Legislative Updates
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Legislative Update #13
The Governors’ Introduced Budget
I could do a twenty page analysis on this topic, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that many do not agree with the programs and line items that the Governor excised from the budget. Funding to local governments and especially to Elementary and Secondary education are the very lifeblood of communities. Local governments stand to lose about 300 million dollars of funds that, in many ways, are analogous to revenue sharing of the ‘70s. Many local governments have already made cuts to their services. I suppose that they are to go to the property tax to make up the underfunding. Yes, that’s a statement dripping with sarcasm. But, home rule communities have to face the public again with additional requests, and non home rule communities are capped out of the game entirely.
Here are some fast facts about the 1.226 billion dollars in cuts to education: Mandated Categoricals (special ed. transportation, Illinois Free Lunch, etc.) cut 21%, Bilingual Education, cut 30%, Reading Improvement Block Grant, cut 53%, After School Matters, cut 20%, Special Education, cut 22%, Arts and Foreign Languages, cut 16%, Educator Quality and Support, cut 16%, Alternative Learning/Regional Safe Schools, cut 37%, Alternative Schools Network, cut 30%, Truant Alternative and Alternate Education, cut 53%; you get the picture. I like the Governor; he’s way off base in this regard, however. It is his introduced budget; the budget is not developed by the General Assembly. If there is anything that cries out for HB174, this is it. Frankly, the 1% surcharge posited by the Governor is unrealistic and inadequate. Some pundits say that he is playing the mayors support of the 1% in exchange for the 300 million in local government funding. To paraphrase Bones McCoy from Star Trek, “I’m a legislator Jim, not a pundit”. I couldn’t care less whether that was true or not. I don’t want to play “chicken” with our children’s education. It is a very vexing scenario to be in. I will do all that I can to advance the issues and policies that are advantageous to the 38th District and the Southland as a whole. Stay tuned.
HB5735 - Another Legislative Tool to Combat Foreclosures:
In the midst of all the controversy that ensued in Springfield prior to Spring recess, there was a lot of good legislation that passed out of the House. I will talk about some measures that I successfully sponsored that are now in the Senate. The first is HB5735; originally sponsored by former Rep. Deborah Graham and proposed by the Sargent Shriver National Center for Poverty Law Center. As you know, I have been in the forefront of passing some very effective legislation in the past along with my colleague Senator Maggie Crotty regarding foreclosures. Therefore, it was a natural for me to take over this bill as the Chief Sponsor in the House. HB5735 is a bill that I think will go far in protecting communities from the scourge of foreclosures. Here is my analysis for background. There are a couple of very effective federal programs assisting homeowners in making an attempt to keep their homes. One of them is the federal Making Home Affordable Program. This program gives eligible homeowners, with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, an opportunity to refinance their mortgages into more affordable monthly payments. This is a one-time loan modification program. However, we have found that people participating in the program still may have had their houses sold out from under them. In other words, the judicial sale continued as the homeowner was still in the loan modification process. In effect, though it might have been good for the entity purchasing the home, the judicial sale does nothing to keep the current owner in their house; providing them a second chance. In addition, there still would be a period of time that the house would not be occupied. This continues the unfortunate specter of myriad empty homes existing within a community.
HB5735, upon request of the homeowner, allows a judge to set aside the judicial sale while the mortgage holder is making an attempt to have their loan restructured. There are two provisions that must be met; first, the homeowner must have applied for assistance in the Making Home Affordable Program. Second, if the real estate had been sold, it must have been sold in “material violation” of the federal programs requirements for proceeding to a judicial sale. I only encountered minor opposition to the bill and it passed with a hefty margin in a bipartisan manner. The bill is now being sponsored in the Senate by the very able Jacqueline Collins. She has been my collaborator on many effective consumer oriented pieces of legislation in the past. Senator Maggie Crotty is one of the cosponsors. I will keep you posted as the progress of this legislation develops. A few more points: Loan modification programs are often looked at as a ‘handout’ to irresponsible people – nothing could be further from the truth. We know that many homeowners were over extended as a result of buying more house than they could afford; trying to “keep up with the Joneses”. But the truth is, many foreclosures were due to economic factors, job loss, and the policies of unscrupulous lenders. Often, there is the situation where two or more of these adverse factors occur simultaneously. This is called the “plus one” factor. There are some great empirical studies by researchers at the Texas A&M Real Estate Center and the Washington D.C. based Center for Responsible Lending which further give rise to this view. In the end, my view is that bills such as this are measures which aid community stability - something that is extremely important to us in the south suburbs.
HJR92 - Statewide Hearings and Incidence Study of Lupus - My HJR92 urges the Department of Human Services, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and the Department of Public Health to assess existing State and Federal assistance programs regarding the treatment and study of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (“lupus”). There is a wide disparity in incidence based on gender and ethnicity; more women than men develop lupus. Among people with lupus, the ratio of women relative to men is 90% to 10%. Though the disease affects all racial and ethnic groups, the incidence among African American, Asian, Hispanic and Native American women is three times greater than that of White women. There are health care service delivery and epidemiologic issues involved here. These issues will be examined and reported out by the beginning of 2011 if my resolution is successful. Toi Hutchinson is the Senate sponsor.
HB5448 – Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders Pamphlet. HB5448 is a bill that empowers the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Illinois (NOFAS ILLINOIS) to provide free educational pamphlets concerning fetal alcohol syndrome to county clerks for distribution to marriage license applicants. This is already in state statute, but is spottily done or sometimes not done for many reasons. This bill also calls for county boards to audit the county clerk’s offices to see whether the pamphlets are being distributed currently. If they are not due to economic or production related reasons, NOFAS Illinois will provide that county with pamphlets free of charge. NOFAS Illinois and the county clerks will then determine the best way to ensure efficient distribution. Maggie Crotty is the Senate sponsor.
Other bills of general interest:
HB6103 provides that if a veteran receives services by a state mental health or developmental disabilities facility that are not covered under the veteran’s existing health plan, that veteran will not be liable for those charges after the effective date of the bill. One of the proponents was the VFW. The bill amends the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code and would be effective July 1, 2010.
HB5111 provides that no school district is obligated to comply with any statutory or regulatory mandate or requirement unless a separate appropriation had been enacted which provides funding for the school year that the mandate is required. A couple of subsequent amendments to the original measure provide that the prohibition is only applicable to those mandates enacted after the effective date of the Act. It also does not extend to any current laws related to employment. It also states that the prohibition does not extend to any mandates emanating from the new federal Race To The Top program. This bill passed from the House overwhelmingly, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have potential flaws. Hopefully, the Senate sponsor can make a few amendments to insure that clarity is the order of the day and that districts can educate rather than constantly getting rulings on State edicts. The effective date is immediately upon signing.
HB5696 provides that the Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health, beginning on July 1 2010, will reinstate the Community Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Services (“CHIPS’) program using the same reimbursement methodology that was in force on May 1, 2009. They must also make timely payments to private community hospitals and other health professionals using that May 1, 2009 methodology.
HB5428 is a bill that Representative Sara Feigenholtz has worked on for years. This bill establishes the right of an adult child of adoption to get their birth records. This bill will also develop a comprehensive means of public information to insure knowledge of this right, inclusive of the establishment of an “Original Birth Certificate-Access Public Information Committee”. As you can imagine, there was very passionate and emotional debate on both sides of the issue. At the same time, the debate was extremely civil, as it should be, given the gravity of the topic.
All of the aforementioned bills are out of the House and in the Senate.
Thank you for your attention and support. Legislative Update #14 will be the long awaited findings from my legislative survey. You will find them interesting.
State Representative Al Riley