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Their first week back after spring break, members of the
Illinois House passed scores of bills, ranging from creating an
elected school board for Chicago Public Schools to regulating
puppy breeders and more.
House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said lawmakers are
hard at work.
“On the Democrats side of the aisle, we’ve been focused on
passing priority legislation and focusing on a balanced budget,”
Harris said.
State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Fosterburg, said most of the bills passed
have yet to address the state’s major issues.
“Here we are with 45 days until session adjournment and the
Democrat-controlled legislature has failed to put forth any
meaningful or substantive legislation dealing with fighting
corruption, providing tax relief and unfortunately no plan put
forth to provide a balanced budget,” Elik said.
The Senate didn’t pass any legislation in the last week. Both
chambers return to Springfield on Tuesday.
There hasn’t been much public discussion among lawmakers in
committees about how to appropriate tax dollars for the governor
to spend. The governor proposed a $42 billion plan.
There’s also the $7.5 billion split over two years that Illinois
Comptroller Susana Mendoza is urging lawmakers to appropriate
responsibly.
“This money is spoken for,” Mendoza told WMAY. “We shouldn't be
getting any ideas about new spending. It should only be utilized
to pay down our debt, pay down our bill backlog, to stimulate
the economy with a one-time grant to affected businesses.”
State Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, agreed with the
Democratic comptroller.
“Transparency, targeted and don’t start any new program that
we’re not going to be able to pay for once the federal money is
gone,” Batinick said.
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