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A truly historic year

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Illinois

* Charlie Wheeler has today’s must-read…

As Illinois government slogged into uncharted territory — weeks into a new fiscal year with no budget agreement in sight — one might be tempted to wonder whether the warring camps ever will find common ground to agree on much of anything.

Looking beyond the harsh partisan rhetoric and trashed civility that so far has been the norm for legislative overtime, though, across-the-aisle cooperation and give-and-take compromise produced significant results earlier on, before the budget stalemate.

The most notable achievements came in the area of criminal justice, including a far-reaching measure proponents said would become a national model for law enforcement reform. A product of intense, months-long negotiations among police groups, community leaders and civil rights organizations like the NAACP: Senate Bill 1304 cleared both chambers by wide margins — 107 to 3 in the House, 45 to 5, with 6 present votes, in the Senate. As of press time, the legislation awaited action by Gov. Rauner.

Go read the whole thing, please.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:25 pm

Comments

Perhaps we need body cameras during budget negotiations and discussions…

Comment by Capitol View Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:35 pm
Criminal justice change is one of the real positives coming from Rauner.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:36 pm
Good work.

Comment by walker Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 2:00 pm
So, there are 5 bills which were overwhelmingly approved by the House & Senate. Any idea when the Gov. is going to take action on them? As I recall, they are all from the spring session. Any idea what the hold up is?

Comment by Former Hoosier Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 2:08 pm
Former Hoosier,

the hold up is that the GA passed 300 something bills and the Gov has been taking action on 15-20 bills every few days. if you know anything about Government then you would know that each bill must be reviewed by several different teams before it even gets to the Govs desk for him to make his final decision. be Patient.

Comment by Goldwater Republican Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 2:20 pm
Goldwater-Thanks for the update. Guess I thought these bills would take priority over the bobcat and state vegetable bills!

Comment by Former Hoosier Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 2:36 pm
Mr/Ms Former Hoosier
Not really that tough TeamBungle had their superstars all over the legislative process from January to May so bill review should be a snap.
On Tuesday TeamBungle claimed there were 500 bills

Comment by Anonin' Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 3:03 pm
Sign it and start building a little positive momentum.

Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 4:56 pm
There’s some good stuff here, with real heavy lifting by stake holders.

Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 6:00 pm
There’s a couple of competent advocates responsible for this. The governor didn’t play a role.

Comment by State worker Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 6:43 pm