We all need to put the pressure on to overturn those three vetos. If we can get the RINOs in the collar counties to vote our way we can shove the vetos back at the the boy governor. I'm sure we'll see them try to breath life into Acevedo's HB 2414 Assault Weapons Ban again.
Illinois Legislature convenes this week to cover many issues
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
10/23/2005
SPRINGFIELD, ILL. -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich, plagued by low approval ratings as the 2006 election year approaches, will open this week's fall legislative session with an all-out push for his ambitious new child health-care plan.
But the Legislature's two-week "veto session" also will highlight an issue that could become a politically charged distraction from Blagojevich's health-care campaign: new ethics rules for the state's pension systems. Pensions and ethics are both areas that have added to the first-term Democrat's image problems lately.
Meanwhile, the Chicago-based governor could face a showdown with downstate members of his own party over gun-control. Blagojevich has vetoed several pro-gun bills, and socially conservative downstate Democrats probably will lead the efforts to overturn those vetoes.
The Illinois Legislature meets in regular session during the first half of each year, then returns to Springfield briefly in the fall. The stated purpose of the fall session is for legislators to either accept or overturn gubernatorial vetoes of legislation. However, the annual meeting also is spent forming ranks for the next year's political battles - especially when the next year is an election year for statewide offices.
The veto session this year runs Tuesday through Thursday this week and next week. Blagojevich plans to kick it off on Tuesday with an unusual speech to a joint session of the House and Senate to promote his new "All Kids" plan.
The proposal, unveiled this month, would guarantee that all children in Illinois have access to health insurance. The program is aimed at an estimated 253,000 children from families that make too much money to qualify for current government programs, but not enough to afford private insurance.
Though the concept of universal health care for children has been supported across the political spectrum, Republicans and others already are complaining that Blagojevich's plan is vague, particularly on the issue of cost. Blagojevich says he will pay for the $45 million program by converting the state's $8 billion Medicaid system to a managed-care model. But that answer isn't sitting well with critics who allege the administration is notorious for playing games with budget numbers.
"Everyone agrees it's a laudable goal . . . (but) we have no details" about Blagojevich's plan, said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for state Sen. Frank Watson, R-Greenville, the leader of the Senate's Republican minority. "This administration does not have a good track record with cost estimates."
Some Blagojevich critics have suggested that the late, hard campaign for the program is designed to help bolster Blagojevich in next year's elections. The administration has been focused entirely on the All Kids program in the days leading up to Tuesday's speech, trying to build support around the state and planning a large weekend rally in Chicago.
"'All Kids' is priority No. 1" for the fall session, said Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch. She noted it is unusual for a governor to give a special joint-session address on a single topic, and said Blagojevich's decision to do that "demonstrates the magnitude of what we're taking about."
Charles Wheeler, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield and former political journalist in the Capitol, said Blagojevich could use the All Kids speech this week to put out an early, potent campaign message: "Here's a guy who is fighting to make sure my kid has health insurance."
Ethics proposals
But that won't be the only topic up for discussion this week.
On Friday, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, unveiled ethics legislation that is likely to draw new attention to the governor's public relations problems lately. The measure would, among other things, put new restrictions on the private contractors and government officials who manage Illinois' state pension systems, as well as local government retirement systems throughout Illinois.
Under the measure, unveiled by Madigan's staff at a Springfield committee hearing Friday, lobbyists who work for pension contractors wouldn't be allowed to collect contingency fees. Among other provisions, pension trustees would have to file statements disclosing their economic interests, and investment consultants would be specifically barred from profiting personally from the investments that the pensions make.
Blagojevich himself has previously called for some of the very pension reforms outlined in the bill. But its timing now could be politically inconvenient for him, with recent federal indictments and media reports pointing to influence-peddling by Blagojevich friends and campaign donors involving the state's pension systems.
Among the indictment allegations is that political appointees shook down companies that handle investments for the state Teachers' Retirement System, and that some of that money was used to benefit "a high-ranking public official" whom sources have said is Blagojevich.
The governor also has had to deny lately that there was any impropriety in the hundreds of thousands of dollars his campaign fund has received from donors who are involved in managing the state's retirement funds.
Gun legislation
In other business during the veto session, legislators will debate whether to let stand Blagojevich's vetoes on several pro-gun bills, or vote them into law against the governor's wishes.
The three bills, passed earlier this year, would have required destruction of gun-purchase records, barred local communities from enacting gun-control statutes stronger than state law, and eased rules regarding waiting periods and firearm transportation. Blagojevich vetoed the bills, citing concerns about public safety, law enforcement and local community autonomy.
State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Norris City, a pro-gun advocate who co-sponsored some of that legislation, plans to attempt to override at least two of the vetoes, he said in a written statement last week.
"Generations of Southern Illinoisans have a long and proud tradition of safe and legal firearm ownership, but their rights are being abused," Phelps said in the statement. "It's very frustrating when gun control advocates, in their eagerness to restrict gun ownership, try to take away even basic rights." Gubernatorial vetoes can be overriden with a three-fifths vote of both chambers of the Legislature.
Blagojevich's speech is scheduled for noon on Tuesday.
The vetoed gun bills are SB57, SB2104 and HB340.
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