Capitol Updates: Legislative preview for the week of April 22

The Illinois Senate is in session this week though the House is in recess until April 29. The Senate deadline for the third reading of substantive bills is on Thursday, April 25 – meaning that all Senate bills must be voted on by the full Senate Chamber by Thursday. Otherwise bills will be sent back...

The Illinois Senate is in session this week though the House is in recess until April 29. The Senate deadline for the third reading of substantive bills is on Thursday, April 25 – meaning that all Senate bills must be voted on by the full Senate Chamber by Thursday. Otherwise bills will be sent back to the Senate Assignments Committee, where it is unlikely that they will move further.

Pending Senate committee hearing on the House’s virtual learning moratorium bill

House Bill 494, the virtual learning moratorium bill opposed by the Illinois Policy Institute, currently remains in the Senate Assignments Committee, which will refer the bill to a substantive committee whose members will determine the bill’s next steps. So far, this legislation has been sponsored by state Sens. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, D-Plainfield, and Linda Holmes, D-Aurora. This sponsorship suggests the Senate’s desire for this bill to gain momentum in its chamber, as it unfortunately did in the House.

The Institute’s Government Affairs and Policy teams were very vocal in their opposition to this legislation while it was in the House; our teams have now shifted gears to hopefully kill the bill in the Senate by educating lawmakers about multidistrict virtual charter schools, such as the one that has been proposed in the Fox River Valley. While it is unlikely that this bill will be heard in committee this week, we expect it to be assigned to the Senate Education Committee by next week, at the earliest. Josh Dwyer, director of education reform at the Institute, will be in Springfield tomorrow and Wednesday holding one-on-one meetings with members of the Senate Education Committee to explain why this bill should never reach the floor.

Gaining momentum on pension legislation

New language – identical to House Bill 3303, the pension reform bill sponsored by state Rep. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine – has emerged by way of a floor amendment filed on to Senate Bill 2026 by Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-North Aurora. Although HB 3303 never received a formal committee vote, this is a positive development on the pension front that reveals how the Institute’s persistence in pushing for real reform continues to resonate with members of the General Assembly who realize the need to transition to a defined-contribution system and to oppose a funding guarantee, which would make pensions a priority over education, health care and public safety spending. The problem with fake or partial pension reforms? The crisis never goes away. The Institute is the single loudest voice in Illinois sounding the alarm on fake reform.

Senate schedule indicative of upcoming budget talks

Finally, the focus for Senate committee hearings this week will be the upcoming budget crafting process, as indicated by the Senate schedule, which has both of its appropriations committees meeting. Committee members will hear testimony from various state agencies on funding requests for the fiscal year 2014 budget. I will update you on this week’s happenings in Springfield on Friday.