The Illinois General Assembly heads into the ultimate scheduled week of its spring session going through unresolved points from the finances to a proposal to assist the Chicago Bears transfer to the suburbs, whereas additionally coming beneath strain to toughen authorities ethics legal guidelines within the wake of the “ComEd Four” corruption case convictions.
Also on the desk is the potential for further funding to assist Chicago handle its rising inflow of migrants and asylum-seekers, and the necessity to finalize a map for the town’s new elected faculty board.
Finalizing a state finances has been sophisticated by the necessity to fill an almost $900 million gap in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal on account of ballooning prices of a state-funded medical health insurance program for grownup immigrants within the nation with out authorized permission.
Ethics reform has proved through the years to be a difficulty that may be simply as knotty because the finances. But there’s an added impetus to behave this yr given the bombshell bribery trial that led to responsible verdicts towards former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s shut confidant Michael McClain and three others who have been discovered to have tried to bribe Madigan in an effort to advance Commonwealth Edison’s Springfield agenda.
While the Democratic-controlled legislature has handed a collection of ethics measures since 2019, on the daybreak of a burgeoning statewide corruption scandal, critics say lots of efforts have been inadequate.
State Rep. Maurice West II, who heads the House Ethics and Elections Committee, stated he’s “working hard to have a plan” for the ultimate week of session however stated any proposals that come about received’t be a knee-jerk response to the ComEd Four convictions.
“They won’t be something that we have to turn around and try to fix again because we operated in haste in 2023,” the Rockford Democrat stated.
The regular stream of Democratic politicians who’ve been convicted or indicted in recent times has offered Republicans with loads of speaking factors. State Rep. Ryan Spain, the deputy Republican chief and a member of the committee, stated the panel met final week with out even discussing ethics reform.
“Where are the leaders and what are they doing on the topic of ethics reform in the state of Illinois?” stated Spain, of Peoria. “We have just over one week to go in session, and we are not doing anything on this key and critical topic.”
Madigan is scheduled to go to trial subsequent yr with McClain on separate racketeering prices alleging a slew of corrupt acts, together with the scheme involving ComEd in addition to the same however smaller set of allegations involving AT&T’s Illinois affiliate.
Earlier steps to strengthen the state authorities ethics and lobbying legal guidelines started even earlier than Madigan was indicted final yr.
In fall 2019, following a federal raid on the places of work of then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval and the arrest of then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo on a bribery cost, the General Assembly authorised a measure that required extra disclosure from lobbyists and ordered the Illinois secretary of state to create a mixed on-line database for data on lobbyists, marketing campaign contributions and public officers’ annual statements of financial curiosity.
The measure additionally created a process drive to review further modifications, however its work foundered in early 2020 with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It wasn’t till after Madigan was ousted from the speakership by his personal members in January 2021 and resigned the House seat he’d occupied for a half-century that lawmakers revisited the difficulty.
The package deal lawmakers finalized within the fall of 2021 included a brand new revolving-door prohibition to stop legislators from instantly turning into lobbyists after leaving workplace and extra sturdy necessities for officers to reveal private monetary pursuits, amongst different modifications.
The measure was extensively panned by good-government teams as being riddled with loopholes and shortcomings. It even triggered the resignation of the General Assembly’s appointed watchdog, then-Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope, who stated it weakened her workplace and “demonstrated true ethics reform is not a priority.”
The power coverage overhaul Pritzker signed in fall 2021 additionally contained provisions geared toward addressing moral points uncovered by the ComEd scandal, together with a requirement that state officers disclose whether or not they have instant members of the family who work for utility firms.
All these efforts have been wanting, however not as a result of lawmakers lack details about the right way to enhance the state’s moral local weather after particular commissions through the years have generated a bunch of suggestions, stated Alisa Kaplan, government director of Reform for Illinois.
“Lawmakers know what needs to be done,” Kaplan stated. “It’s not like they need to reinvent the wheel here.”
One instance could be strengthening the state’s new and “pathetically weak” revolving-door rule for ex-lawmakers, she stated.
The provision, which took impact in January with the beginning of the brand new General Assembly, prohibits lawmakers from lobbying their former colleagues for six months after leaving workplace. But the cooling-off interval ends with the adjournment of every two-year session of the legislature.
Government reform advocates argue {that a} prohibition on former lawmakers turning into lobbyists for at the least two years after leaving workplace is the easiest way to stop legislators from “auditioning” for his or her subsequent gig whereas nonetheless in workplace, Kaplan stated.
The relative weak point of Illinois’ legislation in contrast with these in different states was highlighted when former state Sen. Tom Cullerton registered as a lobbyist with Itasca-based Strategia Consulting on April 25. That was simply 11 days after he was launched from federal jail, the place he was serving a sentence for accumulating greater than $250,000 in wage and advantages from the Teamsters union regardless of doing little or no work.
The Villa Park Democrat resigned his Senate seat in February 2022, two weeks earlier than pleading responsible to embezzlement.
