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The ethics reforms bills, the capital bill, and the budget.

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Dear Neighbor,

With more unfinished work than finished work from the 2009 Legislative Session, this is unfortunately a legislative update rather than the wrap-up it should be. It is appalling that we do not yet have a realistic budget for the state. I am heartened that we are returning to Springfield tomorrow to continue work on the budget, but am concerned that a solution that the four caucuses and the Governor will agree to is not yet in sight. I will keep you updated on the progress of our budget, and in the interim below I provide updates on ethics reform and Illinois’ financial crisis. At a later date I will provide an update on the significant legislation I sponsored and passed this Session.

Ethics Reform

The Illinois General Assembly sent to Governor Pat Quinn a set of bills that are designed to change our culture of corruption in Illinois. While I do not believe we went far enough with the reforms we passed, we made significant contributions to ending corruption by:

Reforming the state’s procurement process to enhance disclosure, boost transparency, and require expert, professional oversight and management. (SB51 – click here to read the bill).
Strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to ensure citizens get better, timely access to government documents and information. (SB189 – click here to read about the bill).
Altering the process to appoint members to Illinois boards and commissions to prevent insider deals that have plagued the state. (SB364 – click here to read about the bill).
Establishing the state’s first limits on campaign contributions. (HB 7 – click here to read about the bill).

I do not think our work on ethics reform is close to done, however. I argued for stronger campaign finance reforms – I carried a bill that would provide lower campaign contribution limits in sync with federal limits, for example, as well as lived by these federal limits in my own election campaign – but was unsuccessful. Ultimately, I voted for the contribution limits bill because I believe it will be easier to strengthen this existing law moving forward than to begin from scratch. I am committed to accomplishing the broader reforms we know must happen.

Budget and Capital Plan in Limbo

While our work on ethics reform was incomplete, our budget work has to date failed. Under the leadership of our Senate President, John Cullerton, the Senate and House passed a $31 billion capital plan aimed at helping to stabilize the state’s economy and create jobs. Getting this bill passed through both chambers is a feat that has not been accomplished in 10 years. However, this bill has some technical issues that need to be cleaned up and remains unsigned by the Governor. The Governor may hold up the bill until a complete operating budget is passed.

And our operating budget remains a disaster. While the Illinois Senate narrowly passed tax reforms that could have balanced the budget, increased support for education, and reduced regressive property taxes, the House of Representatives did not pass these funding reforms. Instead we adjourned the Spring Session without passing a realistic financial plan for this fiscal year.

The budget we sent Governor Quinn funds contractually mandated state operations, appropriates federal funds, and provides 50% of dollars to grant programs overseen by the state compared to dollars spent on these programs in the current fiscal year. This results in massive cuts to early childhood programs, scholarships, and social services programs (e.g. substance abuse treatment, senior citizen care, mental health services, programs for developmentally disabled, etc.). This is an incomplete and unconscionable budget. The Governor wants a complete budget and has thus called us back to session tomorrow. I fully agree that we need a workable budget now and one that does not solve our financial problems on the backs of our neediest citizens.

The fate of State government finance is as precarious and unresolved as it ever has been. In the brief time I have been in the legislature, I have always attempted to work openly with my Republican colleagues because my experience and intuition tells me that compromise improves the outcome and consensus around difficult issues. Failure to pass a budget before our May 31, 2009 deadline now forces us to compromise with our Republican colleagues because we need super majorities to pass budget legislation in both chambers (36 votes in the Senate and 71 in the House). My belief in compromise will be thoroughly tested in the weeks and months ahead.

Clearly the state needs a balanced budget now to preserve our economy, prevent disastrous outcomes to our neediest citizens, and restore financial stability. During these challenging times both your criticisms and support helps me make better decisions and communicate with my colleagues how our log jam is undermining productive services. Please keep the responses coming even when I need to hear negative feedback. My email is hsteans@senatedem.ilga.gov or reply to this e-mail and my phone is 773-769-1717.

Sincerely,
Heather Steans

Posted in Budget, Campaign Finance, Legislation

Session update on ethics reform and the state budget.

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Dear Neighbor,

Last week in Springfield we began our post-impeachment session with a Senate Democratic caucus retreat. Our two topics for discussion were ethics and the state budget, which I think speaks volumes about our priorities.

Ethics

The first piece of legislation to pass both the Senate and House was a resolution to create a Joint Committee on Government Reform. Click here for a link. Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker Michael Madigan will co-chair this bicameral, bipartisan group that aims to propose legislation to strengthen the State’s ethics laws and increase transparency. Ideas this group will examine include:

Reforming the State pension systems and Procurement Code;
Strengthening revolving door prohibitions;
Expanding government whistleblower protections; and
Establishing limits on political contributions.

This group will work closely with Governor Quinn’s Illinois Reform Commission, headed by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins. I continue to work with like-minded colleagues, good government advocacy organizations, and community organizing groups to strategize how to ensure we take full opportunity of this moment in time to pass comprehensive, meaningful ethics reforms. I will keep you posted on how the various ethics reform efforts are progressing.

State Budget

State Comptroller Dan Hynes is predicting a close to $9 billion budget deficit in the next fiscal year (click here to read the report ). The federal stimulus package will reduce a significant portion of this deficit (was projected to provide $3 billion that would help offset this operating budget deficit, but this number will be revised once a final stimulus bill is negotiated between the U.S. House and Senate). We will clearly need to make difficult decisions to bring the budget into balance. Significant budget cuts as well as additional revenue sources will have to be on the table.

