Senate week in review         

Aug. 7-11

[AUG. 16, 2006]  SPRINGFIELD -- Senate Republican lawmakers have called on the governor to release a report on staffing levels at Illinois prisons, proposed a special legislative session to repeal the state sales tax on motor fuel, and urged the governor to make his appointments to the Wooded Land Assessment Task Force, according to state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield.

A Senate Republican legislator sent the governor's office a formal Freedom of Information Act request for a much-heralded report on staffing levels at Illinois prisons. A copy of the letter was also sent to the attorney general's office.

The request involves a report that the Harvey M. Rose Accountancy Corp., a California-based company, was supposed to release on Dec.16, 2005. The study cost taxpayers $443,000, and the bill was paid in full last January. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, the report had to be revised, but the revised report has yet to surface.

The understaffing at prisons has led to an outbreak of violence. Last March, an inmate of the Big Muddy Correctional Center picked up another inmate and body-slammed him to the ground. The 64-year-old victim did not die instantly, but the brutal blow to his head was fatal. In February, an inmate assaulted a female food worker at the Jacksonville Correctional Center. Then, just last May, an inmate at Dixon Correctional Center took a prison worker hostage for 24 hours, holding a homemade knife to her throat and sexually assaulting her multiple times. Bomke said these are just a few examples of the violence correctional officers continue to face at Illinois prisons.

In other news, a Senate Republican legislator unveiled a three-pronged approach to tackling rising gasoline prices, including requesting a special legislative session to repeal the state sales tax on motor fuels, reinvesting excess revenues into the alternative fuels market and railroad transportation, and calling on Congress to crack down on noncompliant oil companies and improve industry standards.

Bomke said the most logical starting point for helping Illinois' consumers begins with suspending the state's 5 percent sales tax on motor fuels, noting that Illinois' tax is higher than every bordering state. As a result, those states often benefit from motorists who cross the state border to fill up on cheaper gasoline. The Illinois sales tax on motor fuel sales is assessed on top of the other taxes on gasoline. Suspending the sales tax on motor fuel is nothing new, as lawmakers passed a temporary suspension of the tax in 2000.

Finally, Senate Republicans called on the governor to make his appointments to a task force charged with finding a permanent solution to the timberland assessment controversy, so that the legislative panel can begin its work.

The Wooded Land Assessment Task Force was created by House Joint Resolution 95, which also asked the Illinois Department of Revenue to freeze timberland assessments for two years at the 2005 level. The two-year freeze is to give the task force members time to conduct hearings, make recommendations and allow the General Assembly to pass any appropriate legislation based on the findings. The report is due on Dec. 31.

But before the 12-member task force can even begin its work, the panel needs to at least have a quorum. So far, the task force has only six members: three legislators and the directors of the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue and the Department of Agriculture. The governor has three appointments to make, but he has yet to make them. Representatives of Southern Illinois University, the University of Illinois and the House Democrats comprise the other three members of the task force.

[News release from Sen. Larry Bomke]