While Kaplan’s group doesn’t take a place towards lobbying by individuals who have served their time in jail, she stated that Cullerton “shouldn’t be able to become a lobbyist yet.”
Cullerton didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Strategia CEO Lissa Druss, who was a spokeswoman for Cullerton following his August 2019 indictment, declined to touch upon the revolving-door issues concerned in hiring the previous lawmaker however defended the choice.
“He made a mistake, and he’s taken this opportunity to pay back his restitution,” Druss stated.
Last week, former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn was on the Illinois Capitol to ship a letter to Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon with suggestions on the right way to enhance ethics legal guidelines within the state within the wake of the ComEd Four trial.
Quinn, who was lieutenant governor earlier than being elevated to governor in 2009 following the impeachment and removing of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, first made his title in politics as a reform advocate.
In the letter, Quinn referred to as for a particular legislative session to evaluation the state’s ethics legal guidelines. He additionally issued a laundry listing of suggestions that included amending the Illinois Constitution to permit voters to enact stricter ethics legal guidelines by petitions and referendums.
During a information convention final week, Quinn stated the ethics legal guidelines handed in 2021 have been “praiseworthy” however “not sufficient.”
“We need our governor and our legislative leaders today to see that this verdict last week is frankly a clarion call from the everyday people of Illinois to the leaders of our state to do something and take action, and especially to empower voters to do the right thing when the situation demands it,” Quinn stated.
The subsequent day, Pritzker advised reporters that he thinks a few of Quinn’s concepts have been “worthy of consideration” with out entering into specifics. Pritzker then deferred the prospect of latest ethics measures to the legislature.
“The General Assembly has, as you know, committees and hearings and has addressed ethics concerns over time. I don’t think that there’s anything that’s been specifically brought up by the recent doings in court that isn’t already illegal in law,” Pritzker stated.
House Republicans echoed a few of Quinn’s suggestions, together with these on marketing campaign finance reform, throughout their information convention final week, however expressed pessimism that the Democratic supermajority will handle ethics reform within the closing days of the spring session.
“At the end of the day, you’re never going to put a law in place that’s going to stop criminal behavior,” stated state Rep. Blaine Wilhour, a Republican from Beecher City. “The idea is to put things in place to put some guardrails and safeguards in there to actually expose some of this stuff.”
In different enterprise, laws backing a Bears transfer to Arlington Heights may need gotten contemporary momentum final week when revamped laws was launched by Rep. Marty Moylan, a Des Plaines Democrat. A committee listening to on the invoice, which like a earlier effort would come with a $3 tax on tickets and a property tax evaluation freeze for the 326-acre former Arlington International Racecourse website, is scheduled for Tuesday.
The General Assembly faces a July 1 deadline to attract boundaries for Chicago faculty board districts in preparation for {a partially} elected board in 2025 and a totally elected 21-member board in 2027.
House and Senate Democrats have held hearings to solicit enter from the general public on the CPS district map, and a few expressed considerations that the proposed boundaries don’t mirror the demographics of the CPS pupil physique.
As Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a state of emergency final week in response to hundreds of migrants who’ve settled within the metropolis after crossing the southern U.S. border to hunt asylum, the legislature may take into account extra funding to assist the town present providers.
Pritzker’s employees has stated his administration has up to now spent $260 million on offering shelter and take care of asylum-seekers and lately directed one other $10 million to Chicago on prime of $20 million lawmakers allotted in January in response to a request from Lightfoot.
With Monday being her final day in workplace, her successor, Brandon Johnson, can have simply 4 days to work with the General Assembly on any doable reinforcements earlier than its scheduled Friday adjournment.
Also, Pritzker’s $49.6 billion finances proposal should by some means make room for the ballooning prices of a Medicaid-style program for noncitizens. The estimated price of this system in February was pegged at simply $220 million; that estimate now stands at $1.1 billion.
Illinois created this system in 2020 for immigrants 65 and older who’re within the nation with out authorized permission or who’ve inexperienced playing cards however haven’t accomplished a five-year ready interval. These recipients are subsequently ineligible for the standard medical health insurance program for the poor, which is collectively funded by the federal authorities.
The program has been expanded twice, now overlaying these 42 and older. And whereas enrollment has far outstripped expectations, some Democratic lawmakers are pushing to additional develop protection, opening this system to folks 19 and older, which Pritzker’s employees believes would price a further $380 million within the first yr.
Asked about how he plans to deal with the finances gap within the remaining days of spring session, Pritzker stated the General Assembly is contemplating choices that his administration introduced to the lawmakers.
“My priority, to be clear, is balancing the budget. I’ve done that every year,” Pritzker stated Wednesday. “We need to make sure we do that again. We’re on a great trajectory from a fiscal perspective. We want to stay on that trajectory.”
On Thursday, Pritzker stated his administration has introduced a spread of choices to deal with the price overruns within the well being care program for immigrants, together with creating copays for some individuals based mostly on revenue and reexamining the reimbursement charges for well being care suppliers serving these sufferers.
Petrella reported from Chicago.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com