Pension reform, gay marriage, concealed carry, and a budget are some big and historic items remaining on the agenda for state lawmakers. With just a week and a half left in the spring session, could lawmakers be in Springfield past May 31, and would that cost taxpayers?
It’s a common theme at the statehouse during the final weeks of the spring session: long hours, weekend work, and important, sometimes historic legislation passing.
“Like with other human beings, legislators put things off to the last minute,” U.I.S. Political Science Professor Chris Mooney said. “So, when a deadline is looming, it focuses the mind.”
But will lawmakers work past May 31, the end of the regular session? Keep in mind, lawmakers have until June 9 to pass a concealed carry bill, after a federal court ruled Illinois’ ban is unconstitutional.
“Concealed carry has this deadline set by the courts, but it’s not clear what that deadline means,” Mooney said.
According to the Comptroller’s office, if lawmakers go into an overtime session, lawmakers would only be entitled to mileage reimbursement for one round trip per week. That would cost taxpayers about $23,500.
“The Illinois General Assembly has been in for the past three months,” Matt Paprocki from the Illinois Policy Institute said. “We have seen a lot of the major issues pushed back to the last few weeks here and unfortunately, that seems to be the way the General Assembly seems to operate.”
While an overtime session can only be a prediction at this point, the Illinois Policy Institute is more concerned about a budget and pension reform. Every day without pension reform, Gov. Pat Quinn says the pension liability grows by $17 million.
“We’ve known for the last seven years there has been a pension crisis,” Paprocki said. “The state of Illinois has been able to have conversations about it for years. It’s time to look to find real pension reform. A way to fix this problem, get out of the current system, so we are not incurring huge costs like this.”
The May 31 deadline is also important because any bills voted after that day require a three-fifths majority to pass, rather than a simple majority.
Read the story at wics.com
