...State leaders have important 

reasons for wanting to see their state 

populations grow rather than shrink. A 

growing population usually means more commerce, more economic vitality, and a 

bigger tax base to pay for state services. 

A shrinking population not only hurts 

government coffers, but can weaken 

a state politically by virtue of the 

potential loss of U.S. House members 

through redistricting every 10 years...

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While the deadline passed without Senate action on a graduated income tax proposal, Illinoisans are not out of the tax hike woods. Democrats continue to push to make the 67% temporary tax increase of 2011 permanent, even as prosecutor's subpoena records tied to state programs. 

What Illinois needs are more jobs and a stronger economy, not mismanagement and higher taxes. If you agree, tell the Democrats to roll back the temporary tax as they promised by signing our petition.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office subpoenaed records tied to Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled Neighborhood Initiative Program and then withdrew the request when the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity promised to provide the information, according to a published report Tuesday.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the subpoena asked for program files, notes, memos and correspondence, and the identities of related field auditors and compliance monitors. Officials say the information was given to the state’s attorney Tuesday.

“The director of DCEO Adam Pollet has no tolerance for any misconduct or misuse of funds by our grantees,” Dave Roeder, spokesman for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said. “We are actively working with the state’s attorney’s office to provide all the records and information it requests.” The Washington Times has the AP story.

On the heels of what might prove to be the first in a long line of tax increase votes, Illinois House Republicans are launching an online petition drive AGAINST the effort to make the Illinois temporary tax increase of 2011 permanent.

On January 11, 2011 Illinois Democrats raised the state income tax by 67% during a lame duck session in what sponsors claimed would be a short term solution to paying Illinois’ bills. Three years later, Illinois continues to carry nearly $7 billion in unpaid bills while struggling with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 8.4%.

Representative Rich Brauer responded to threats that the State government will have to make significant cuts: "Its about priorities. When you look at state government spending in the last 10-12 years, spending has exploded. They are looking at things that are designed to hurt and I think there are some scare tactics in there."  Read more.

Rep. John Cavaletto serves the 107th District which includes the communities of Centralia, Greenville, Effingham, Salem and Vandalia.

A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Rep. Cavaletto taught students at Mater Dei High School in Bresse and was a school administrator at Salem High School. He also coached boys basketball for many years.

Before we get to the issues, if you like what you read in our Week in Review please click here to subscribe to have it delivered to your inbox each week.  

Budget/income tax rates
Growing pressure by Democrats to extend existing income tax rates.  Although more than 550,000 Illinois men and women remain unemployed, Democrats in the General Assembly are working with Gov. Quinn to exert growing pressure on the State to perpetuate the 67-percent “temporary” tax increase enacted in January 2011.

This tax-hike bill, which raised the individual income tax rate from 3.0 percent to 5.0 percent was passed without a single Republican vote in either house of the General Assembly. When signed by Gov. Quinn, the measure was described as a four-year-long, short-term measure to deal with the financial crisis created by the Great Recession.

The Democrat majority promised they would pay the bills, reduce our debt and strengthen our economy with the temporary tax passed in 2011. They also said it would be rolled back. Now they want to make the tax permanent. If you agree we need to do something different, please sign the petition to Let the Temporary Tax Expire. 

The House Mass Transit Committee met in Chicago this week to discuss an RTA Mass Transit Reform Report and Plan, but none of the people who authored the report bothered to show up.

The RTA Mass Transit Reform Plan was created by Governor Quinn’s 15-member Northeastern Illinois Public Transit Task Force. While representatives from the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), PACE and Metra were on hand at the meeting to answer committee questions, State Representative Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake), who serves as the Republican Spokesperson for the House Mass Transit Committee, said he was extremely disappointed that task force members were not there to answer questions. Read the rest of the story.

This month in Illinois History, Kaskaskia is founded, Ninian Edwards is appointed, permanent school fund is created, Illinois & Michigan canal is put to use, Civil War begins, President Lincoln is assassinated, William Holden is born, Daylight savings time is made uniform, Jane Byne & Harold Washington are elected Chicago mayors and tornadoes cause death and damage in Utica and LaSalle counties. 

State Representative Renée Kosel, of New Lenox, Illinois, is currently serving her ninth term as State Representative of the 37th Legislative District, previously the 81st District.  She was first elected to her legislative office on November 5, 1996 and took office in January, 1997.  In January, 2013, she was reappointed to serve as Assistant House Republican Leader.

