Since the overtime session began on June 1, the standard operating procedure has been for lawmakers to return to the Statehouse, hold one-day hearings and go home. Those hearings have accomplished little, and are likely meant to give busy work to legislators who fear the optics of them back in their districts while state government is on the verge of a shut down.
Last week the Senate met as a Committee of the Whole on the issues of increasing the minimum wage and mandating employers to provide up to seven paid sick leave days. NFIB member, Doug Knight, who operates Knight’s Action Park in Springfield testified as to the negative impact increasing the minimum wage would have on small business. NFIB also provided facts and data for testimony against mandating paid sick leave. There were no votes taken as this was a subject matter hearing only.
This week the Illinois Senate chose to hear about workers’ compensation reform, but like their peers in the House, it was a bit lopsided and did not feature any business owners or their stories about the need for reform.
The House held a two-day hearing this week on the ramifications of a government shutdown and brought in various groups that would be impacted. The show, however, was the empty seats where agency directors controlled by Governor Rauner sat empty, as they declined to participate. Again, the hearing achieved little except to showcase the divide between the two political parties.
The fact is these hearings are simply for show, a way to get the media to portray them as hard at work while the real meetings, those with the governor and the four legislative leaders, take place behind closed doors. So far even those high level meetings have proved fruitless.
July 1 the new fiscal year officially began. While Governor Rauner did sign one part of the budget bill that funds K-12 education, he vetoed the rest of the unbalanced budget passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature. For the most part, this leaves the state without a budget.
In other news this week, the Senate passed a one-month budget to keep the state running while the same bill failed in the House. And, Governor Rauner issued an amendatory veto striking language in a bill that would have given state lawmakers a raise.
The governor has remained steadfast in his resolve to get business and economic reforms passed along with a balanced budget. His reforms are tantamount to Illinois prospering, but he has come upon a brick wall with a Democrat majority who likes the status quo. A government shut down is certainly one way to kick start negotiations, force both sides to the table, and hope in the end true reforms are passed along with a balanced budget and get Illinois back on the right path.
PHOTO OF ILLINOIS STATEHOUSE: Meagan Davis/Wikimedia Commons
