 The Chicago Democrat gave an hour long address to a joint session of the
Illinois General Assembly about what he thinks it will take to make politics
less divisive. Amid several points the president says would help make for better
dialog among elected officials was rethinking the way political maps are drawn.
“In America politicians should not pick their voters, voters should pick their
politicians and this needs to be done across the nation, not just in a select
few states. It should be done everywhere.”
The president said redistricting reform is especially popular among
minority-party politicians in systems that have the majority drawing the maps,
but quote, “nobody has clean hands.”
Governor Bruce Rauner has been pushing for redistricting reform, without much
movement, while an independent group continues work to get the constitutional
amendment question on the ballot.
OBAMA: COMPROMISE TO DO THE PEOPLE’S WORK, INCLUDING PASSING BUDGETS
A lack of compromise gets in the way of accomplishments. That’s the message
President Barack Obama delivered to the Illinois General Assembly about seeking
a better form of politics.
During the hour long address, the president said politicians are too-often
rewarded by their own party for not compromising. The president said that gets
in the way of doing the people’s work.
“All that does is prevent what most Americans would consider actual
accomplishments, like fixing roads, educating kids, passing budgets, cleaning
our environment, making our street safe.”
Though the President didn’t specifically address Illinois’ budget impasse,
lawmakers applauded that portion of his statement. Illinois is now more than
seven months without a budget for higher education, community colleges, tuition
assistance grants and some social services. It also has a growing backlog of
bills, unfunded pension liabilities and deficit-spending projected to hit $5
billion or more.
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 NAPERVILLE MOVES FORWARD WITH CONSOLIDATION EFFORT
A move to save tax dollars by sharing services between Naperville
and an associated township is underway, but not everyone is on
board.
West suburban Naperville looks to be the first municipality to take
action on reducing the number of governmental units in Illinois with
a plan to takeover maintenance of their share of roads in Naperville
Township. Supporters say it’s a work-sharing program but Naperville
Township Road Commissioner Stan Wojtasiak says it’s not a
work-sharing program, it’s a job killing program.
“It is a blatant takeover of the township because they want me to
completely dissolve the township and get rid of all the people.”
However, Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger sees it differently.
“We view it very much as just a shared service and taking it out
some duplicative services that currently exist.”
MAYOR: SERVICES WILL BE REDUCED SLIGHTLY, TAXPAYERS SAVE $800K A
YEAR
Wojtasiak says quote “citizens don’t want their services cut,” but
if they want consolidation they can have it.
“Citizens don’t want their services cut. If the voters want the road
district dissolved, it’ll certainly
Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico confirms the consolidation will
affect services.
“It is true that some of the services that the unincorporated
residents will be reduced slightly to the same norm that the
incorporated residents receive. I think that’s fair and equitable.”
But Chirico says while services may be reduced, the plan will save
taxpayers up to $800,000 a year. Consolidating townships with
municipalities was one of the recommendations from a recent task
force on consolidations and unfunded mandates.
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