Governor JB Pritzker advanced Senate Bill 539, an ethics reform package that passed the General Assembly this session. The legislation includes a variety of measures to restrict government officials from lobbying activities, tighten regulations on registered lobbyists and consultants, and expand economic interest disclosures.
To move forward with this important legislation, Gov. Pritzker issued an amendatory veto to correct a technical drafting error. The fix will ensure that the Executive Inspectors General are able to maintain current processes and procedures regarding investigations. The Governor looks forward to working with the legislature on concurrence and pledged to certify the bill once the amendatory veto passes the legislature. Gov. Pritzker is also committed to working on additional legislation thatreflects the continued urgency of ethics reform in Illinois – which was laid out as a key legislative priority in his 2020 State of the State Address. The full amendatory veto message is attached.
“Passing real, lasting ethics reform was a top priority of mine going into the 2020 legislative session, and I’m pleased to move forward with an ethics package that includes a number of meaningful changes,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We must restore the public’s trust in our government and this legislation is a necessary first step to achieve that goal. I remain committed to making further advancements so the well-connected and well-protected cannot work the system to the detriment of working families across Illinois.”
“While more work remains to be done to restore the faith Illinois citizens have in their government,” said State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr.(D-Chicago). “They demanded real ethics reform like those included in this bill, changes like stopping the practice of legislators using their influence to lobby other governments and working to enact pro-rated salaries for legislators who leave office before the end of their term. Many of the changes included in this bill place Illinois on the path to restoring the faith citizens must have to make our democracy successful.”
“This measure offers bipartisan solutions to target some of the worst abuses of power in our state’s history,” said State Senator Ann Gillespie (D-Arlington Heights). “Our plan closes many of the loopholes that have allowed bad actors to game the system for decades. Our bipartisan team on the Senate Ethics Committee stands ready to continue this vital work to make our government work for everyone, not just a powerful few.
Senate Bill 539 includes the following provisions:
• Bans government officials from engaging in compensated lobbying, including:
o State level: Legislators, Executive branch constitutional officers
o County level: elected or appointed county executive or legislative officials
o Municipal level: elected or appointed municipal executive or legislative officials
o Township: elected or appointed township executive or legislative officials
• Strengthens the Lobbyist Registration Act by expanding the definition of ‘officials’ and adding ‘consultant’ to the definition of compensation that is regulated.
• Increases transparency of lobbying activities by expanding the persons required to register as a lobbyist and establishing a shorter, two-day deadline for registration.
• Requires lobbyists to complete ethics training before their registration or renewal is deemed complete (instead of within 30 days).
• Requires lobbyists to disclose consultants and clients no later than two days after a consultant is retained.
• Restricts appointees to certain offices from being an officer of a candidate political committee or a candidate with the support of such a committee. Members of the State Board of Elections are also restricted from contributing to candidate political committees.
• Expands and clarifies disclosures required in Statements of Economic Interest, including, among others, government units that benefit the filer, lobbyist registration, and the source of gifts.
• Bans political fundraising in Sangamon County during session or the day immediately prior to such day, with limited exceptions.
• Strengthens revolving door provisions in the executive branch and establishes such provisions in the legislative branch.
• Empowers the Legislative Inspector General to undertake investigations without obtaining advance approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission.
• Revokes the provision allowing General Assembly members to receive prorated compensation following a vacancy.
…Adding… Press release…
llinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s “no exit bonus/no signing bonus” reform was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker today as part of a broader package of legislative ethics reforms.
The measure ends the shady practice of legislators leaving the General Assembly in disgrace but dating their exit on the first day of the following month to claim an extra month’s pay for a day’s work.
“This is a matter of common sense and accountability,” Mendoza said. “Waitresses and factory workers don’t collect a month’s pay for a day’s work, and legislators don’t deserve that luxury either – especially on the backs of Illinois taxpayers.”
For years, legislators of both parties exploited a loophole in state law allowing them to resign on the first day of the month and collect the whole month’s pay or get sworn in at month’s end but claim a whole month’s pay.
Former State Rep. Luis Arroyo of Chicago, charged with bribery; the late former State Sen. Martin Sandoval of Chicago, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery and tax charges; and former State Rep. Nick Sauer of Lake Barrington, charged with online sex crimes, all took advantage of that loophole in state law in recent years.
