In Springfield, there are no guarantees that by simply introducing a piece of legislation, it will become law. More often than not, it doesn’t.
But state representatives from East Central Illinois have introduced dozens of bills this spring that are intriguing, even provocative. They might not become law, but they’ll certainly prompt discussion.
State Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, has resurrected his proposal to grant a riverboat casino license to his city.
“We unfortunately have the unemployment. We unfortunately need the jobs. We unfortunately need the tax revenue,” Black said. “Studies clearly show that Danville alone can’t support (a casino). But Indianapolis, Lafayette, Bloomington, Terre Haute, the studies we’ve seen show that they’ll come there.”
Black pushed for a Danville casino last year but fell short.
“All I’m trying to do is get in to see the Speaker (Michael Madigan) and say, ‘Look, I know I can’t pass a bill that says we’ll just have a riverboat in Danville.’ But there’s going to be a package sooner or later. Chicago didn’t get the Olympics. Mayor Daley is spending money he shouldn’t be spending from the sale of the parking meters.”
Some kind of riverboat expansion legislation will come up late in the spring session, Black predicted, and he wants a Danville casino to be considered.
“If you’re not willing to say, ‘I have a bill. I want to sit at the table,’ then you’re not going to get the call,” he said.
Black also has bills to allow school districts to operate four days a week, to prohibit the display of a portrait of a governor impeached and removed from office, to repeal the controversial General Assembly scholarships, to eliminate the requirement that primary election voters publicly declare a party preference, and to ban the use of any language or image on state-sponsored tourism highway signs that promotes an activity that is unlawful or would elicit strong public complaint.
Black also has a bill, in response to the 2006 shaken baby death of 2-year-old Reagan Williams of Tilton, that would require judges to impose an extended sentence when a defendant is convicted of first degree murder, second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter in which the death is caused by child abuse. In the Vermilion County case that created an outcry, Ryan Allhands of Danville was sentenced in December to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the shaking death of the child.
State Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, has a bill to restore corporal punishment in Illinois public schools, although he said he is amending the bill to restrict a school district’s liability in the event of a lawsuit by parents.
“I do a lot of legislation that doesn’t go anywhere and this is probably one of them,” Cultra said. “But I see a lot of problems in the schools. They just don’t have control in the classrooms. If you could just start it at the lower grades and the kids knew there was some kind of punishment involved, maybe a teacher could get control of the classroom and the kids could learn.”
The success of his corporal punishment bill, Cultra said, will depend on whether it is supported by teachers’ unions. “If they don’t like it, it won’t go anywhere,” he said.
State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, has a proposal to restrict the sale and use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorous. As written, the bill would ban anyone from selling fertilizer with phosphorous unless the seller knew the product was being used at a golf course or for establishing grass using seed or sod or if it was being applied to an area deficient in phosphorus, as shown by a laboratory-performed soil test. The nutrient has been blamed for algae blooms in lakes and rivers.
But the legislation is still being fine-tuned, Jakobsson said last week.
“We’re still working on it. It’s not ready to go to committee yet,” she said.
State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, has perhaps the biggest list of bills, covering everything from freeing school districts from spending money on programs required by the state but not funded, to returning to an elected University of Illinois board of trustees to requiring that people using a LINK card (for food assistance) be banned from using it to buy soft drinks and junk foods. He also wants to suspend, because of the state budget shortfall, monthly payments to Department of Corrections inmates.
“We can’t pay our teachers to teach but we’re paying prisoners $7 million a year?” he said. “The general point here is that there is so much waste and inefficiency out there. I’ve spent the better part of a year studying the budget. This is just the beginning.”
A package of Rose-sponsored bills addressing welfare reforms has been sent to the House Rules Committee, generally the burial ground for legislation. One bill would suspend the Illinois driver’s license and LINK card benefits for anyone with an arrest warrant. Another would require drug screening for anyone receiving public aid benefits.
“We’ve got to cut out the cheats, the people who are gaming the system, so we can get back to the basics of paying our bills and restoring some fiscal discipline in the state,” Rose said.
Meanwhile, most of Black’s other bills have gotten out of the Rules Committee and should be heard in the next few weeks.
His plan to end the General Assembly scholarships ought to have traction during these hard financial times. “If they don’t let that be voted on this year, then shame on them,” Black said of the legislative leaders. “It’s just $15 million of unreimbursed cost to the universities. If (University of Illinois President) Stan Ikenberry hasn’t convinced them what desperate shape they’re in, then this will never pass.”
Black also has a bill that would allow primary election voters to take both ballots into the voting booth but vote in only one party’s primary. “Nobody’s going to know what party you voted,” Black said. “Many states do this already.”
Another proposal would permit a four-day school week for districts struggling with late state transportation and other payments. Schools would still be required to offer a minimum of 880 student contact hours a year. “I have school superintendents telling me that they can’t continue to run buses five days a week as if they’re getting paid, and keep schools open 5 1/2 days a week,” he said.
Another measure would require that the brown tourist destination signs along interstate highways prohibit promotion of illegal or offensive activities. The issue came up, Black said, when he asked the Transportation Department to put up a sign for a winery in Vermilion County.
“IDOT said, ‘Geez, at that exit there’s a triple-X adult video store. If we give one for the winery, how do we say no to the adult video store?’
“I don’t want to get into a freedom of speech issue. But I think you can set reasonable guidelines as to what a tourism activity is.”
Finally, there’s Black’s bill to prohibit the display in the Capitol of a painting of an impeached and convicted governor.
“If you’re going to reform Illinois government you don’t put up a portrait of an impeached Illinois at a cost of $15,000 to $20,000 in taxpayer expense, plus the cost of hanging the thing. Plus a nice ceremony.”
Asked if the bill has any chance, he said, “Privately, I’ve got enough votes to pass this thing twice. Publicly, we’ll see.”
Tom Kacich is a News-Gazette editor and columnist. His column appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached at 351-5221 or at [email protected].
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