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| IL GOP Wants No More Votes By "Lame Ducks" |
(IRN) -- Lame ducks would be dead ducks, under a Constitutional amendment some Downstate Republicans want Illinois voters to decide.
The income tax hike which passed the legislature in the final hours of the 96th General Assembly -- Tuesday night in the House and in the wee hours Wednesday in the Senate -- got the minimum votes needed to pass: sixty in the House and thirty in the Senate. Of those voting Yes, twelve representatives and one senator were not coming back when the 97th General Assembly was sworn in at midday Wednesday.
Representatives led by Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) want to change that. Rose has filed a Constitutional amendment which, if the legislature and governor approve, would allow voters to decide that the outgoing General Assembly could not convene between an election and the inauguration of the new one.
The proposal, discussed at news conferences in Champaign and Decatur Friday, comes in light of not just the tax increase, but also the death penalty repeal and civil unions, also approved during the post-election veto session or the January lame duck session.
It is unlikely House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) will allow Rose's idea to survive. Madigan scheduled eight working days between New Year's and the inauguration, an unusual move. One of the Republicans, State Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth), says, "I worried that what happened would happen," when he saw the January days pop onto the calendar, "and it did."
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 01 15 11 by Newsroom |
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