*** 12:36 pm *** After a very long House Democratic caucus, it appears that there are now enough votes to accept the governor’s amendatory veto of the mass transit bailout bill. Expect much gnashing of teeth during debate, however.

* 12:43 pm - OK, this I gotta see. From a press release…

The Northwestern University and Evanston communities are invited to attend the LEGISLATIVE LEADERS FORUM: January 23, 2008, 7:00 pm, in Ryan Auditorium, in Northwestern University’s Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston.

Participating will be:

EMIL JONES, President of the Illinois Senate;
FRANK WATSON, Senate Republican Leader;
MICHAEL J. MADIGAN, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives;
TOM CROSS, House Republican Leader.

HENRY S. BIENEN, Northwestern University President, will moderate.

The four legislative leaders of the State of Illinois will meet to discuss top issues of today and the importance of civic participation, followed by written questions from the audience.

…Adding… I’m told that the contact person for this event is Andrew Madigan, son of the Speaker. A peacemaker in the family? Good for him.

*** 12:46 pm *** The House is starting now. Listen here.

*** 2:02 *** The House has accepted the governor’s amendatory veto. Slightly narrower margin. (One vote less than before.) The bill now goes to the Senate.

*** 2:05 *** The trailer bill is now being debated. SB 1409. The bill will take effect if and only if the mass transit bailout becomes law. The proposal applies the Circuit Breaker program to the free mass transit rides.

*** 2:12 *** Rep. Fritchey just said he’s drafting a Constitutional amendment to do away with the governor’s amendatory veto power. “We’re going to take his toys away from him,” the governor’s own state Rep. said.

Fritchey promsed to file his proposal by the end of the day today.

…Adding… Just in case you’re wondering…

Amendments approved by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house shall be submitted to the electors at the general election next occurring at least six months after such legislative approval

I highly doubt the Senate will go along with this, to say the least.

*** 2:32 *** Just so you know what’s going on. The trailer bill being debated in the House would use Circuit Breaker eligibility to determine who gets free rides in mass transit districts, rather than give the freebies to everyone. Circuit Breaker also includes the disabled, so the freebie would be expanded as well as constricted.

Also, a Senate Democratic spokesperson said a few minutes ago that she didn’t know yet whether the trailer bill would be called in that chamber.

*** 2:42 *** The trailer bill has passed the House with 86 votes. It now goes to the Senate, where it’s fate is uncertain, as they say.

The House may have just made a bit of lemonade themselves. By expanding the eligibility for free rides to relatively low-income disabled and excluding wealthy seniors, they might’ve “found a pony in a pile of manure,” to coin a phrase. lol

…Then again, a commenter makes this point…

I can’t wait to tell my mother who makes $23k a year in retirement how lucky she is – she now is apparently “Wealthy”

*** 3:06 *** It looks like there will be no trailer bill in the Senate. No suprise about that. “We do everything the governor tells us around here,” said one Senate Democrat a few minutes ago - sarcastically, of course.

The lack of a trailer bill is causing one Senate Democrat to switch to “No.” The original bill only passed with 30 votes, but other downstaters have said they’ll vote to accept the governor’s AV.

* 3:20 pm - Sen. Sandoval just compared the governor’s amendatory veto to Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. He also just blasted the media for focusing on the senior freebie and ignoring the tax hike.

* 3:39 pm - The Republicans are now claiming that Senate Rules don’t allow for two “co-sponsors” of a motion. The objection here is that Sen. Rickey Hendon, who is involved in a spirited primary race, was belatedly given lead sponsorship of the transit bailout bill and then allowed to co-sponsor the motion with Sen. Cullerton (who did most of the Senate work on the bill) to accept the amendatory veto.

*** 3:47 pm *** Sen. Terry Link is complaining bitterly in debate about Metra’s incredibly stupid decision to announce a ten percent rate increase before the bailout was finalized. Link said Metra ought to reconsider the increase or it could cost them in the future. “What the General Assembly giveth, the General Assembly can take away,” Link said.

*** 4:06 pm *** Senate President Emil Jones said just before the Senate began voting on the AV motion, “I want to do a trailer bill,” but said he wanted to “do it right.” Jones pointed out that several senior discounts (property taxes, Chicago car stickers, etc.) aren’t based on income. Sen. Hendon promised a few minutes later that he would work with “all of you” on the trailer legislation.

*** 4:07 pm *** The Senate just voted to accept the governor’s amendatory veto with 32 votes.. It now goes back to the governor, who must certify that the language in the legislative motion matches his AV.

* 4:13 pm - The Chicago Federation of Labor just issued a press release about today’s events. There were hearty congratulations all around, but not one mention was made of Gov. Blagojevich.

* 4:32 pm - The governor will be speaking to reporters soon, so we’ll have tape in a while.