Just as hope emerged that the Illinois legislature might get actually something done this month, Senate President Emil Jones announced via memo today that he has no plans to call the Senate back to Springfield until November.
Most had interpreted rules set out in the state constitution to mean that the Senate had to return within 15 days or House measures approved earlier this week would die. The House had voted to: override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's amendatory vetoes on two key ethics reform bills, approve a potential lease of the state's lottery system, and restore $221 million worth of budget cuts to state parks, drug treatment programs, and other state-sponsored services.
But Jones argues in the memo that the 15-day rule kicks into effect when "the message is read in to the Senate record," referring to Art. IV, Sec. 9 of the constitution. Here's how he explains his interpretation in the memo sent out to Senate members today:
The Senate has 15 days, starting when the message is read in to the Senate record at the direction of the Senate President to consider the action of the House on vetoed House Bills.
Regardless of the rules, Cindi Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform says that lawmakers are skirting their responsibilities by immediately heading downstate to address the House actions. "It doesn't matter what the Constitution says ... They have a lot of urgent issues to deal with."
More from the Daily Herald's John Patterson:
Jones' spokeswoman argues that the Senate approved more than enough money to balance state spending back in May, but the House only took up the spending portion, sending on to the governor a budget nearly $2 billion out of whack. The above cuts ensued.
Post new comment