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 Recently elected members of the 97th Illinois General Assembly were
sworn into office Wednesday, hours after the previous session
completed its last order of business.
"It's a little surreal that I'm standing here being interviewed in
the last week," said Pam Roth, R-Morris, shortly before being sworn
in. "I'm really excited about the opportunities ahead of us."
Roth took over the seat that recently elected Sue Rezin, R-Morris,
left behind. Rezin was elected to the House, but was then appointed
to fill former Sen. Gary Dahl's seat in the Senate when he retired
in December.
Roth isn't the only one to realize the difficulties ahead. The
previous General Assembly leaves behind a $15 billion budget deficit
to be filled by an income tax increase expected to generate about $6
billion annually.
"There's a lot of responsibility that comes with this type of
position, and there's a lot of work ahead for us at the state
Capitol and state government in general," said Rep. Joe Sosnowski,
R-Rockford. "It's a burden that we're all going to have -- the new
General Assembly coming in -- but looking forward to the challenge."
Sosnowski plans on using his experience in real estate and city
government to focus on economic development, budget reform and
reduced spending.
Those issues seem to ring true with voters, as 13 of the new
representatives and two of the new senators are Republicans. They
join the legislature after a disgruntled electorate booted many
Democrats out of office during the November election.
"I think folks are fed up. They want commoners in office
representing them. I am a commoner, I'm a fifth-generation family
farmer, small-business owner -- someone people can come to and put
their trust in," Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur, said.
Rep. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, was sworn in Monday after
Republican Dan Rutherford took office as state treasurer and former
Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, filled Rutherford's Senate seat.
Barickman said he hopes to bring his fresh approach to government.
"I come here with the mentality that we need to reform the way we do
governmental business. That means, across the board, we need to look
at opportunities to restrain government spending (and) spend less of
the taxpayers' dollars," said Barickman.
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Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon, and Rep. Michael Unes, R-East
Peoria, have already discussed plans of introducing a 10 percent
legislative pay cut. "The first year, you have to become acclimated to the people you're
working with, but I will simply say this: I have drafted legislation
already, one piece of which will drop today with the clerk's office.
And, I'm not going to wait two years to get something done," Kay
said. Unes agreed. "I think that anytime we talk about shared sacrifice, if we truly
believe in shared sacrifice, it needs to start with the
legislators," Unes said.
Although fairly new to state politics, Rezin touts a close
relationship with her constituents.
"There (are) many local issues that are very important to the area
...
as well as the state level," said Rezin. "We're going to continue
our message out there, which is that we need to rein in our spending
and that we need to become a state that encourages businesses to
come and invest and stay in our state."
Despite the incoming wave of Republicans, leadership in both the
House and Senate remains unchanged. Democrat John Cullerton,
D-Chicago remains the Senate president, and Democrat Michael
Madigan, D-Chicago, was appointed to his 14th term as speaker of the
House. Republican Tom Cross, R-Oswego, continues to lead the
minority party in the House.
A newcomer said that being in the minority isn't all bad.
"When you're in the minority, you have to work with the other side
of the aisle. We're going to offer good ideas. We're going to offer
good suggestions," said Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights.
"Hopefully, because they are good ideas and suggestions they will be
accepted."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MELISSA LEU]
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