Our View: Top five issues to address during the veto session
Rockford Register Star EDITORIAL
The Illinois General Assembly goes back to work today, and it promises to be an especially busy veto session. Here are the top five items we’d like to see accomplished this week or next.
Quinn has said since the gambling expansion bill was passed that he thought it was too much. Last week he ruled out putting slot machines at racetracks. Those slots were seen as a key to getting downstate lawmakers to vote for the plan.
Quinn’s proposal scales back the gambling expansion but keeps in place the parts that would provide the most benefit. A Chicago casino could be a world-class attraction and provide money for the city and the state. Casinos in Danville and Rockford, especially, could help two struggling communities.
Rockford, the city with the highest unemployment rate in the state, could use the jobs a casino would bring and could use the casino to leverage other developments.
Senate President John Cullerton doesn’t think he has the votes to pass the bill with Quinn’s changes. We hope he’s wrong.
2. COMED BILL: ComEd needs to improve its infrastructure and needs to move toward a smart grid that would eventually allow its customers to have greater control over how much electricity they use.
However, we hope lawmakers uphold Quinn’s veto of Senate Bill 1652. We dislike the legislation because it dilutes the authority of the Illinois Commerce Commission. The bill allows for automatic rate increases based on a formula rather than the scrutiny the ICC has given rate-hike cases for decades.
3. PENSION REFORM: Illinois cannot afford the system it has. States all over the country are struggling with pension costs, but Illinois struggles the most — it has the worst unfunded pension liability in the country with at least an $85 billion hole.
The state will be required to spend $6.4 billion on pensions in fiscal year 2012, and debt service on pension bonds for 2012 will total $1.579 billion. That wipes out all the money the state received from the 67 percent income tax increase.
House GOP leader Tom Cross and Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, a Democrat, are working on a plan that would give employees three options: remain in the existing plan, but pay more; keep what you have and switch to a 401(k) plan; or work longer for less benefit.
Unless there are changes in the system, it can’t be sustained and eventually there will be no money for retirees or anyone else who gets a check from the state.
4. HOW TO FUND SERVICES FOR THE DISADVANTAGED:
The threat of closing seven state facilities — including Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford and Jack Mabley Development Center in Dixon — has highlighted the need for Illinois to figure out how to best provide services for those with disabilities, mental illness, and other afflictions and addictions.5. END THE WAIVERS: Tuition waivers or legislative scholarships — no matter what you call them — need to end.
The agencies that serve those clients have seen their budgets cut and have had trouble getting paid for services provided on behalf of the state.
That means they’ve had to cut staff and programs, limiting their ability to provide help to those who need it most.
This issue has been lingering for years. Lawmakers must address it.
The program that allows each state legislator to award two four-year scholarships to an Illinois university has been abused for decades.
An investigation by The Associated Press found at least 43 scholarships between 2004 and 2009 went to relatives of campaign contributors and other people with political ties.
Quinn used his amendatory veto power to rewrite a bill that would have prohibited lawmakers from giving waivers to family members. His changes essentially end the program.
Madigan has blocked the governor’s version of the bill because Madigan says the governor exceeded his authority in the rewrite. Madigan and Cullerton think the program can be saved via reforms to stop the abuses.
Even if abuse could be eliminated, it’s not fair for universities to absorb the cost for someone else’s political favor. If lawmakers want the program to continue so much they should fund it — with their own money.
Otherwise, kill it.
#RRSTAR.COM EDITORIAL Posted Oct 24, 2011
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