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* Forwarded by the House Democrats…

Sent on behalf of the Clerk of the House

Members of the 100th General Assembly:

The President and Speaker have declared an emergency exists which requires immediate action by the General Assembly. Pursuant to Article IV, Section 5(b) of the Illinois Constitution, and in conformity with the Special Session Act, an emergency Special Session of the 100th General Assembly shall convene at 11:00 a.m. on August 28, 2017, at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois.

The purpose of the Special Session shall be to consider legislation and legislative actions that would establish, by law, an evidenced-based funding formula to provide State funding to school districts.
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* The governor has vetoed several pieces of legislation, so there was a lot of speculation that coming back to deal with school funding reform would trigger the 15-calendar-day clock for dealing with overrides…

A side effect of the legislature constantly coming back into session to fix things that should have been fixed long ago is what’s going to happen during the veto session.

With the rules governing how vetoes and amendatory vetoes must be handled in the legislature, it’s possible that first one chamber and then the other will be forced back to Springfield over the coming weeks to deal with vetoed bills. Depending on how things played out, they could seesaw back and forth for a while. Basically, they could mostly be done with the vetoes before we hit the time of the traditional veto session.

Interestingly, there is nothing on the General Assembly’s schedule for a fall session at this time.

But I asked Senate President Cullerton’s spokesman today if the emergency special session would avoid triggering the veto clock. “Yes,” was his reply.

* Meanwhile, the four tops are scheduled to meet again today at 4:30 in Springfield. I’ll let you know what happens.