Legislative Update

Committees and Legislation

Committees

This session I am assigned to the following committees and commissions:

Education, Vice-chair
Environment, Vice-chair
Appropriations II
Human Services
Public Health
Legislative Research Unit

Legislation

I am the chief sponsor of a number of bills, including:

Campaign Contributions limit – I am introducing a bill to limit campaign contributions in Illinois to the current federal limits and ban contributions from corporations and unions.
SB 31 – Keeping guns out of households with violent youth – The DCFS Inspector General identified the need to ban FOID cards (enabling gun purchases) in families that have teens with demonstrated violence (arrests or violent incidents reported by schools) where the parents/guardians do not prevent access to guns. Link.
SB 38 – Humane euthanasia – I am the lead sponsor of a bill to ban the use of gas chambers to kill animals. Link
SB97 – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – I am introducing a bill put together by the Respiratory Health Association that will mandate a focus within the Illinois Department of Public Health on COPD and provide more health resources for people suffering from COPD. Link
SB99 – Composting – I introduced this bill that will create a regulatory system for commercial food waste composting. Link
SB209 – Mental Health – I have filed a bill that will clarify the standards for voluntary admission to a mental health facility. Link
SB 245 – Domestic Partner Benefits for teachers- I am working to allow teachers to designate a domestic partner to qualify as a surviving spouse for purposes of survivor and death benefits. I am also working to provide domestic partner benefits to General Assembly staff members.Link.
Emergency Transportation to Best Hospital for Treatment – Working with the American Heart Association and Illinois Hospital Association I will introduce a bill to allow certain stroke patients to be brought directly to the nearest hospital that has needed treatment options rather than the nearest hospital.
SB30 – Pedestrian Safety – I am the chief co-sponsor of a bill brought to me by the Active Transportation Alliance that will require vehicles to stop at crosswalks when pedestrians are present rather than simply yield. Link.
SB1283 – Natural Lawn Care – I am working with the Safer Pest Control Project to increase natural lawn care usage at schools.
SB1269 – Lead Sinkers – I will be introducing a bill to restrict certain types of lead weights used in fishing.

These bills are only a few of the pieces of legislation that I will be sponsoring this year. To view the legislation of which I am a chief co-sponsor or co-sponsor, click here.

Posted in Budget, Campaign Finance, Education, Environment, Healthcare, Human Rights, Legislation

My reaction to Governor Blagojevich’s arrest

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

December 10, 2008

Dear Neighbor,

While Governor Blagojevich has the right to due process, it is clear that he can not govern and should resign. The allegations made by the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald yesterday about Governor Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, are stunningly serious. The federal corruption charges allege that “they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.” Click here to read the U.S. Department of Justice’s press release and click here to read the full criminal complaint against Blagojevich and Harris.

Given the nature of the allegations and our current circumstances, there are 3 things I believe must happen. First, the Governor can not be permitted to appoint anyone to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat. Both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate will reconvene in special session next Monday, December 15th to vote to establish a special election for the U.S. Senate seat. By law, the Governor will have 60 days to sign or veto any legislation we pass. If the Governor attempts to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate seat there are potential actions that can be taken by other public officials, including Harry Reid, President of the U.S. Senate, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, to prevent the appointment.

Second, if Governor Blagojevich has not resigned by next Monday when the Illinois House meets, the House should begin a process to impeach Governor Blagojevich. The Illinois Constitution grants the House of Representatives the “sole power to conduct legislative investigations to determine the existence of cause for impeachment and, by the vote of a majority of the members elected, to impeach Executive and Judicial officers.” Thus a majority of the Representatives (60 of the 118 members) must vote to impeach, and the grounds for impeachment are not delineated. If the House votes to impeach, the Illinois Senate would be convened to serve as the jury, with the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court presiding. Two-thirds of the Senators (40 of the 59 members) must vote to convict. The link to the Illinois Constitution Article IV, which includes impeachment, is available here at section 14.

Third, the culture of corruption clearly continues in Illinois politics and must be addressed. I believe there are laws we can enact to tackle some of the systemic problems that enable corruption to exist. For instance, in reading the federal criminal charges, it appears that the new pay-to-play ban the General Assembly passed last session may have affected the Governor’s alleged corrupt behavior to raise additional funds before the state contractor ban starts on January 1, 2009. Obviously we can not take solace in the possible reprehensible acts that violate our collective conscience and our laws, but at least we know the ban will likely reduce this behavior in the future. We can not stop here, however, to change systematic corruption in Illinois government. We must cap the overall amount any one or any company can contributed to a political campaign. Illinois is one of only 4 states that has no limits on campaign contributions. We must also establish transparency in lobbyist reporting. We should know what clients are paying who to do what work. While such changes have been difficult to address in Springfield, the events of yesterday may provide an opportunity to push through needed reforms. I – along with a number of my colleagues – are already discussing how we can use these horrible circumstances to tackle these long overdue reforms.

Illinois residents deserve – and must demand – better of their leaders. I do not believe we will be able to get needed reforms passed in the General Assembly without voters demanding the change. All of us must act to put needed pressure on our elected officials. I will keep you posted on my efforts, and hope that you and residents throughout the state will help to ensure we use this moment in time to press for change.

Heather A. Steans
State Senator

Posted in Campaign Finance, Legislation