from even being in consideration -- ACEs would have been competition to the MCOs. ACEs would have operated at a much lower administrative level and they were knocked completely out of the park. And they were local businesses.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Rose.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Raoul, for what purpose do you rise?

To speak briefly to the motion.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the motion.

I think we're being unfair to the sponsor with regards to this, 'cause he -- as the sponsor said, he was working on this way prior to the decision-making in this process. I know that I've had conversations with the sponsor and I was a little bit on the fence about this motion. But what I do know -- I'm the son of a former -- of -- of -- of a community physician, who got out of the practice because of how costs were being managed in medicine. Because it's not just about savings, it's about how you save. And -- and I've heard from the providers within my district about some of these national organizations, national MCOs, that are denying 56  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 claims, not because the claims are without merit, but the actual denials are without merit and when they are appealed, they're -- the reason for denial is subsequently changed two or three times to kind of deter legitimate claims being put forth. So bigger is not better, as the sponsor said. Oftentimes local is better. Looking at diversity, as the administration did indicate that they were going to do, can be better in some cases because there's a greater sensitivity to a population that is a bigger population of the -- of the overall Medicaid -- a disproportionate population of the overall Medicaid population. So based on this, I am off the fence and I am in support of the gentleman's motion and I urge a Aye vote.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Koehler, to close.

Thank you for all the questions and all the discussion. I just encourage an Aye vote. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The question is, shall the Senate concur with House Amendment 2 to Senate Bill 1446. All those in favor will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On that question, there are 38 Ayes, 18 Nays, none voting Present. Having received the required constitutional majority, the Senate does concur with House Amendment 2 to Senate Bill 1446, and the bill is declared passed. We'll now turn to the Order of Resolutions. Senate Resolution 217. Senator McCann. Mr. Secretary, please read the resolution.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator McCann, on your resolution. SENATOR McCANN: Thank you, Mr. President. Lymphedema is a -- is an affliction that -- that unfortunately afflicts many Illinoisans and I have a constituent who is very engaged and involved at the federal level with making sure that the garments that are used to treat this affliction would be covered by Medicare and this -- this resolution is simply an attempt to honor that gentleman and all the folks who suffer from the affliction in hopes that one day those garments and those treatments will be covered by Medicare. I move for its adoption.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, shall Senate -- Senate Resolution 217 pass. All those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, and the resolution is adopted. Senate Resolution 794. Senator Harmon. Mr. Secretary, please read the bill -- or the -- resolution.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Harmon, on your resolution.

Thank you, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate. We may well be the only legislative Chamber in the country in Session today, which gives us the unique opportunity to condemn the horrific violence this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is violence born of -- of hatred, of racism, of smallness of 58  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 mind and heart and soul. It is instigated by self-proclaimed white nationalists and the alt-right. These are the heirs to a -- an evil. It's a new brand for the Nazis, for the Ku Klux Klan, for white supremacists. And we should condemn evil and we should give evil a name. And this resolution does that and I ask for its unanimous adoption by this Chamber.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? Senator Biss, for what purpose do you rise?