In February, three legislators could all claim a month’s pay in the 22nd Legislative District following the retirement of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. To his credit, former State Rep. Edward Kodatt declined the month’s salary he was entitled to for his two days in office.
The comptroller’s original no exit/no signing bonus measure (House Bill 3104, Senate Bill 484) was incorporated into the legislature’s omnibus ethics legislation (Senate Bill 539), which had overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers and was sent to the governor for his signature in June.
* Background is here and here if you need it. Press release…
The following was released by SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Greg Kelley on Gov. Pritzker’s recent announcement of Vaccination Requirements for Healthcare and Educational Workers:
SEIU Healthcare Illinois continues to maintain our ongoing efforts to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of our 90,000 members. We are committed to promoting every measure available in protecting not only our members, but our entire community, from the life-threatening impacts of the COVID-19 virus. As a result, we are in support of Gov. Pritzker’s recent announcement of the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare and educational workers.
As a union of healthcare and childcare workers, we understand how critical it is to ensure that our members are working in safe environments, while also protecting our most vulnerable populations.
In addition to our support of vaccinations and scheduled testing, it is our expectation to partner with employers to foster a collaborative approach in providing resources that enable workers to be vaccinated without negative economic impacts. These resources would include comprehensive educational programs which include channels for employee communication regarding the implementation of the vaccination.
We are dedicated to working with employers to help respond to worker needs as we combat this devastating disease.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Pharmacists Association, Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists, and Illinois Association of Long-Term Care Pharmacy Providers support Governor Pritzker’s action of issuing Executive Order 2021-20 to protect the healthcare workforce, our communities, and patients that we serve.
Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare providers and provide patient care in a variety of settings: from intensive care units, to emergency rooms, to long-term care facilities, to the corner neighborhood pharmacy. As healthcare providers, pharmacists took an Oath to uphold “the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering” as our primary concerns and that we hold ourselves and our colleagues “to the highest principles of our profession’s moral, ethical, and legal conduct” as entrusted to us by the public.
Through these darkest hours of the pandemic, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been there. We never closed; never stopped providing vital services for patients and continued to evolve our practices for safety, ensuring that needed medications, testing, and critical vaccines are accessible to the public. Despite these risks and dangers from the virus, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have put themselves directly in harm’s way to guarantee that our patient’s medication and healthcare needs are met.
As our pharmacy teams continue to deliver patient care and battle against the coronavirus and its deadly variants, we expect all healthcare providers and healthcare workers to protect ourselves and our patients by taking the COVID-19 vaccine and wearing a mask to decrease spread of disease.
Illinois is counting on us. Our communities are counting on us. Our patients are counting on us.
Next year’s primary in Illinois has been moved to June. Filing doesn’t start until January. Regardless, the Democratic supermajority at the state house is preparing to revise maps that community groups say need more time to review.
Maps determining legislative boundaries for the next ten years have been enacted, but they’re being challenged in federal court. With the final Census data out, the Democratic majority has called a special session.
Before the maps were approved, groups were demanding two weeks to review the drafts and provide input. They didn’t get that. It now appears likely that they’re not going to get that now, as the state is moving to pass revised maps for the Aug. 31 special session.
The first hearing on Thursday featured civic groups demanding more time to review maps.
Ami Gandhi with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights said lawmakers are doing an injustice.
“We’re uncomfortable with this redistricting process, with this huge rush, with this lack of transparency,” Gandhi said. “People are not being assured that their rights are being respected.”
Jay Young with Common Cause said the process resembles the rushed maps in May.
It’s of their own making, of course, but Democrats are now under the gun of a federal judge who essentially paused those lawsuits until after the special session ends. There will be no delays.
The mapmaking process that lawmakers have used is already the subject of two federal lawsuits being heard by a three-judge panel in Chicago. One, filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, argues that the maps lawmakers passed in May dilute the voting power of the state’s Latino population. Another filed by Republican leaders in the General Assembly argues, among other things, that lawmakers failed to enact legal maps by the June 30 deadline set out in the Illinois Constitution and, therefore, should be thrown out and redrawn by a bipartisan legislative commission.
Republicans on the committees, meanwhile, alleged Thursday that Democrats who control the General Assembly have already started drawing new maps behind closed doors and that the public hearings now taking place are only for show.
