2010 Session Preview

E-Newsletter sent to subscribers February 2, 2010

The new spring session is getting underway with the General Assembly scheduled to return to Springfield on Wednesday. As you will see many of your ideas are being developed into legislation, and over the next several weeks we will be unveiling more of your suggestions.

HB 5008: Imposes campaign limits on legislative leaders’ caucus committees and political parties in general elections

“The current law puts campaign contribution limits on everyone EXCEPT the four legislative leaders and political parties in the general election. That is not fair—we must apply the rules to everyone,” said House Republican Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego). “House Republicans refused to support the bill that passed last year because it only imposed these limits in primary elections. This new bill closes the gaping loophole that was created by that law.”

“Simply put, unlimited money means unlimited power in the hands of a few individuals,” said Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington). “Imposing reasonable caps across the board in the General Election will curb influence by legislative leaders and put power back into the hands of individual voters.”

According to Cross, the majority of money is spent in general elections – not in primaries. In fact, in the 2008 election cycle – the Democratic Party of Illinois spent 40 times more in the general compared to what it spent in the primary.

Single License Plate Could Save State Over One Million Dollars

State Representative Jerry Mitchell (R-Rock Falls) is proposing a change in state law that would require Illinois drivers to only have one license plate on the rear of their vehicle, as opposed to the current law requiring front and back plates. Currently, 19 states, including neighboring Indiana and Kentucky, only require a single license plate on the back of a vehicle.

“At a time when our state is facing a serious financial shortfall, every little bit helps,” said Rep. Mitchell referring to the approximate one million dollars in savings. “At this point, I think everything should be on the table.”

House Bill 4888 would require the Secretary of State to issue only a single license plate that would be attached to the rear of vehicles registered in Illinois. State Representative Mitchell gives credit to Illinois residents who submitted the idea through the www.ReinventIllinois.com website.

State should sell its fleet of aircraft

State Representative Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) believes the State should sell its fleet of executive aircraft and is suggesting the Governor and state employees use the Amtrak service between Chicago and Springfield.

“We’re spending $4 million a year to fly the Governor and other top officials back and forth from Chicago to Springfield,” Mitchell said. “Instead of spending $3,000 an hour for these flights, state officials should be taking Amtrak, especially since it only costs $36 round trip.”

The State of Illinois maintains a fleet of sixteen aircraft, including six executive aircraft, worth an estimated $22 million. The State pays for daily air shuttles between Chicago and Springfield; back and forth in the morning and the evening. Representative Mitchell is proposing legislation to sell the state fleet, with the exception of aircraft used by the Illinois State Police.

Most other large states, including California, Florida and Texas, don’t fly daily shuttles for state employees. They only have flights by appointment for the highest ranking officials. The State of New York does not fly employees from the capitol of Albany to New York City.
“If it’s good enough for these other big states, it’s good enough for Illinois,” Mitchell said.

Reinvent Illinois Veto Preview

E-Newsletter sent to subscribers October 2, 2009

In a couple of weeks, we will be going back down to Springfield for the veto session to consider Governor Quinn’s actions on legislation we passed in the spring. This session, we passed 788 bills to the governor for him to decide whether to sign them into law or to make some changes to them.

He then sends them back to us in the legislature to either accept his changes or vote to override his action returning to the original intention of the bill. The governor signed into law approximately 92 percent of the bills we sent to him including: the first major capital construction bill in nearly a decade, a bill that would ban texting while driving, and strengthening the laws that make government information more accessible to Illinois residents.

He either totally vetoed (didn’t like the bill at all, so he just vetoed the whole thing) or amendatorily vetoed (didn’t like parts of the bill or he found technical errors, so he changed it) approximately 67 bills. To review all of the bills up for reconsideration during the fall veto session log on to www.ilga.gov and click on Legislative Reports.

When lawmakers return to Springfield in October there are other issues we are hoping to address as well such as ethics reform and fiscal reforms to improve the overall well being of our state. It is disappointing that more has not been done in these areas to date given the seriousness of our state’s financial and ethical crisis. One example of a reform bill that has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate is the Recall Amendment, which could allow the citizens of Illinois decide whether or not a Governor should be removed from office.

