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* House Speaker Michael Madigan’s “weekly orders of business” on pension reform and concealed carry are now history. Some say the process ate up a ton of valuable time, others say it gave legislators an outlet to debate various ideas and see where everyone was. The AP has more on the debate…
[Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman] and other Democrats believe lawmakers may have gotten as far as they were going to get on a guns compromise, part of the reason the process has ended. “I’m not sure you get to consensus on the issue of gun safety,” Brown said.
But Cross asserted that lawmakers have nothing conclusive to show on pensions either. Republicans say that several measures approved by the House fall short of the Senate’s desire to deal with a comprehensive plan to solve the nation’s worst pension crisis.
“No comprehensive legislation has yet come from the speaker’s weekly orders of business, so it would be premature to deem this practice a success,” Cross said in a statement. “We believe there are better ways to come to consensus on these major issues we are facing, like negotiating bills that we believe can pass the House.”
While it’s true no comprehensive legislation has resulted, the biggest victory thus far in the pension debate _ House approval of a plan co-authored by Cross to reduce and delay cost-of-living increases in state employees’ retirement pay _ came out of a “weekly order” vote. Cross himself heralded the passage as “the meat and potatoes of pension reform.”
* So, now what? Well, the concealed carry debate is moving to the Senate and both chambers remain deadlocked on pension reform. Not to mention that fracking, a satellite TV tax, AT&T’s big rewrite push and oh so many other issues (mainly the budget) have barely begun to surface, let alone move.
It’s April 23rd. The House isn’t even in session this week. When that chamber returns, members will have 25 session days to deal with all of those issues and lots more.
* What we’ve seen many times before is that big stuff will pop up at the last minute and get jammed through. But I’m not sure that it’ll happen that way this time for various reasons, including all the new freshmen who seem to be a bit more independent minded than their peers.
And Brown’s comments about not finding consensus on concealed carry may be telling. Could they be waiting until after the June 9th federal court deadline to act?
Unless something changes very soon, I’m starting to think that this session may very well end up in overtime.
Your thoughts?
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:06 am
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Overtime? I’m waiting until it gets to the shootout among Madigan, Cullerton, and Quinn.
Comment by Anonymour Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:10 am
And this is the time a leader steps up and drives toward a solution. We watch. We wait.
Comment by Cincinnatus Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:20 am
With so much time being taken up by pension “reform” and concealed carry there has been little news about anything budget related. I think it would be a shock if they get a budget done by the deadline and avoid overtime but they might get something rammed through just to say they did
Comment by Roadiepig Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:21 am
I think airing contentious issues has been good. They’re legislative bodies, after all. Members should take tough votes and be held accountable for them.
Now it’s up to them to find common ground and move on. No one said it would be easy, but the perfect is the enemy of the good.
It could end up that the Four Tops, once again, cut all the big deals behind closed doors to give all the nervous nellies cover. But no one can say they didn’t get a chance to be heard or vote.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:23 am
We may get to see how many clowns will fit into the car.
Comment by Esteban Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:25 am
@word
—I think airing contentious issues has been good. They’re legislative bodies, after all. Members should take tough votes and be held accountable for them—
yup. they are supposed to go back and forth. I dont like political, closed doors crap (As I think the light of day kills corruption) BUT, you are right. In all these arguments you are hearing how good is being beat up by “perfect” constantly and on both sides.
Comment by RonOglesby Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:30 am
We hear the “time is running out” cry every Spring. The GA simply does not act on controversial issues until they MUST act.
Comment by unspun Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:31 am
If session goes into ‘overtime,’ how much longer past May 31 can they drag it out?
Comment by Get 'Er Dunne Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:31 am
Progress on both issues may be influenced by national events. Gun control legislations seems to be off the table in Congress for a while and the chained cpi for Social Security recipients doesn’t look too healthy either, despite the President’s support. This could be unsettling to local and state pols.
Both parties may be looking at contested primaries in March for the governorship. Maybe it seems safer to do nothing and talk about doing something than actually do something and deal with the fallout. There will be losers if they do something on either issue, vocal losers, at that.
Too risky?
