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“Disappointed” legislators

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Illinois

The Southern Illinois reports that some local legislators are frustrated with the veto session so far because it has mostly dealt only with… vetoes.

The first week of the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session began on Monday and ended on [Wednesday] with no movement or discussion on school funding projects or the statewide medical malpractice crisis.

The second and final week of the veto session will begin Tuesday and run for three days. Local lawmakers expect it to deal primarily with the governor’s veto of legislation already passed by the General Assembly this spring, however.

Those same lawmakers expressed disappointment with the inaction during the two-week fall session.

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said little was accomplished during the first week of the veto session.

“We overrode a number of the governor’s vetoes, in fact most of the ones that were actually called were overridden,” Luechtefeld said. “The real big issues of the veto session were supposed to be, No. 1 of course — the vetoes. But also the capital projects, which is money we spend each year to repair buildings or funding for new construction at schools or on campuses; anything that is a one-time expense. [Snip]

“We were supposed to deal with capital projects, school construction projects and medical malpractice and the way it looks right now we are not going to deal with any of those.” [Snip]

Luechtefeld said another initiative, a solution to the medical malpractice crisis, would “more than likely not get off the ground” during this veto session.

“Nothing is coming out of that at the present time,” said Luechtefeld. [Snip]

State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro… said the appointment of a mediator to the medical malpractice situation has turned into an “excuse” not to proceed.

“The argument, I suppose, is that the governor has put this judge as a mediator and in charge of the negotiations and there is no need to speed that up,” said Bost. “Well, I think there is a need to speed that up, I think it is something that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen during the veto session.”

Bost said Madigan will not call any legislation regarding school funding unless the governor can show there is revenue available to fund the project.

“We’re right back where we were last spring,” said Bost, “with Madigan and the governor fighting again.”

Bost said he doesn’t believe that the med-mal issue will “get off dead center” during the veto session. [Snip]

Luechtefeld said the veto session will accomplish what it is supposed to do handle vetoes but said from every other aspect the session is heading toward a disappointing ending next week.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 12, 04 @ 1:01 pm

Comments

Good. May the General Assembly will stop using every chance to pass more legislation and load up the budget with their own little projects. The GOP boys from Southern Illinois should shut up and realize they are in the minority and remember how Pate treated the Dems. Nothing worse than a bunch of winers who can’t deal with their minority status after having it their way for a decade.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 12, 04 @ 9:47 pm