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* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…
State Rep. Jeanne Ives on Sunday blasted her Democrat colleagues in the Illinois House for removing her as chief sponsor of a Senate bill that would increase taxes on Illinoisans by more than $5 billion.
Democrats, Ives said, “used a procedural move to take this bill from me, which must mean their only intent is a massive tax hike of over $5.4 billion on the hardworking folks in Illinois.” […]
Ives, an opponent of tax increases, filed to be chief sponsor of the bill in the House.
Earlier Sunday, Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, requested that Ives, R-Wheaton, be removed as the primary sponsor in the House. Hutchinson, who carried the tax hike bill in the Senate, requested state Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, be assigned as the primary sponsor.
On the House floor, Ives said taking the tax hike bill away from her was a partisan move to prevent a bipartisan conversation on taxes from taking place. She said Democrats ignore the state’s poor business climate.
Rep. Ives filed an amendment (click here) which stripped out all the Senate Democrats’ tax hikes and left intact the tax credits and tax reductions. The Senate sponsor wasn’t pleased and filed her motion to remove Ives as a sponsor and add Rep. Davis.
The House Democrats had been saying they didn’t want to make Ives a martyr by taking the bill away from her, but then she started amending the bill and they received a formal request for a sponsorship change. So, they went ahead and did it anyway.
* The Senate sponsor wasn’t the only one who expressed displeasure…
“It’s no time to be playing games with people’s bills, especially this budget bill,” State Rep. Linda Chapa Lavia (D – Aurora) said during Sunday’s meeting of lawmakers.
Republicans responded to those statements, saying that Democrats have no interest in forging any bipartisan consensus on a bill.
“Democrats are not interested in bipartisan support on what we should be doing with taxes,” State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R – Wheaton) said.
That would be more believable if Rep. Ives was interested in working out the differences. But as the Illinois Policy Institute notes, she’s “an opponent of tax increases.”
* But, whatever. It’s not like the House Democrats are interested in passing that Senate tax hike/revenue package anyway…
[Rep. Greg Harris] said there is concern about some of the things used by the Senate to come up with a balanced budget. That includes estimating $1.25 billion from changes to state employee pensions, $435 million from changes to state employee group health insurance and $300 million from the sale of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.
Harris said it is too early to count on savings from pension changes and that the health insurance savings has to be negotiated with unions. The Thompson Center is a one-time revenue, he said.
“I think if we are looking at the Senate and House budget, there’s about $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion worth of difference between them,” Harris said. “We’re not sure you can really book some of the revenues that the Senate booked.”
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 29, 17 @ 10:13 am
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Comment by Norseman Monday, May 29, 17 @ 10:23 am
10 plus years of Spending that out of whack now requires multiple Tax increases…somebody Gotta pay the Band… I need some good ole Feigned Outrage !!! Move along folks nothing to see here.
Comment by the Cardinal Monday, May 29, 17 @ 11:11 am
Mark Maxwell interview Ives on this week’s Capitol Connection. Can’t find the posting yet on their site, but if you run across it, it is well worth a viewing. Ives was in top form, especially near the end when Mark pressed her on tax reform and her plans for SB6.
Comment by Anon221 Monday, May 29, 17 @ 11:19 am
Capt Fax is awfully kind the Ives amendment guts bill and hands out giveaways to mostly 1%ers. One would assume DopeyDuct would have been a little more clever
Comment by Annonin' Monday, May 29, 17 @ 11:28 am
If the Democrats were good at PR, they would start a public drumbeat that Rauner is an obstructionist, and that he has the power to Amendatorily Veto a budget passed to him by the legislature.
He doesn’t have to be a bill killer.
He doesn’t have to kill everything good.
He can cut what he doesn’t like to balance the budget.
He doesn’t have to be disingenuous and dishonest.
He can do his job.
Comment by Winnin' Monday, May 29, 17 @ 12:20 pm
So, how would Jeanne Ives respond if a Dem hostile sponsored one of her bills?
Comment by JoeMaddon Monday, May 29, 17 @ 12:50 pm
===sponsored one of her bills? ===
As you might imagine, she doesn’t pass a lot of them to the Senate. Just one this year so far.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, May 29, 17 @ 12:52 pm
“This is no time to play games..”. What a flaccid, worthless piece of commentary. Rot. Politics, particularly in this state, is now continually, exclusively driven by game playing. We are taken for such fools, and we deserve the politicians we get.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 9:16 am