Renée is very involved in community activities.  She is a former member of the Lincoln-Way High School Board of Education and served on the Lincoln-Way Foundation for Educational Excellence Board of Directors.  She and her husband are members of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Lenox and she is a member of the New Lenox Rotary Club.  She currently serves on the Advocate Christ Medical Center Cancer Institute Foundation Board, Alliance of the Illinois State Dental Society, and the Illinois Rifle Association.  She is also a past member of the Frankfort, Homer Township, Mokena, and New Lenox Chambers of Commerce and current member of the Mokena Woman’s Club.  Additionally, she serves as a member of Advocate Christ Medical Center Governing Council (serving as Chair 2007-2009, and currently Vice Chair), and is a Scholarship America Advisory Board member. Read more about Rep. Kosel.

News From Rep. Kosel
Current Legislation Sponsored by Rep. Kosel
Rep. Kosel's Committees

Illinois Democrats only have one play in their playbook. Its time to do something different.
Sign the petition.

Sign the Petition

As Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly enter into the final weeks of their regular session, they may want to put the state on a new path.

Quinn and the Democrats appear to be headed for some [kind] of tax increase. Quinn wants to make the temporary tax increase imposed in 2011 permanent. Other Democrats are seeking a progressive tax plan in the state, which may well be another way to raise taxes.

The Wall Street Journal in a recent editorial, called ``What's wrong with Illinois?'' showed the danger behind such a plan. Read more of the Herald-Review editorial.

The Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records, according to an internal state government memo.

The memo dated Friday, which The Associated Press obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, says the state auditor compared clients enrolled in the Medicaid database last June with state death records dating back to 1970. Auditors identified overpayments for services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths.

Illinois Taxes
House Republicans launch petition drive against tax hike.  On the heels of what might prove to be the first in a long line of tax increase votes, Illinois House Republicans are launching an online petition drive against the effort to make the Illinois temporary tax increase of 2011 permanent.

“What Illinois needs right now are leaders committed to creating jobs, not running them out,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin.  “What we have instead is an assault on the taxpayers of Illinois in the form of numerous and continued attempts to raise taxes.  This has to stop.”

Rep. Ed Sullivan

In a stunning violation of House rules, Illinois House Democrats used a subject matter only meeting today to advance legislation aimed at steering $100 million in public funds towards luring the Obama Presidential Library to Chicago.

“The legacy of the Obama Presidential Library shouldn’t be kicked off in a cloud of controversy,” stated State Representative Ed Sullivan (R, Mundelein). “Not only was the meeting a misrepresentation, so was the false roll call taken.”

Sullivan was speaking specifically to the Illinois House Executive Committee vote today on House Bill 6010. The legislation was brought up in what appeared as a subject matter hearing only, meaning testimony was to be taken, but no votes were to be cast. At the meeting, only four of the committee’s eleven members were present.

Without a quorum present, and no Republicans to hold the rules accountable, the four present Democratic members claimed the committee roll call to be 9-0 (9 voting “yes” and 0 voting “no”) on the proposal, with even opposing Republicans not in attendance recorded as “yes” votes.

Rep. Brian Stewart

Multi-million dollar boondoggle jeopardizes police safety; wastes taxpayer funds

Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Freeport) has renewed public pressure on the Quinn Administration to quit wasting taxpayer dollars and jeopardizing the safety of frontline state law enforcement personnel by keeping idle 85 brand new cruisers waiting to be out into service for the Illinois State Police; while also acting to amend state law to reverse a snafu that prevents the existing funding mechanism used to purchase the cars to also prepare them for service.

Tim Schmitz, a fourth generation resident of Kane County and lifelong resident of Batavia fostered his commitment to public service from an early age. Tim has served on the Batavia Plan Commission, as an Alderman and was a Policy Analyst for the Illinois House of Representatives.

Tim received his degree in Public Administration and Political Science from Augustana College where he met his wife, Julianne. Tim and Julianne reside in Batavia with their children, Alex and Ryan. In addition to the commitments of being a husband, father, and State Representative, Tim remains a firefighter and emergency medical technician, a position he has held since 1984. Tim is a recipient of the Red Cross’ Hometown Heroes award, and in 2005 received the Fireman of the Year award. Read more about Rep. Schmitz.