“I literally witnessed with my own eyes a member of the General Assembly looking at the map, talking to staff about whether it was square enough or not, which is what I overheard,” said Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican. “There was many members of the majority in that room, looking at the maps. And I would ask you, the people who are going to testify today, have you been invited into those meetings so far to look at the maps? Are you having solid input on what these maps are going to be? No. They’re being drawn by the majority as we saw in the spring with partisan intent.”
Later, when asked what data was being used to draw the new maps, House committee chairwoman Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, said she didn’t know and that she hadn’t seen the maps that Butler was talking about. But she said Democrats were determined to draw new districts that would reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Illinois.
Nobody knows anything when it comes to maps. Chasing that story involves a whole lot of brick walls. Even so, subscribers know a bit more.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Illinois House Redistricting Committee Spokesperson Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) released the following statement after this morning’s abysmal public hearing on redistricting:
“This morning’s House Redistricting Committee hearing was an abuse of a free and fair democratic process. Despite hearing testimony from countless advocacy groups yesterday asking for more time, the House Democrats, who had no members in attendance [in-person], held a hearing with little notice that resulted in NO public attendance in person or even on Zoom. This continued approach from the Illinois Democrats to jam through yet ANOTHER partisan map to retain control over the state is disgusting and offensive to all the residents of our state. Let’s hope that Governor Pritzker will not lie to voters twice and will veto whatever sham map the General Assembly passes next Tuesday.”
The flip side is that everyone who wanted to say something spoke yesterday and citizens aren’t all that riled up about this as much as the commentariat might have us believe.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Republican Mark Curran, who lost the U.S. Senate race in 2020 to Sen. Dick Durbin, says God wants him to run for the Illinois Supreme Court, so he’s following the call.
“We are taking on the Establishment, the Party Hacks, the Freemasons and those that could care less that Individual Liberty and Conscience Protection are no longer cherished or protected,” he told supporters in an email that was forwarded to Playbook.
Dude is kinda 19th Century. I suppose John Quincy Adams would approve, though.
*** UPDATE *** With thanks to a commenter, here’s video of then-Lake County Sheriff Mark C. Curran receiving a donation for “Shop with a Cop” from Barrington Masonic Lodge #522 in 2017…
…Adding… Great comment…
Did God say anything else to him? Since there was some sort of dialogue going on, it’d been nice of Mark Curran had asked for advice on how to get out of this pandemic. I think Mark Curran really missed an opportunity here.
Today, Politico did a great job outlining the team of Madigan loyalists and lawyers generally unknown to the public that are representing Democrat leaders - House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon - in their fight to preserve their politician-drawn redistricting map.
“The legal team representing the Democratic-led General Assembly on the remap includes attorneys who have for years worked for the former House speaker.”
“Michael Kasper, the noted election lawyer and former general counsel to Madigan when he was speaker, is heading up the legal team.
“Other attorneys are Heather Wier Vaught, who was chief counsel to Madigan and represented him when his team was accused of ignoring sexual harassment claims. Adam Vaught, her husband, is also on the General Assembly’s legal team and has represented Madigan, too, including when the former speaker was sued for allegedly orchestrating sham political candidates. And Devon Bruce is with the well-connected Power Rogers law firm, which has donated to Madigan’s campaign fund.”
Madigan’s team has a long history of using the legal system to keep their leader’s iron-grip on power. Kasper was lead counsel and argued before the Illinois Supreme Court to strike down the 2016 Fair Maps citizen referendum. The 4-3 majority decision was written by Madigan’s Favorite Judge, Tom Kilbride, who Madigan spent millions to put on the Supreme Court, and the plaintiff in the case was John Hooker, former ComEd lobbyist who was indicted last November in the ongoing federal corruption probe.
The Madigan Machine is not dead - it’s leader is simply within the shadows. Why else would Mike Madigan’s top lawyers and longtime friends be the lead litigators for the House and Senate remap team? They’re protecting their investment as they’ve done for years.
ILGOP Spokesman Joe Hackler: “There could be a world where Mike Madigan and his remaining lieutenants do not infect every part of state government with their corrupt tentacles. But Illinois Democrats don’t want that world. Democrats are still loyal to the man who brought them into power and the people of Illinois suffer the consequences every day.”
* Something not mentioned in the above article, nor broached by the ILGOP in its press release is that the House Republicans are using Mayer Brown for legal counsel on the redistricting case. Mayer Brown was on the team that defended House Speaker Madigan in the lawsuit brought (and lost) by Jason Gonzalez.