To the resolution, Mr. President.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) To the resolution.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, this is a topic I don't talk about a lot, because, frankly, it doesn't impinge directly on our work frequently, and I'm pretty heartbroken that it finds itself impinging on our work. But I've been thinking a lot over the course of the last thirty-six hours or twenty-four hours, or whatever it is, about the spring of 1944, when my maternal grandmother and her siblings and parents were put on a railcar in the village that they lived in in Transylvania and that railcar went to Auschwitz, and when they got off that railcar, they were separated by age and the people of my grandmother's generation, who were in their late teens and early twenties, went one way and her parents went the other way and they never saw each other again. My grandmother survived and eventually immigrated to Israel with my mother, who at the time was two years old. And I grew up not talking about that legacy all the time, but with that legacy 59  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 weighing in a real way on my family, with an understanding that that kind of evil was present in the human soul and also that the positivity that overcomes that evil is equally present in the human soul and it's our responsibility to make sure that we bring out that light and that good to withstand the evil. My grandmother, in the last years of her life in the early part of the twenty- first century, was interviewed by the Steven Spielberg Holocaust project, and at the end of that interview, she says that she looks back on her life and thinks about how fortunate she was to have a good life, with a healthy family, and to come out of such difficulty with happiness and goodness and love. And that to me is a really strong sign about what we can do together if we choose to focus on that good and that light that exists - always - in every human soul. And what happened in Charlottesville yesterday morning, I think is an obvious and, quite frankly, really easy opportunity for all of us to remember the importance of naming the evil and elevating the good. And it's just beyond belief that we live in this moment where all of a sudden doing that is a political statement and doing that is a politically controversial statement and we have a President who has been steadfast and unwilling to do that. These moments are moments that define our future and I am relieved that we're here in Springfield today, with, as the Senator said, one of the very few, probably the only legislative Chamber in the country with an opportunity to go on the record on this crucial question, 'cause this isn't like a small thing. I -- I told that story about my past because I want you all to understand how I feel, my personal gut emotional response, when I see pictures of people making the "Heil Hitler" sign. That's -- that's not a theory or an abstract symbol; that's -- that's a direct -- direct 60  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 existential threat to my own ancestors. Of course, what happened in Charlottesville wasn't only about that particular existential threat to that set of ancestors; this is the modern-day version of the KKK. This is the modern-day version of the kind of lynch mobs that terrorized this nation. This evil will persist if we don't act with extraordinary clarity and vigilance to state not just what it is that we have to do in response and it's a really weird and scary and sad and sick day in America when we have a President who's not willing to do that. But the character of this nation is not determined by the character of the person who is our President; it's determined by all of our behavior. Yes, every Illinois State Senator and every elected official, but just every person. And let us, please, use this moment as an opportunity to demonstrate our own national character to look back at our history at all the instances when we have found that light in the human spirit and used it to overcome the darkness. Let us please do that once again. Thank you, Leader Harmon, for bringing this forward. It's a really important statement. And I hope everyone will join us today in cosponsorship and strong Yes votes, of course, but also in allowing this to be a reminder for each of us in each of -- in each and every moment going forward how we always have to find that light. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Collins, for what purpose do you rise?

Thank you, Mr. President, and to the resolution. I want to thank Senator Harmon for his resolution and I want to thank Senator Biss for his remarks. And I just want to say that Dr. King once said that we will not be remembered for the vitriol of our enemies, 61  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 but by the silence of our friends. I'm saying it to say we do have a obligation as Americans to stand up and call evil -- to identify it as what it is. It is domestic terrorism. When an ISIS member jams a car in a crowd, it's called terrorism. And I think what we see now is terrorism. And for those that know that Dr. King lost his life because of the rhetoric of hate and divisiveness brought on by the Klan. And I think it's an insult to all those brave men and women who lost their lives in World War II, who fought Nazis in Germany, and here we have Nazis in America. And we should have the courage enough to stand up and say, no more, not again, and we will not accept this. Thank you.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Senator Harmon, to close.

Thank you, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate. Senator Biss and Senator Collins made comments with a degree of acuity and proximity that I can't pretend to appreciate. But at one point, all of us were likely subject to this sort of hatred - Catholics, Jews, whites, blacks, Latinos - and if there's one lesson from the history, if we don't all stand together and defend each other, it will eventually come around back to us again. And so, as the resolution is titled, let's call this what it is - domestic terrorism. And let's repudiate it. If we can't repudiate that here at home, I don't know what business we have representing the people in our districts. Again, I ask for the unanimous approval by the Illinois State Senate of this resolution.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The question is, shall Senate Resolution 794 pass. All those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, and the 62  STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 71st Legislative Day 8/13/2017 resolution is adopted. The regular Session of the Senate will stand in recess. (SENATE STANDS IN RECESS/SENATE RECONVENES)

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) The regular Session of the Senate will please come to order. We will now proceed to the Order of Resolution Consent Calendar. With leave of the Body, all resolutions read in today will be added to the Consent Calendar. Mr. Secretary, have there been any objections filed to any resolution on the Consent Calendar?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR LINK) Is there any discussion? If not, the question is, shall the resolutions on the Consent Calendar be adopted. All those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, and the motion carries. And the resolutions are adopted. There being no further business to come before the Senate, pursuant to House Joint Resolution 65, the Senate stands -- to the call of the President. The Senate stands adjourned. 63