News From Rep. Schmitz
Current Legislation Sponsored by Schmitz
Rep. Schmitz's Committees
Rep. Schmitz's District

Sign The Petition

On the heels of what might prove to be the first in a long line of tax increase votes, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin is launching an online petition drive against the effort to make the Illinois Temporary Tax increase of 2011 permanent.

“What Illinois needs right now are leaders committed to creating jobs, not running them out,” said Durkin. “What we have instead is an assault on the taxpayers of Illinois in the form of numerous and continued attempts to raise taxes. This has to stop.” Read the entire story.

Chart by WSJ based on Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Wall Street Journal explains why Illinois is not seeing the same economic growth as that of other states in the Great Lakes region:

If the states are laboratories of democracy, then a great comparative policy experiment is taking place in America's Great Lakes region. Democrats in Illinois have been pursuing their blue-state model of higher taxes and union-dominated government. Neighboring states since 2010 have gone for lower taxes and union reform.

Advancing a key aspect of the heroin legislative package sponsored by Rep. Dennis Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), the Illinois House has approved a measure that will allow the establishment of a Pilot Program to create a secure facility with on-site substance abuse treatment in DuPage County, Cook County, and a third location to be determined. The facilities will serve as a “last chance” option where individuals convicted of drug or property crimes would be allowed to serve their sentences in a treatment-intensive environment. Read more about the legislation.

Do you know how long you have to work this year in order to pay off your combined federal, state and local tax burden before you start earning any money for you and your family? 

This year, Illinois taxpayers have to work from January 1 through April 28 – a whopping 118 days – just to pay off their combined tax burden.

Illinois once again ranks low among the 50 states, coming in at #7 --

Illinois Taxes
Key Democrat Tax Hike Proposals Stall in General Assembly.  With time running out for constitutional amendments aimed at changing Illinois income tax laws, two major Democrat-sponsored tax hike proposals failed to advance in Springfield this week.

SJRCA 40 (Harmon), the so-called “fair tax” constitutional amendment, would abolish the Illinois individual income flat tax (current rate: 5.0 percent) and replace it with a graduated rate with higher taxes for most middle-class and upper-middle-class taxpayers and families.

HJRCA 51 (Madigan) would impose an additional 3.0 percent surtax upon upper income earners and small businesses. The surtax and individual income liability levels would be inscribed into the Constitution and would not be adjustable by statute.

Legislation sponsored by Representative Mike Tryon that would standardize rules and regulations for people who want to sell fresh fruits and vegetables at Farmers Markets across the state was approved by a unanimous vote in the Illinois House on Tuesday.

“Today in Illinois we have 102 counties and 100 health departments,” said Tryon. “Each department sets its own regulations for farmers markets, and for those vendors who wish to sell their goods in different counties, it is very difficult to ensure compliance.”

House Bill 5657 seeks to amend the Food Handling Regulation Enforcement Act by standardizing the regulations and fees associated with Farmers Markets in Illinois. With its unanimous adoption in the House, the bill now moves to the Senate, where Senator Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) will serve as the bill’s Chief Senate Sponsor.  Read more about this legislation.

Constituents visit their capitol nearly everyday whenever possible members take time out of their day to meet and interact with them.

State Representative Sandra Pihos was elected to the General Assembly in 2002 and is serving her sixth term in office. She has been a resident of Glen Ellyn for 41 years, has taught both elementary and middle school, and worked as a high school guidance counselor. She served on the Glenbard District 87 school board for 10 ½ years ending her tenure as president. In addition, she held the position of vice president of Pihos Enterprises, a restaurant management firm, from 1993-2000.

As a legislator, Sandy serves on a variety of committees, including Elementary and Secondary Education (Republican Spokesperson), Elementary and Secondary Appropriations, Consumer Protection, Accountability & Administrative Review, Small Business Empowerment & Workforce Development, Housing, and Tollway Oversight. Some of the committees she has been appointed to include the Legislative Audit Commission, the Special Education Funding Task Force, and the Workforce Development Board. Much of her legislation has focused on education, social security protection, and consumer protection, identity theft, affordable housing, health awareness, children’s health insurance and environmental issues.  Read more about Rep. Pihos.

News From Rep. Pihos
Current Legislation Sponsored by Rep. Pihos
Rep. Pihos' Committees
Rep. Pihos' District

Does Illinois make the list of states with the highest monthly wireless tax rates in the United States? With more and more Americans giving up their landlines and relying predominately on wireless phone service for home and work, cellular telephones and other wireless devices have become big business – not only for their manufacturers and carriers – but for states who levy taxes and fees to generate revenue from it.