Madigan was like McDonald’s. Just about everyone worked for him at some point.
…Adding… Good point from Rep. Walker in comments…
Only a few attorneys are experienced experts on Illinois laws regarding redistricting. If they were defending the Dems’ map ten years ago, who else would they be?
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) has released the following statement regarding Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reinstatement of a statewide indoor mask mandate:
“Retailers remain dedicated to the health and safety of employees, customers and our communities. We support the governor’s mask mandate as a measured approach that ensures shoppers continue to have access to needed goods, food and medicine with minimal disruption,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO of IRMA. “We ask all customers to abide by this public health order in a respectful manner. We strongly encourage local law enforcement agencies to promptly assist us in ensuring employees are not subjected to verbal and physical abuse as we have seen in the past and call on local health departments to enforce this order in uniform fashion. We must all work together to ensure the health and safety of our communities.”
Republican responses are here. This post will likely be updated.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Another one…
The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) released the following statement regarding efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus:
“The scientific data is irrefutable: vaccines and mask wearing are safe and effective ways of slowing the spread of the deadly virus. These lifesaving vaccines were created by American manufacturers under federal oversight and are the best way to protect our communities and restore our economy,” said Mark Denzler, President and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “The IMA and our members across the state support vaccinations and mask wearing to slow the spread of this virus. We cannot cede the progress that has been made in restoring our nation’s health and economy.”
…Adding… I asked an IMA spokesperson if this means the group specifically supports the new mandates…
The statement speaks for itself, but to answer your question – Yes
*** UPDATE 2 *** HCCI…
The Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI), representing over 300 skilled nursing facilities, 55,000 residents and 100,000 employees in Illinois, issued the following statement regarding Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s announcement today to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all healthcare workers, which HCCI called for earlier this week:
“We support Gov. Pritzker’s move to require all healthcare workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine and call on those implementing the Governor’s order to ensure that all segments of the industry are covered, including home and community-based services.
Operators of Illinois’ skilled nursing facilities have spent countless hours formulating plans to educate, encourage and collaborate with residents and staff to get vaccinated, from working one on one with unvaccinated employees, employing infectious disease experts to answer questions and concerns about the vaccine, and partnering with trusted community groups to deploy information campaigns about the importance of the vaccines.
With the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, we recognized bolder action was necessary to protect the most vulnerable.
The vaccine is the most effective way to put an end to this pandemic. This mandate is a step in that direction.
We are committed to continuing to collaborate with our state leaders, regulatory agencies, unions, workers and community partners to identify the best strategies to keep our patients safe and healthy.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** Press release…
The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce released the following statement regarding the statewide mask mandate:
“With COVID-19 cases rising across Chicago and the state of Illinois, we must do everything in our power to protect ourselves, those around us, and our path to economic recovery. Businesses are in a unique position to change the trajectory of this pandemic, which is why the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has called on businesses to review and implement policies that require all employees be vaccinated before returning to the worksite, unless a valid health or religious reason is presented. Masks are an essential tool in preventing the spread of the virus, and we support the Governor’s indoor mask order as a common-sense way to help ensure businesses stay open and are able to get people back to work,” said Jack Lavin, president & CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
*** UPDATE 4 *** IPHA…
Tom Hughes, Executive Director of the Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA), released the following statement on Thursday:
“As local health providers, we know that vaccinations and wearing a mask are two effective ways to help end this global pandemic. On behalf of the 88 certified local health departments our association represents, we strongly support the new mask and vaccination mandates issued by the governor today to help protect the health and safety of the people of Illinois against this highly transmissible COVID- 19 variant.
“Our state is facing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, and are now straining the demands placed on hospitals, healthcare workers and those charged with protecting the public health, including members of our association. This new surge of cases and hospitalizations has resulted in just one ICU hospital bed available for a region of Illinois covering 20 counties, and more children being hospitalized for COVID-19 than in previous surges. These alarming facts show that something must be done immediately to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and unable to care for new patients and to protect those that remain vulnerable.
