*** UPDATE ***. A motion to reconsider was passed, Trotter withdrew his poison pill amendments and a “clean” bill has passed.
- End of update -
* Illinois Review…
It could soon cost $200 for kids to set up a lemonade stand, have a bake sale or sell cupcakes in Illinois.
“This is absolutely insane!” State Senator Jim Oberweis (R-Aurora) said at a Capitol press conference Friday. “Somebody in Madison County went crazy and decided to enforce a law against an 11 year old kid who was baking cupcakes. That was a mistake, but it happened.”
In the House, the little girl Oberweis referred to - Chloe Stirling of Troy’s State Representative Charlie Meier tried to do the right thing by introducing a law that would help those in her situation and exempt up to $1000 in sales.
“Then what happened? It came to the Senate… We ‘Illinois-ized’ the bill - doing things the way we do in Illinois, which is everything we can to discourage entrepeneurism to discourage business interests,” Oberweis told reporters. […]
[Sen. Donne Trotter] amended the bill to require anyone selling food products to take an 8 hour food service sanitation course costing $145, obtain a county health department permit costing $25, label the food products to indicate ingredients and the fact that they are homemade, plus another $35 fee.
* As expected, the amendment sank the bill today…
(B)y a 17-32 vote, with six members voting present, state senators killed the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, arguing it went too far and was unduly burdensome for children like Stirling wanting to make a few bucks off selling cupcakes or cookies on their driveways. […]
“This may sound like a silly thing known as the ‘cupcake girl’ bill, but this goes to the heart of what goes on in Springfield,” Oberweis said. “It’s an example of how we are Illinoizing, killing, entrepreneurship among kids.”
Trotter, however, defended the principle behind his legislation.
“It sounds good to talk about all these things — that we’re stifling entrepreneurship,” he said. “No, we’re actually encouraging it the right way. There are laws that have to be adhered to when you sell to the public. There are things we must be cognizant of, and that is the allergies or the other things that will impact other individuals’ health. That’s the job of public health.”
Thoughts?