The following totals represent the combined State-Local tax rates on monthly wireless service; excluding the federal wireless tax rate of 5.60% which applies equally to all states.  Here then, are the Top 10:

Republican Leaders Unveil Jobs Plan
Jump Starting Illinois’ Economy: Putting People Back to Work.  Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) have introduced a comprehensive legislative package of bills to help jump start Illinois’ economy and create jobs.  

“Last week Democrats proposed three different tax increases to generate new revenues for the state.  Unfortunately, none of these proposals do anything to help the nearly 570,000 individuals collecting unemployment in Illinois to find the jobs that they want and need.  We can’t tax our way into prosperity.  To solve our long term financial problems we need to grow our economy,” said Durkin.

Strong thunderstorms swept across the state on Thursday, dropping record amounts of rain in Peoria and causing substantial wind and hail damage throughout central and southern Illinois. Towns in the Effingham area measured around five inches of rain over two days.

This week, State Representative JoAnn Osmond (R-Gurnee) advanced legislation requiring the State Board of Education to recognize the international definition of dyslexia.  Currently, individual schools may adopt their own rules recognizing dyslexia as a learning disability, but due to budgetary constraints and a general lack of understanding of dyslexia, few schools provide dyslexia specific services.  Representative Osmond stated that by adopting the international definition of dyslexia at the state level, local schools will now have the guidance to begin helping students that suffer from dyslexia. Read more here.

Responding to numerous complaints from throughout the Fox Valley area, State Representative Kay Hatcher Wednesday advanced legislation to protect against fraud in Illinois’ food, medical and other public assistance programs, and to protect those who need assistance from being victimized by scam artists.

Representative Hatcher (R-Yorkville) won overwhelming House approval of HB 5682 which would put a stop to unauthorized persons soliciting business submitting applications and paperwork for benefits for others, in exchange for control over their benefit accounts and a continuing percentage of the benefit payments.

“This is a shake-down plain and simple, and those being victimized are seniors, those who aren’t fluent in English, and others who are vulnerable. They certainly may need assistance in filling out paperwork and dealing with state agencies, but in return they are being coerced into signing over complete control over their benefit accounts, and every few months, a percentage of their benefits. If they don’t continue to pay up, their benefits may be cancelled,” Representative Hatcher said.  “State agency officials and victims themselves have told my staff and I about their experiences, but under current law, these scam artists have not technically done anything illegal. The legislation we passed in the House today corrects that.” Read more.

Under legislation unanimously passed out of the House and now headed to the Senate, two explosive substances linked to worldwide acts of terrorism would be banned in Illinois and subject to a class 4 felony for possession.  HB 5406, sponsored by State Representative Adam Brown (R-Champaign), would ban the explosive substances triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD).

“Both TATP and HMTD have been used in a large number of suicide bombings and other attacks worldwide,” said Brown.  “Unfortunately, law enforcement is encountering these substances more and more.  Just two years ago we saw three instances of law enforcement coming into contact with these highly explosive chemicals in Illinois.  Last year, that number jumped to thirteen.  With no commercial or residential use for TATP or HMTD, there is no doubt that those possessing these chemicals intend to use them for malicious activities.” Read more about this legislation.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) introduced a comprehensive legislative package of bills to help jump start Illinois’ economy and create jobs.  

“Last week Democrats proposed three different tax increases to generate new revenues for the state.  Unfortunately, none of these proposals do anything to help the nearly 570,000 individuals collecting unemployment in Illinois to find the jobs that they want and need.   We can’t tax our way into prosperity.  To solve our long term financial problems we need to grow our economy,” said Durkin.

A life-long resident of Elmhurst, State Representative Dennis Reboletti has devoted his entire life to serving the community.

Prior to his election to the Illinois House of Representatives, Dennis was a career prosecutor. Upon his graduation from law school, Dennis was appointed an Assistant Attorney General under then-Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan and was responsible for defending the Illinois Department of Corrections from inmate lawsuits. He later served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for eight years prosecuting violent criminals as a member of his office’s Organized Crime Unit and earned membership in Illinois. elite Capital Litigation Trial Bar. While a prosecutor, Dennis also educated prospective law enforcement officers as an Adjunct Instructor in Triton Community College’s Criminal Justice Department.  Read more about Rep. Reboletti.

News From Rep. Reboletti
Current Legislation Sponsored by Rep. Reboletti
Rep. Reboletti's Committees