“Members of our association has been on the frontline of protecting the public’s health since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. We strongly support these new mandates that will help save many lives across our state and prevent more hospitalizations. The vaccine is a safe and proven way to help end this pandemic and to prevent future mitigation efforts from being placed on regions in Illinois. We strongly encourage members of the public to support these efforts and get vaccinated to protect their health and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
*** UPDATE 5 *** IHA…
The Illinois Health and Hospital Association and the Illinois hospital community continue to urge all individuals, including hospital employees, to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to safely protect themselves, their families and their communities against severe disease, long-term health consequences of infection and possible death.
COVID-19 vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective. The U.S. currently has the safest vaccine supply in its history. The nation’s long-standing vaccine safety system ensures that vaccines are tested and safe.
From the outset of the administration of these life-saving vaccines that began last December, hospitals across the state have been a critical source of vaccines for their patients, the public and communities.
Over the past few months, many hospitals and health systems in Illinois have put in place mandatory vaccination policies for their healthcare employees.
As the prevalence of infection from the Delta variant grows, vaccination is increasingly important to protect the public by mitigating the spread of this variant and preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
We believe the Governor’s vaccination requirement is another important tool to assist hospitals in their ongoing efforts to encourage vaccination of their staff as they work to address their local workforce needs while ensuring the health and safety of their employees, patients, and communities.
Statement of AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch:
“AFSCME has been working steadily to encourage every union member and retiree to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their family and their community.
“In discussions around vaccine requirements with the state and other employers, we have urged exactly the kind of flexible, vaccinate-or-test requirement that Gov. Pritzker and teacher unions are announcing for Illinois teachers today. It is also the same vaccinate-or-test requirement that President Biden has made of federal employees.
“The Pritzker Administration should now work collaboratively with our union to develop a similar flexible approach for state employees.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Maybe Council 31 can do something about this sentiment at Fox Developmental Center in Dwight, where this sign was posted…
*** UPDATE 2 *** AFSCME Local 3605 president Kelley Beal’s Facebook page…
*** UPDATE 3 *** Jordan Abudayyeh…
This administration has worked – and continues to work – diligently to ensure there is a comprehensive testing regimen in state run congregate care facilities, but with unvaccinated employees transmitting the virus to vulnerable residents, it is clear that we must do more to protect our most vulnerable and those in our care and custody by requiring vaccination to prevent the spread of this deadly virus.
* Letter to the governor from House GOP Leader Jim Durkin…
August 26, 2021
Governor J.B. Pritzker 207 State House
Springfield, II 62706
Governor Pritzker,
When your experts told you to lift your mask mandate back in May of this year, I too was ready for the pandemic to be over. When you started running election commercials declaring ‘mission accomplished’, I too was hopeful that the worst was behind us. I thought of all the residents of our state and country who lost their lives during the last year and a half, especially our heroes in the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, and prayed for them and their loved ones.
But when your commercial buy changed, now touting your words from over a year ago that you ‘would put the full weight of the state behind the pandemic response’, I remembered the 18 months of your go-it-alone attitude. This past year, you ran the length of the field with mandates and executive orders without the General Assembly.
That is why your phone call last night asking for suggestions on how to get this new wave of the pandemic under control was so unexpected. I would apologize for thinking you were being insincere with that call asking my advice, but immediately after hanging up, I received a breaking news update from the Chicago Sun-Times that you had, once again, laid out your plan without input.
You are willing to negotiate with your biggest supporters, the public sector unions, on the pandemic response, but still will not listen to the General Assembly or the residents of Illinois most impacted by your actions. I will reiterate my plea on our call yesterday to please make your experts available to the General Assembly so that we can examine their data and plans, review the results of your many previous mandates and together plot a course of action that will work. You have the authority to call for a Special Session of both Chambers to address this very critical issue, and I am imploring you to do so immediately .
Additionally, instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on secret lotteries and giveaways, direct that money to buying KN95 masks for children in schools that still cannot receive the vaccine. That would lift a financial burden on families while also providing real, tangible results.
