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State Inauguration Day Brings Pride, New Concerns
The Illinois General Assembly was sworn in Wednesday and may need to hit the ground running.

The lame duck session ended on Tuesday and the previous General Assembly has been described as punting on pension reform and other important measures.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns in recent weeks that failing to act on pension reform soon could potentially hurt Illinois' credit rating.

Shortly after taking his oath of office, State Representative Don Moffitt said he was disappointed they couldn't make more progress.

"All the stakeholders, all the parties, need to be represented at the table, and have the opportunity to lay their ideas on the table," Moffitt said. "We have to keep in mind that we can't just simply pass a law and say, 'There. We've solved it.' It must meet the Constitutional test and the legal test, so it's very important that it be crafted in such a way that we believe it would meet that."

Moffitt said he wasn't necessarily surprised they weren't able to get more done.

37th District State Senator Darin LaHood said he was honored to be sworn in, but said to do nothing is no longer an answer.

"We are facing a fiscal crisis like no other in the State of Illinois," LaHood said. "In our history, we have not faced a fiscal crisis like we do right here. It is imperative that we, in a bi-partisan way, try to solve these problems."

According to The Associated Press, Governor Pat Quinn has said he believes new lawmakers will help solve the $96 billion pension crisis.

Illinois has had its credit rating downgraded nine times in the last two years.
01 10 13 by Newsroom
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