This would provide an avenue for the citizens of Illinois to directly deal with a governor they may feel should no longer serve in that capacity before his or her term is complete.

With one governor in prison and another impeached and awaiting trial, the ability by the people to recall a corrupt or incompetent governor should be a no-brainer, but unfortunately this legislation has been stalled by politics.  Right now, according to the state constitution, only the legislature has the ability to remove a governor from office, as it did in January of this year through the impeachment process.

We continue to push for reforms in other areas as well including campaign contribution limits, public pensions, Medicaid, and the length of the campaign season, just to name a few. We need to keep the pressure on the democrats who control state government right now, to stop stalling and work with us to get things done for the good of the state.

A Message from Reinvent Illinois

E-Newsletter sent to subscribers September 1, 2009

We are pleased Governor Quinn vetoed House Bill 7, the so-called campaign finance reform bill, forcing lawmakers back to the drawing board to start over.  With one governor sitting in prison and another impeached and awaiting trial on serious corruption charges, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to change Illinois’ culture of corruption.  House Bill 7 was a sham passed under the guise of reform.  It would not have reformed the campaign finance system in Illinois; it would have weakened the system…if that is possible.

HB 7 was fatally flawed in many areas:

• Contribution limits from individuals would have been too high and in-kind contributions (For example: paying for television ads, campaign fliers, phone calls, etc.) were unlimited which has the effect of negating the limits entirely.

• There is no real time reporting of campaign contributions.  The media and public will continue to have to wait months to see who is contributing to candidates for elected offices.

• This legislation would have led to an explosion in the number of campaign committees formed by political candidates making it harder to track how much money is going to each candidate.

• The effective date of the bill was actually delayed so these so-called reforms would not have gone into effect until after the 2010 elections.

We are hopeful that the Democratic leaders are sincere in saying that they will bring Republicans and Democrats together along with leading campaign finance reform groups, to put together a bill that truly reforms the campaign finance system in Illinois.

The Illinois Reform Commission crafted a better package of meaningful reforms.  Many of your posts have suggested that the legislature should vote on the Illinois Reform Commission’s recommendations, and we could not agree with you more.  House Republicans have introduced the following bills based upon the Reform Commissions Report and will continue to push for their passage in the upcoming fall and spring session, they include:

• HB 1061/HB 4571 would require real-time contribution disclosure to allow the public and media to track campaign contributions.

• HB 825 would “open” primaries to combat patronage and intimidation by party leaders and would ensure all elections are private.

• HB 4448 would change the primary election date to June or later.

• HJRCA 5, HJRCA 8, HJRCA 17, HJRCA 21 would create a fair and competitive process when drawing legislative

• HB 4572 would provide prosecutors and investigators with many of the same tools available to federal authorities.

• HB 4577, HB 4578, and HB 4579 would increase corruption penalties.

• HB 4112 would strengthen the State Board of Elections ability to investigate and penalize campaign finance violations.

• HB 4110 would prohibit contributions from lobbyists.

• HB4109 seeks to reduce patronage and hiring abuses by requiring CMS to establish and maintain the Illinois New Employee Portal on its official website.

• HB 474, HB 4095, HB 4098, HB 4099 seek to restore meaningful checks and balances to the budget approval process.

• HB 2312 would require greater disclosure for state officials

What is Reinvent Illinois?

Illinois’ greatest natural resource is the ingenuity and thoughtfulness of its 13 million residents.   House Republicans believe we should use this natural resource to help us develop innovative new approaches to solving our state’s budget problem.

Illinois’ unemployment rate has topped 10 percent, food and gas prices are rising, the utilities want rate increases and families are making dramatic changes in the way they live.  We agree state government needs to change as well by living within our means and want to put a stop to business as usual.

Have a suggestion on how to make government more efficient or cost effective? Have you witnessed waste in state government?  We want to hear from you.

We will keep you updated on our progress and let you know how you can help along the way.  But right now, we want your ideas.

Change begins with you.