When lawmakers adjourned for the summer after approving most of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wish list, they left at least three major items blowing in the wind: a looming rate hike for consumers' electric bills, an expiring telecommunications law and a growing waiting list of school and road construction projects.
Those and other big agenda items got pushed off as lawmakers shifted focus to their campaigns. All 118 Illinois House seats, two-thirds of the 59 Senate seats and the six constitutional officers appeared on the November 7 ballot.
Mid-month, lawmakers reconvene in Springfield for their regularly scheduled veto session. But this fall, as is the case every even-numbered year, the session marks the end of one legislative cycle and the transition to a new General Assembly. The atmosphere will be charged with the knowledge that the veto session marks the last hurrah for some legislators.
The Senate, for instance, will lose a key education advocate and Legislative Latino Caucus founder, Sen. Miguel del Valle, a Democrat who was appointed Chicago city clerk by Mayor Richard Daley. He will leave after the veto session. The House, meanwhile, will lose Rep. Larry McKeon, a Chicago Democrat and champion of a state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He will retire in January. Others will leave, too, if they lose their re-election bids.
Going into November, Democrats held a solid majority in both chambers: 65-53 in the House and 31-27 with one Independent in the Senate. Yet the post-election partisan split in the new General Assembly could have an impact on the veto session strategies of legislative leaders Senate President Emil Jones Jr. and House Speaker Michael Madigan.
How do matters stack up shortly before the election? Over the summer, only 11 measures bounced back from Blagojevich's desk with a total veto or a partial veto. Most are routine. Some deal with local issues: annexing property into mosquito abatement districts, clarifying rules about pay increases for water reclamation district board members and allowing a family business that sells alcohol and operates within 100 feet of a school to renew its liquor license if the principal gives written permission.
But a more controversial measure the governor rejected would ease a requirement that minors who commit sex crimes be tried as adults when they turn 17. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Annazette Collins, a Chicago Democrat, would allow a judge to decide on a case-by-case basis whether minors would have to register with the state as juvenile sex offenders.
Despite the potential for controversy on Collins' measure, if lawmakers stick to voting on the 11 vetoed bills through the last half of November, the 94th General Assembly will shield itself from a handful of high pressure systems brewing around the state. The 95th General Assembly, then, would likely have to deal with them come January.
The hot-button items include measures to extend a freeze on electricity rates and to deregulate telecommunications services. Another would float bonds to fund school and road construction projects. And watch for creative ideas for generating quick cash, such as selling the state's lottery or tollway system.
But logistically and politically, those items would take a lot of maneuvering. And a six-day veto session isn't typically conducive to deliberation on such major policy proposals, especially if, as is likely, the Capitol is under renovation and fall session meetings are scattered throughout Springfield.
Still, lawmakers could face pressure to address electric rates sooner rather than later. Madigan asked the governor to call a special session on that issue before legislators return for their regular veto session November 14. Rate increases are scheduled to start January 1, before the new General Assembly is sworn in. Residential rates are projected to rise between 20 percent and 55 percent statewide, or about $13 a month for northern Illinois customers of Commonwealth Edison and as much as $35 a month for downstate customers of Ameren Illinois.
The rates have already been frozen for more than nine years, longer than called for in a 1997 state law. Back then, lawmakers attempted to protect customers while Illinois utility companies prepared for a deregulated system for buying and distributing electricity.
Competition hasn't flourished as intended, but the Illinois Commerce Commission worked with ComEd and Ameren Illinois this year to devise an energy auction in which electricity suppliers bid to provide energy to the utilities. As a result, in 2007 and beyond, electric rates would be set by competition rather than by state regulation.
Despite projections of financial doom from ComEd and Ameren Illinois, Democrats and Republicans approved a rate freeze in a House committee last month. Bipartisan support for the measure led Madigan to pronounce it ready for approval by the full House and Senate in an immediate special session.
Blagojevich previously said he would call a special session as soon as he secured enough votes, which would mean the support of all Democrats and some Republicans in each chamber. As of mid-October, Senate President Jones had yet to indicate whether he would call a rate freeze measure in any upcoming session.
David Dring, spokesman for House Minority Leader Tom Cross of Oswego, says it's an issue that's not going to go away. "I don't know if it's going to be tackled in the veto [session], but I do believe that when people downstate receive their power bills, it's very likely something would happen."
The debate about whether to regulate or deregulate an industry has put Illinois' telecommunications companies on alert because that state law is set to expire in 2007. Telecommunications encompasses basic phone lines, cable, Internet and wireless phones, but the Illinois Commerce Commission only regulates rates for local phone lines.
If the state completely deregulated telecommunications, lawmakers would have to weigh protecting consumers who only use basic phone services and enticing major companies to invest in Illinois. But the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer watchdog group, says the state first needs to close the so-called digital divide between areas with and those without efficient Internet access before it lets companies tear up more streets to lay down fiber optics and other advanced telecommunications infrastructure.
Meanwhile, another issue has clouded the political scene.
If legislators stick to voting on the 11 vetoed bills through the last half of November, the 94th General Assembly will shield itself from a handful of high pressure systems brewing around the state.
The plan to find the dollars to build new roads and schools has been swept away by political storms for years. But this spring was particularly charged as Democrats crafted a state budget without the help of the GOP. It's no wonder Democrats couldn't secure the five Republican votes needed in each chamber to approve a separate capital budget, which would have cleared a 300-school waiting list and increased money for public transportation for the first time in four years.
GOP lawmakers refused to support the Democrats' plan to borrow more than $4 billion without identifying a specific way to repay the debt. Democrats argued increased revenue from sales taxes and gas taxes would be enough to repay most of it, while Blagojevich would rely on his strategy of closing "corporate [tax] loopholes" and tapping into surpluses in special purpose funds.
The spring attempt failed on partisan lines, but this month's post-election atmosphere could foster a little more willingness to compromise, Dring says. Yet, he adds, a capital bill is a complicated plan to put together in just six days. "I don't think anyone's concentrating on it until November 8, at least."
House Democratic spokesman Steve Brown says without Republican willingness to support a capital plan, "I doubt that it would even be discussed."
But the state's need for cash is likely to give life to creative revenue ideas, if not in the veto session, then surely when the next governor gives his or her State of the State address.
One conversation starter would be Blagojevich's proposal to sell the Illinois Lottery for $15 billion. He would fund his $6 billion education plan and invest a chunk to earn enough interest to maintain education funding for about two decades.
Another idea would be to sell or lease the state's tollway system, worth an estimated $1 billion to $24 billion, according to Credit Suisse, an investment firm. The company issued a report paid for by the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat, held public hearings all summer to discuss the possibility. He stressed his wish for the state's portion of the tollway revenue: improve roads and reduce the state's pension obligations.
Neither the lottery nor the tollway proposal, however, is expected to be ready for legislative action before the spring session.
Once January rolls around, the next General Assembly could consider the idea to open a Chicago casino, which was floated by Judy Baar Topinka in her Republican bid for governor. Topinka, a three-term state treasurer, also proposed authorizing an expansion of the state's existing riverboats to generate revenue.
Regardless of the election results, the House Gaming Committee is sure to have a busy spring session, says chairman Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat. He expects gaming revenue ideas to seem more politically palatable to the General Assembly than raising income or sales taxes. But who knows? Lightning has struck the state Capitol before.
Bethany Carson can be reached at capitolbureau@aol.com.
Illinois Issues, November 2006
