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Senate Week in Review: August 25-29, 2008 |
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 An omnibus ethics reform package received a drastic rewrite from the Governor’s veto pen on Aug. 26, putting the reform measure in potential jeopardy, according to Senator Risinger.
Approved with unanimous support by lawmakers and touted by “good-government” organizations, House Bill 824 aimed to put an end to “pay-to-play” contracts, prohibiting businesses that have more than $50,000 in state contracts from contributing to declared political candidates for statewide office.
The legislation also required businesses with state contracts or pending bids to register with the State Board of Elections, which was to create a searchable public Internet database linking the businesses’ names to disclosures of all their contributions to political committees. |
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Senate Week in Review: August 18-22, 2008 |
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 The Illinois Senate returned for a one-day session August 19 to address changes the Governor made to two legislative measures approved by the General Assembly this spring, according to Senator Risinger.
The Senate rejected the changes made to one proposal and accepted the changes to a second measure.
The changes rejected by the Senate were contained in the Governor’s amendatory veto of House Bill 4201. The Governor rewrote the measure to grant a property tax exemption to veterans deemed to be at least 50 percent disabled.
While most lawmakers said they support the intent of the legislation, many had concerns that the measure would be quickly ruled unconstitutional. |
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Senate Week in Review: August 11-15, 2008 |
 Despite being called back to the Capitol by Governor Rod Blagojevich for two more special session days on August 12 and 13, Senate Republicans anxious to get to work on fixing the state’s numerous problems found that Democrats would rather party and politick.
In fact, on August 13 – day two of the two-day Special Session – the majority party opted to spend the morning and afternoon at the State Fair and not come to work until well after 5:00 p.m., said Senator Risinger, and even then, no progress was made on any of the topics the special session was meant to address.
However, the special session did bring about one positive development: a vote to reject the legislative and state official pay raises that were set to go into effect automatically. On August 12, the Senate voted to reject the recommended bump in salaries, which ranged from 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent. |
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Republicans ready to work, while Democrats attend State Fair |
 Senator Risinger joined with Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson and their Senate Republican colleagues in calling on Illinois’ Democrat leadership to “put aside the political gamesmanship, the inter-party conflicts and the hypocrisy.”
The Governor called legislators back to Springfield for a “special” session day to convene at 5:00 p.m., August 13, which is Democrat Day at the State Fair, with no proposal ready for legislative action, and no meetings or public hearings scheduled. The session was adjourned with no action taken. |
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