Comment by cassandra Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:32 am
it’s sad that they wait until they MUST act… think about the amount of time spent debating that is not actual debate just theater. how much more time would they have to focus on other issues.
Comment by RonOglesby Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:35 am
If it’s any consolation Springfield, you’re still a model of functionality compared to DC these days.
Comment by ZC Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:36 am
===how much longer past May 31 can they drag it out? ===
Until veto session.
lol
Under Rod, we were in session for almost two straight years.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:37 am
(along the same lines as wordslinger) -
so, basically, people for years complained the process was too “closed” - “deals being cut” weren’t good for democracy, etc.
(If we got a dollar for each time we heard the “reformers” say that we’d all be super rich.)
Now the complaint is it was too open? It was bad thing to have amendments offered, debated and voted on? Right.
Comment by low level Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:40 am
Think I’ll pack it in and buy a pick-up
Take it down to LA
Find a place to call my own and try to fix up
Start a brand new day
Comment by nobody Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:44 am
I am just baffled with the Governor and the State Legislature! This state needs revenue! I hear that the Gambling bill is ready and will provide much needed revenue for the State but the Governor wants the Legislature to fix the pension problem first. Well would it be smarter to go ahead and try to pass the gambling bill and see if we can’t start getting some revenue back in this state. Why delay it?
Lets start doing your job or maybe we should look at paying their salary on how the State is doing compared to other states just like they want to pay teachers on how students score on their testing.
I just don’t understand how we can just sit back and wait on other bills especially the one like the gambling bill that can give the state much needed revenue to help pay their bills!
Comment by Coach Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:44 am
Ah that Brown guy can be a mystery.
How in the world do you spend a thousand words on the blog and via links talking about the in an outs of 6-10 issues over the past four months and then suggest something is going to “pop up”?
BTW I think you left out Medicaid Expansion and Gaming on your pop up list
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:49 am
@Rodie:
The budget never gets passed until the last day of session.
@cassandra:
The GA doesn’t give a hoot what is happening on the national statge.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:50 am
Overtime, schmovertime. The expiration of the stay of execution for the current UUW law won’t be delayed by petty political machinations.
Only 47 more days until June 9th.
Comment by Non-ISRA Member Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:57 am
If I were the HGOP & SGOP, I would hold out for overtime, then the Democrats must include them because …
Oh wait … they are BOTH Super-Majoritied…even in futility of the Chambers, the GA GOP is still irrrelevent, remember.
Boy, elections matter.
MJM and Cullerton have over the heads of “their” Mushrooms the “Look, the longer we all wait, the more of you ‘Targets’ will have to vote for things you may not want to, so let’s all take a breath, and get the necessary ‘cats’ in the herd.”
Great point by - wordslinger - and I agree that is one thing any and all can’t complain about;
“You had your chance to be heard”
Overtime?
Better than “even money”, but it will be because, indeed, these Freshmen are quite clueless how to work within the System to “defeat” the System.
The more they stop their feet, whine, “analogize”, and “apologize”, all these Freshmen are losing sight of what could be accomplished, and are focusing on who THEY are and how THEY can grandstand. This “class” has more “look at me” types than your usual Freshmen Class and that is going to play out more at the end.
One thing is 100% going to happen.
Sen. Oberweis’ will still think the Secretaries don’t have enough to do. Oberweis will be able to compare this Overtime, if it happens to … uh … and um … yeah, that’t what I thought.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 9:57 am
Is it true that Big Jim Thompson was seen delivering the infamous clock with the frozen hands to the capitol last night?
Comment by Hank Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:16 am
Memo to springfield, most people don’t care about gun control. Focus on improving the states economy and fiscal situation instead of the NRA-rahm/chicago imbroglio which is grossly overplayed by a media who cares a lot more about this issue than most republicans, democrats and virtually all independents. Amount of time wasted on non essential issues down there is absurd.
Comment by shore Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:21 am
Well, maybe they don’t but I hope state retirees and future retirees have noticed that the chained cpi isn’t dead yet. If it squeaks through at the national level and the Illinois pols get their cola reduction, those retirees could be looking at a double hit on their wallets, and a not insignificant one at that. And of course Medicare costs are almost certainly going up for many.
