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Area Lawmakers Offer Different Views Of Statehouse Special Session Activities

Jenna Dooley / WNIJ

Thursday was the second of ten scheduled special sessions for the Illinois Legislature called by the governor to address the lack of a budget.

Credit senatorstadelman.com
State Sen. Steve Stadelman

At least one northern Illinois lawmaker believes that the ball is not in his court, for the moment. State Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford, says that -- as far as he and his colleagues are concerned -- they’ve done their job, and people wanting action on the budget should look to the House and the governor.

“A balanced budget plan passed the Senate,” Stadelman said. “It contained much of what Republicans and the governor wanted as far as reforms, and it’s now in the House. And it should be the House and the governor that try to move the issue forward.”

He says senators in his party are open to changes or additions to their plan, but they’re waiting to see what, if anything, there will be to discuss.

State Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley, says the House held committee meetings on K-12 education funding, workers’ compensation and other topics. But he says that, while there was testimony and some discussion, there was no real movement on the ostensible reason for the session.

Credit pritchardstaterep.org
State Rep. Bob Pritchard

“It just seems that the leadership is not wanting to schedule actual debate on substantive bills,” he said. “We were in general session talking about a number of resolutions that had nothing to do with the financial condition of our state.”

Pritchard says a number of the rank-and-file on both sides are trying to reach across the aisle, but the partisanship in the Capitol is still very evident.

“In talking to people one-on-one, we all seem to be in agreement,” he said, “but when it comes time to actually dealing with legislation that’s been introduced, Republican bills languish in the Rules Committee or buried in a sub-committee.”

Pritchard says he remains hopeful that the budget will be addressed in this session. But he says he thinks it’s going to take pressure from angry voters to get things moving.

Back in the Senate, Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, says lawmakers have reached bipartisan agreement on a school funding formula to replace Senate Bill 1 based on district wealth, potential to generate revenue, and the cost of education for each child.

Credit senatordavesyverson.com
State Sen. Dave Syverson

But Syverson says the biggest change is how much funding Chicago schools get. “They still see an increase,” he said, “but instead of them getting $500 million more, they’re going to get a little over $100 million more.”

Democrats argue that Chicago has greater pension liability than other districts, but Syverson says no district should get special treatment.

Syverson said data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows that the new proposal, known as Senate Bill 1124 Amendment 3, would increase funding for every school district in Illinois but wouldn’t give Chicago hundreds of millions of extra dollars.

“This is a good bill that expands on areas of agreement to finally create a more equitable way to fund all of our schools,” Syverson said.

Like Senate Bill 1, the new proposal would employ an evidence-based school model using 27 data sets to determine the needs of each district. Both bills also use the same methods to drive funds to low-income students and to determine cost differences in different parts of the state.

  • WNIJ reporters Guy Stephens, Dana Vollmer and Jessie Schlacks contributed to this story.
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