Regards,
Jim Durkin
House Republican leader
82nd District
P.S. Your administration is still stalling our requests to receive documents about your Administration’s failures at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home. The sooner those documents are turned over, the General Assembly can begin a thorough review of the repeated shortcomings that led to the deaths of 36 veterans and make the necessary adjustments to the state’s laws to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
Notice that he didn’t take a side on the actual mandates.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about this during today’s press conference…
I have always been available to the >eader for any calls that he wants to make with ideas, and to any other Republican legislator, Democratic legislator. And when the legislature talks to me I listen and I have asked for ideas from both sides of the aisle. People, as you recall, early on in COVID-19 in this pandemic, I worked with a Republican legislator to ultimately put in place a mask mandate for the state back in May. I continue to listen to try to adjust things and make them work for all parts of our state. […]
I’m always open to hearing formal input from the legislature and I think that he should go do whatever it is that he needs to do. They’re a co-equal branch of government, they should, what Republicans can call hearings and if they don’t, you know, if they want to invite Democrats to it they should and can if they don’t want to, they can still hold hearings. I’m sure you all will cover them. And, you know get ideas. I have asked all along here for any new ideas that anybody has about how to bring down the number of hospitalizations, how to bring down the spread of COVID, and I’ve listened when people have offered up those ideas.
Please pardon all transcription errors. Also, the GOP can’t call a special session.
…Adding… Press release…
Paul Schimpf, Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois, issued the following statement in response to Pritzker’s mask mandate issued today:
“JB Pritzker has lost all moral authority to lead on pandemic response by failing to follow the rules he set for others. If Democrats believe our current situation is so dire to require a mask mandate, they should take up the issue during their legislative session that is scheduled for August 31st. Absent legislative action, these executive edicts are yet another divisive act by a failed governor who believes he wields unlimited power.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Letter from the governor…
Leader Durkin,
I appreciate that as the leader of Illinois House Republicans, you support the real and tangible results of students wearing masks in schools. As you know, we have offered surgical masks to schools throughout the state over the course of the pandemic. I appreciate your request to additionally furnish KN95 masks to schools; my administration will immediately reach out to superintendents to inform them that KN95 masks are available at their request through our normal PPE distribution channels.
I will continue to do everything within my authority as governor to keep the people of our state safe, and as I have said many times, in addition to those necessary steps that doctors have recommended, I welcome any further ideas from you or members of your caucus.
I encourage you and members of your caucus to continue to bring ideas forward, and to propose legislation that would help save lives, end this pandemic and pass in the General Assembly.
…Adding… Gary Rabine…
Gary Rabine, candidate for Governor is issuing the following statement on the Governor’s latest act of authoritarianism in his statewide order demanding all employees at schools to get vaccinated and a new statewide indoor mask mandate.
“It is unconscionable that the Governor would mandate all school employees to be vaccinated. It is not the government’s role to make healthcare decisions for its citizens. This is a dictator-like government overreach, and it is one we, as a society, must stand up to adamantly oppose. School employees should not, as a condition of employment, be forced to be vaccinated. They as individuals should be free to make healthcare decisions for themselves.
Governor Pritzker, who comes from royalty-like wealth, seems to think the way to solve this problem is to play Chief Health Expert and King. We are not going to stop COVID-19 with authoritarian rules. People need to be free to make their own healthcare decisions. If you want to wear a mask – wear a mask. But forcing people to comply with these arbitrary rules is not accomplishing anything but stoking fear, anger and resentment.”
Individuals should be free to make healthcare decisions for themselves, but this is not about them. It’s about everyone around them, and those around them, and those around them, and…
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to double down Thursday on his efforts to deal with a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic’s delta variant as schools reopen by requiring all educators from kindergarten through college to be vaccinated.
Additionally, Pritzker plans to require a statewide mandate of masking of people age 2 and above in indoor locations, according to two sources familiar with the governor’s actions, as the variant has led to increasing hospitalizations among younger people and the unvaccinated, along with increasing reports of “breakthrough cases” among those who are vaccinated.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association, the two statewide teachers unions, welcomed the vaccine mandate to help “provide the greatest possible level of safety” for in-person school.
“The surge of COVID-19 cases in our state reminds us that this vaccine mandate is a public health imperative,” the unions said in a joint statement. “To implement it properly, widespread education and access to vaccines will be essential. For members who cannot, or will not, get vaccinated, we are glad to see the governor has implemented twice weekly COVID testing.”
The labor organizations said they would work with their locals to negotiate the terms and implementation of the mandate in districts, colleges and universities.
…Adding… Now that we have details, let’s move this conversation here
* GOP bans on school masks draw federal civil rights challenges: The legal challenges — filed separately in recent weeks against Texas, Florida and South Carolina — argue that those states‘ bans on universal masking in schools run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws meant to protect children with disabilities.
