United States Senate

Illinois legislators among highest paid in the nation

By Benjamin VanMetre
12/06/2012
The dust has settled from an uneventful veto session. No progress was made. The one attempt at reforming Illinois’ out-of-control pensions that legislators put forward is a step in the right direction, but ultimately would perpetuate the crisis by failing to prescribe the right medicine for the problem at hand. And the efforts to make things...

Veto session: legislative recap

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
12/06/2012
There was very little legislative activity during the past two weeks of veto session in Springfield. However, several bills have been further positioned to move during special session in January, when lame duck legislators will retain voting power, even though they were voted out of office in November. The following is a recap of the...

Veto session: sneak peek of week two

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
12/03/2012
Last week in Springfield, there was very little legislative activity during the first week of veto session. Such limited action took place that the House canceled Thursday session, and it is rumored that the Legislature will only meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week as well. It is expected that the current two-week veto...

Veto session: recap of week one

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
11/30/2012
The Illinois Policy Institute opposed eight bills and appeared in several committee meetings during the first week of veto session. Our policy team had crucial face time with legislators and discussed our positions on public policy that affects all Illinoisans. We also reached out to many members of the House Republican staff. Here is an...

Veto session: legislative update

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
11/28/2012
Veto session commenced yesterday morning in Springfield. Typically, we would expect to see movement on controversial bills during this time because of the lame duck legislators who have been voted out of office but still retain voting power. However, impending Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature means that we expect to see movement...

What you need to know about Quinn and AFSCME

By Paul Kersey
11/21/2012
Q: I heard that Gov. Pat Quinn terminated the state’s contract with AFSCME. What just happened? A: The governor’s office announced that it was not going to continue to extend the contract with AFSCME Leadership Council 31. About 40,000 state employees that AFSCME represents are now working without a contract. Q: How did we get...

Election yields Democratic supermajorities in Illinois General Assembly

By Matt Paprocki
11/07/2012
After yesterday’s election, Democrats will have a supermajority in both the Illinois House and Senate after inauguration on Jan. 8, 2013. Senate Democrats picked up five seats and will have 40 seats in January – Senate Republicans will control only 19 seats. Illinois House Republicans lost seven seats yesterday, and House Speaker Michael Madigan will...