Senate in session: Tourism, treatment centers on the agenda besides ethics reform

[September 22, 2008]  The Illinois tourism website's motto is "Mile after magnificent mile." The slogan is a good one since it doesn't mention that under the Illinois governor's ax, historic sites in the state are facing severe cutbacks or closure. Illinois might have miles and miles of magnificence, but without a Senate vote, many of those roads will lead to closed historic sites and parks.

The Illinois House on Sept. 10 had reallocated state fund accounts to find the $55 million needed to keep 11 state parks and 13 historic sites open, but Senate Leader Emil Jones had refused to reconvene the Illinois Senate. Without a Senate vote to override Gov. Blagojevich's amendatory veto to the original ethics bill, which included these tourism cuts, the bill would die.

The governor's amendatory veto also had made drastic cuts to substance-abuse treatment centers that will close if the Senate doesn't act.

It is believed that Jones, in communications with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, yielded to the pressure of not wanting Obama to have to answer questions in a debate of why his home state wasn't dealing with ethics reform.

Although this pressure by Obama has been widely reported, the governor, who originally vetoed the ethic reform bill, has been taking credit for pressuring the Senate to reconvene.

As the Senate convenes Monday and possibly Tuesday, the ethics reform bill, tourism and the treatment centers' funding bills are all held in the hands of the Senate leader, who must call them up for a vote.

Skepticism abounds on both sides of the aisle that this could be another special session that doesn't accomplish anything.

[LDN]