Comment by cassandra Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:22 am
If this session goes into overtime Blagojevich needs to be voted out of office. Whoops, sorry, force of habit.
Comment by The Captain Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:30 am
Cross is right: it is premature to deem this process a success. It is also premature to deem it a failure.
I remain hopeful that on guns, and pensions, we’ll get there partly because those unusually difficult issues called for an unusual House process.
I agree that fiscal issues including pensions should have taken precedence over the gun issue — but for many legislators the gun issue is an iconic symbol for a whole raft of positions attractive to their constituents, and the court case impacted the schedule.
Comment by walkinfool Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:44 am
What is it called, when Democrats have supermajorities and can’t get anything done? Not gridlock. Incompetence.
Comment by Downstater Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:52 am
I’d be happier if we had more progress on the budget by now, but I’m not afraid of overtime. A lot can happen in the limited number of session days and those of paying close attention can see the outlines of possible deals on a host of issues.
But as far as I know, the House still hasn’t released the revenue numbers for various budget/approps committees to work with. Did I miss that memo?
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:54 am
I don’t care about “gun control” (the horse was out of the barn decades ago) or med mar. Why are we not focusing on the pension fix, tax reform, and state taxes online sales? We have a fiscal crisis that threatens all functions of our State government and the lives of all IL citizens.
Overtime? For a part time job that hasn’t addressed THE issue in our State? Let ‘em stay until Christmas or until Madigan and Cullerton
actually lead.
Comment by Loop Lady Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 10:54 am
Demoralized- I agree it’d it does get done before overtime it is always at the last minute. Usually by now all we are hearing about committees hashing out budget numbers or over who get what. This year ? *crickets*
Comment by Roadiepig Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 11:02 am
Rich
Question do they get paid any extra for the Overtime?? Is there a way to not pay them for the overtime?
Comment by Mason born Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 11:17 am
Didn’t we peg the cost of a session day at about $100k per day in legislator costs? Let’s pay more to have nothing done…
Comment by Cincinnatus Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 11:37 am
I wonder if we could get more done if we docked their pay for every day of overtime?
Comment by Mason born Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 11:47 am
Speaking of Texas this was in a list of 50 items.but this sez it all. Actually have RapidRoger Keats as your pitchman is enough to run the other way, but just in case
43. The rankings among the states: Percentage of Uninsured Children-50th,
Percentage of Population without Health Insurance-50th,
Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores-47th,
Percentage of Population over 25 with a High School diploma-50th,
Percentage of Non-Elderly Women with Health Insurance-50th,
Rate of Women Aged 40+ Who Receive Mammograms-44th,
Rate of Women Aged 18+ Who Receive Pap Smears-47th,
Cervical Cancer Rate-5th in the nation, Women’s Voter Registration-43rd,
Women’s Voter Turnout-49th,
Percentage of Eligible Voters that Vote-44th.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 12:01 pm
===Question do they get paid any extra for the Overtime?===
There’s no “extra” pay. They get a salary. No per diem after May 31st.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 12:05 pm
Rich
Thanks for answering the Question. At least they are losing something for failing to get their job done. (time off)
Comment by Mason born Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 1:05 pm
Remember, guys, safer to do nothing, elections right around the corner. If we had a real leader in the Governor’s chair, maybe we could legislate….
Comment by Rudy Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 1:23 pm
I remember the frozen clock…
Comment by Mouthy Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 1:39 pm
As far as the pension issue is concerned, I would think that more movement could take place once the politicians start looking at the “human” part of the issue instead of just the numbers, to go along with the constitutionality of certain proposals. I guess I’m being too idealistic!
Comment by Meaningless Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 1:58 pm
I’d like to give Madigan’s strategy the benefit of the doubt. But he does everything for a reason and he’s messin with somebody-just not sure who.
Comment by Soccertease Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 2:34 pm
=== What we’ve seen many times before is that big stuff will pop up at the last minute and get jammed through. ===
Not the best way to function - in government, or in life.
Comment by Keep Calm and Carry On Tuesday, Apr 23, 13 @ 2:53 pm