Budget – Taxpayer’s Fiscal Charter
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House Republican lawmaker files bill
to create Illinois Taxpayer’s Fiscal Charter. If enacted into law the
new bill, filed by Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer, will impose controls on the
currently out-of-control Illinois budget process. It will freeze all discretionary, taxpayer-paid
State of Illinois spending until the State gets its payment
cycle to vendors below 30 days. The bill
bans enactment of new State programs until a full pension payment, based on
actuarial requirements, is made. It will
move the State of Illinois towards Pay as you Go budgeting, prohibit the
imposition of unfunded mandates, and create a sunshine procedure for future
State budgets.
Rep. Davidsmeyer calls for all legislators who file legislation
that creates new spending to file, as part of their bill to create the new
program, legal language to raise taxes or cut spending to pay for the new
program. The lawmaker represents a
west-central Illinois district centering on Jacksonville. The Taxpayer’s Fiscal Charter bill was filed on
Tuesday, January 9, as HB 4229.
Census – Exodus from Illinois
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Illinois loses 88,000 people during
economic recovery. The U.S. Census’s ongoing study of American
population growth and movement patterns indicates that Illinois’ population is
shrinking in size. The Land of Lincoln
has about 88,000 fewer people than in 2013. Should these trends continue, Illinois will
be on track to relinquish at least one and possibly two congressional districts
after the 2020 census. Illinois
currently has 18 U.S. representatives, down from 26 as recently as 1953.
Illinois’ shrinking population is attributed to high taxes, disproportionate
non-tax burdens on employment such as workers’ compensation and the cost of
medical care, and an increasingly aggressive eagerness by states to develop a
pro-business climate. A study in 2016 by
the nonpartisan Paul Simon Institute found that nearly half of the Illinoisans
surveyed expressed a desire to leave Illinois.
For many other states, including neighboring states such as Iowa and
Wisconsin, this percentage is below 10%.
Crime – Safe Neighborhoods Reform Act
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New law, now in effect, increases
penalties for repeat gun offenders. The Safe Neighborhoods
Reform Act went into effect January 1.
Enacted with support from law enforcement and prosecution professionals,
the new law doubles the sentencing guidelines for offenders found guilty, for a
second time, of illegal possession of a firearm. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, the lead
House sponsor of SB 1722, hailed the new law upon its effective date.
Although the bill was signed into law by Gov. Rauner in June 2017, the
effective date of the new measure was set for January 1 to give prosecution
teams a chance to familiarize themselves with the new law.
In addition to the unlawful use of a weapon language, SB 1722 also expands the use by first-time
firearm offenders of the First Time Weapon Offender Program. Leader Durkin and the General Assembly are
fighting to increase penalties for serious gun offenders, many of them gang
members, while at the same time providing a second chance to first-time gun
offenders who undergo a serious program of rehabilitation and behavioral
change. Under SB 1722, the Director of
the Illinois State Police is authorized to create a multi-jurisdictional
Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force to further study violent and gang-related
crime and make additional recommendations for legislative action.
Drugs – Opioid task force
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Task force visits Carbondale treatment
center. The Governor’s Opioid Overdose Prevention and
Intervention Task Force visited the Gateway Foundation in Carbondale this week. The residential-care drug treatment center is
challenged by the significant influx of opiate drugs into southern
Illinois. Chairing the task force visit,
Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti talked with professionals, caregivers, and
residents of the facility on Tuesday, January 9.
Illinois has taken steps to face the growing threat of opiate
drugs and drug overdoses. The General
Assembly enacted House Bill 1 in 2015, a bipartisan measure to increase the
availability of emergency and long-term pathways to help. HB 1 became law, and has since been backed up
by subsequent bills also aimed against the opiate epidemic. This law and subsequent bills have sharply
increased the supply of naloxone (Narcan) and other opiate-agonist drugs in the
hands of pharmacists and first-responders in medical emergency settings. When administered to an overdosed patient,
Narcan can reverse the effects of an overdose, including a lethal overdose, and
sometimes save a patient’s life. However,
since 2013 keepers of statewide actuary statistics have charted a sharp increase in the number of opiate-related
deaths throughout Illinois. Sanguinetti
and the Task Force are seeking advice and testimony on how to further increase the
timely availability of Narcan to first responders and caregivers.
Heroin is no longer the only deadly opiate drug. Between 2013 and 2016 the number of Illinois
drug overdose deaths increased by 50%, heroin deaths increased by 100%, and the
number of opioid overdose deaths that include opiates other than heroin has
increased by 300%. Gateway professionals
and officers of law enforcement point to non-heroin opiates such as fentanyl. Most advocates believe further action is
necessary to increase the availability of effective drug treatments for
patients.
Veterans – Gov. Rauner
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Governor spends extended time at
Illinois Veterans Home. The Illinois Veterans Home (IVH), built after
the Civil War in Quincy, has been an Illinois-based home for U.S. veterans with
health challenges for more than a century.
With changing medical conditions and trends in senior health, the IVH
has come to specialize in the care and residence of veterans with two or more
severe and chronic health conditions.
Concerns about the health of IVH residents have led the Governor, joined
by his wife Diana, to himself take up residence at the facility and spend seven days
of time there ending this week.
As a result of his inspection and stay at the facility, Gov.
Rauner pledged that the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA), the
operator of the facility, will upgrade the plumbing systems of the Veterans
Home with the latest materials and technologies. The upgrades will include the phased
installation of point-of-use faucet filters, and immediate planning aimed at
finding a new water source for the water used by the facility’s residents and
caregivers. Gov. Rauner pledged that he
did not support closing the facility, and that he looked forward to working on
a bipartisan basis to make investments in necessary upgrades.
Bicentennial in Illinois
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List of Illinois’ sports heroes
narrowed down to top 10. Illinois news outlets this week marked the
Bicentennial Year by celebrating a “Top 10” list of Illinois’ greatest
athletes. Figures on the list, compiled by the Chicago Sun-Times’s Mark Potash, were persons
who had not only dominated their sports at the time of their plays and meets,
but had expanded these games to make room for additional players in future
generations.
After leaving the University of Illinois football team, Wheaton’s
Red Grange signed with George Halas’s Chicago Bears. This gave East Coast residents the chance to
see the star player. Pro football games
began to draw paying fans, putting the NFL on its way to becoming America’s
most-watched sports league. East St.
Louis’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee entered track and field in a time when the Summer
Olympics included fewer events for women than for men. By dominating on the track, she helped push
for gender equality in international sporting events. These were only two of the ten immortal
figures on the list.
Week in Review
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