Here’s what Illinois lawmakers want to do when they return to Springfield next week
After a broad federal corruption investigation shook the state in 2019, metro-east and Southern Illinois legislators say they expect ethics reform to be among the top priorities for the General Assembly, which opens its regular session Tuesday.
Local lawmakers say they will join Gov. J.B. Pritzker in efforts to reverse a culture of corruption that allows not only a “revolving door” for retired legislators to immediately become lobbyists, but even permits them to lobby while still in office.
“Springfield is just horrible. You can lobby and be a legislator at the same time,” said State Rep. Charles Meier, R-Okawville.
Pritzker, who will deliver his annual State of the State address Wednesday, signed a bill in November that boosts transparency and lobbyist disclosure rules, but still allows legislators to work as lobbyists for private interests while in public office. The practice was highlighted after a federal investigation led to criminal charges against three lawmakers and the resignation of another in 2019.
The probe is ongoing, and FBI agents have looked into House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political dealings, The Chicago Tribune reported in December.
The fact that legislators can lobby “doesn’t make sense,” the governor said Thursday at an event in East St. Louis, adding that no elected officials should be allowed to lobby.
State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, sponsored a bill that would prohibit lawmakers from registering as lobbyists within two years of holding office. The law would not apply to recent state agency employees or those who lobby without compensation.
A bipartisan panel, the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform, began work in December on revamping the state’s ethics and lobbying laws. The commission is expected to recommend sweeping changes in a report due in March.
Meier also signed on as co-sponsor to a bill that would create the State Ethics Task Force, an idea introduced in October by a Republican from northern Illinois. The group would identify ethics problems in the state and develop solutions.
Here’s a look at other issues Pritzker and lawmakers will likely address this year:
Property tax relief
Illinoisans pay the second highest property taxes in the country, according to a report from the state Property Tax Relief Task Force. The bipartisan group, established last year to develop solutions for reducing the tax burden, has already been met with controversy.
Property taxes pay for public services ranging from education to pensions in more than 6,000 taxing districts throughout the state. The governor agreed to create the task force after he signed a measure placing a graduated income tax proposal on the November ballot for voter consideration. Illinois Republicans have comprehensively opposed the graduated income tax and have called for property tax relief.
State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, says he plans to push for property tax reduction and reform in the upcoming session. In 2017, he backed a proposal that would allow residents to place a two-year freeze on their property taxes through a referendum, but that bill didn’t make it past the Senate.
Hoffman said he’s not sure what form relief will take this session, but that he and other lawmakers are “committed to do something on passing something on property tax relief.” Part of the solution could be finding another way to pay for local school districts and governments.
“We don’t want to say we’re going to have a reduction in the amount (schools) are getting in order to educate children,” Hoffman said, “but if you’re reducing the property tax burden, the state’s going to have to make up the difference. That’s where the rubber meets the road.”
Recent pension reform could help pass a balanced budget, Hoffman added. Pritzker signed a law that consolidates nearly 700 Illinois police and firefighter pension funds. The governor says it will generate greater investment returns.
Higher Education
Nearly half of Illinois public high school graduates enrolled at out of state institutions in 2017, according to the most recent data available from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Area lawmakers say they hope to focus this session on reducing the number of students who decide to leave Illinois for college.
The state has yet to stem losses that have steadily increased each year since the budget impasse that began in 2015 and ended in 2017. The impasse led to gaps in funding for grants, scholarships and other money for higher education, driving students into other states.
Meier, the representative from Okawville, says the migration hurts his largely agricultural district by siphoning away future farmers. He recently visited Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he says the agriculture department has lost students to out-of-state colleges such as Murray State University in Kentucky.
“(Agriculture) is not always the biggest, shiniest program out there, but it’s the solid base. It’s the base for Illinois,” Meier said.
He says he hopes to gather legislators and administrators to discuss a plan for reviving the agriculture program and to “see what it’s going to take to keep our students in Illinois.”
Stuart says she and other members of the Higher Education Working Group, which includes members from both the House and Senate, hope to improve “affordability and accessibility” at colleges and universities.
At his 2019 State of the State address, Pritzker announced increased spending on public higher education and grants, such as the Monetary Award Program and AIM HIGH grants. Stuart says her group will focus on strengthening and developing those programs.
State Rep. LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, said she wants to eliminate standardized testing requirements for college admissions. Higher education institutions are placing less emphasis on the importance of standardized testing, The Washington Post reported in October.
Early Childhood Education
At the Vivian Adams Early Childhood Center in East St. Louis on Thursday, Pritzker championed his promise to expand coaching and support services for women who are pregnant or parents of newborns.
Over the next five years, the governor said the state will increase the number of families served from roughly 20,000 to 32,500. In the fiscal year 2020 budget, the state increased funding for early childhood services by $50 million.
Pritzker’s administration announced recently it secured $40.2 million in federal funding for early childhood education programs across the state and $18.6 million in federal funding to support coaching and training for child care professionals.
Women’s issues
Greenwood introduced a bill that would require certain health insurance policies to cover postpartum complications. She led the passage last year of a bill to create the Task Force on Infant and Maternal Mortality Among African Americans Act.
Stuart hopes to advance a measure creating designated parking spots at the Capitol Complex for pregnant women and expecting and new parents. She told The State Journal-Register she expects the bill to receive broad support.
Stuart is also pushing a bill that would require public colleges and universities to provide feminine hygiene products to students at no cost.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
