2014 legislative victories

The driving goal of the Illinois Policy Institute is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law. The ultimate sign of success is when free market ideas are enacted into laws that change Illinoisans’ lives for the better. Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda emphasized the importance of a financially responsible and limited...

The driving goal of the Illinois Policy Institute is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law. The ultimate sign of success is when free market ideas are enacted into laws that change Illinoisans’ lives for the better.

Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda emphasized the importance of a financially responsible and limited government, focusing on promoting the efficient delivery of core government services while advancing pro-growth fiscal policies. Accordingly, IPA’s government affairs team advocated on behalf of legislative initiatives that advanced these fundamental principles and fought against legislation that hindered or jeopardized our goals.

Our vision is for Illinois to become a destination state for entrepreneurs and businesses, characterized by economic opportunity that results in upward mobility. We strive to make freedom and fairness a reality for all Illinoisans. There’s a long way to go before our vision is fully realized, but this year IPA’s government affairs team made meaningful headway in building a solid foundation for transformational change in Illinois.

Good government campaign:

We protect the public’s right to know about government finances and operations while promoting policies that drive better performance of state and local government agencies.

• A key portion of the Local Government Transparency Act, based on the Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist, passed both houses unanimously and awaits a signature from Gov. Pat Quinn. Introduced by state Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, the bill requires all counties with a website to post comprehensive annual financial audits and management letters online. It also requires auditors to address the board about the annual audit findings at a public meeting. This bill will give Illinois citizens a much better opportunity to understand how their local government is spending their hard-earned tax dollars.

• Another key portion of the Local Government Transparency Act passed the House unanimously. State Sen. Michael Connelly, R-Wheaton, introduced and championed this legislation, which would require all local government entities to post to their website a means for electronically communicating with its elected officials. In order to empower its citizens to meaningfully participate in the political decision-making process and hold their politicians accountable, local governments must give access to 21st century means of connecting. Although this legislation stalled in the Senate this spring, we look forward to advancing it in the upper chamber next session.

• State Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein, introduced the Institute-inspired Local Government Transparency Act. The Institute rallied a number of coalition supporters for the bill, including: Illinois Public Interest Research Group, For the Good of Illinois, Open Local Illinois, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois and the Institute for Truth in Accounting. Substantial bipartisan support for the bill was found in both chambers of the General Assembly, but unfortunately, a key committee hearing was canceled, so the bill did not meet a legislative deadline. However, significant momentum was built so that we can help pass this legislation in Illinois next session. If this legislation passes, it will mark the adoption of the strongest local government online transparency legislation in the nation.

Jobs and growth campaign:

We develop and recommend innovative, market-based solutions that prioritize employment and economic growth, leading to a more robust Illinois economy.

• We defeated a bill that would incrementally raise the state’s minimum wage to $10.65 per hour and eliminate thousands of entry-level opportunities for young workers. Our policy papers, compelling media appearances and aggressive lobbying promoted awareness of how increasing the minimum wage worsens the jobs crisis among Illinois’ inner-city youth, lower-skilled employees and minorities.

• Our team worked with the American Beverage Association to help block a soda tax, saving thousands of jobs in Illinois’ beverage industry. Additionally, our policy team and Illinois News Network highlighted the absurdity of state regulations that put an 11-year-old cupcake baker out of business. This led the General Assembly to pass a law allowing home bakers to sell up to $1,000 in baked goods per month, easing the regulatory and tax burdens on small business owners and entrepreneurs across Illinois.

• We worked with the Small Business Advocacy Council to support a bill that would reduce start-up costs for new limited liability companies in Illinois. This bill passed out of the Senate unanimously and has received 33 co-sponsors in the House. Our team helped this concept gain traction. We built enough momentum for the proposal to be considered during budget negotiations, giving it a much greater chance of passing during an upcoming legislative session.

Health care reform campaign:

We promote consumer choice and competition in the health care market to ensure a healthier, happier Illinois.

• Our team introduced model legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville, which encourages any lawmaker who seeks to further expand ObamaCare in Illinois to voluntarily forgo their taxpayer-provided health-care benefits and enroll in the individual health insurance exchange. In late May, Illinois Policy’s Director of Health Policy, Naomi Lopez Bauman, testified before the House Insurance Committee on this legislation. Failing on a tied, party-line vote, the legislation remains in committee. Over the summer, IPA’s government affairs team will continue to garner support for this measure in the form of additional co-sponsors, ensuring that it will receive further consideration during the upcoming veto session. 

• We continued our fight against a state-based exchange, which would cost Illinois taxpayers an estimated $100 million – squeezing out spending in other areas with no benefit to patients. By educating lawmakers and the public about the true cost of ObamaCare in Illinois, we helped to create an environment that made supporting a state-based exchange politically toxic.

Choice in education campaign:

We advance quality education options for children in Illinois through policies that reward success while empowering parents and students.

• Our team continued to work with private school administrators, parents and students in the state’s lowest-performing school districts, building the infrastructure and groundswell needed in order to pass a school-choice bill during an upcoming legislative session.

• Due in part to the immense pressure exerted by IPA and its allies, only a few of the dozen anti-charter school bills advanced this spring. Those that did pass were adopted with substantive amendments that greatly reduced the scope and severity of the legislation, significantly softening the blow to our efforts to expand school choice in Illinois. Additionally, we defeated a bill that would have eliminated Illinois’ Charter School Commission altogether.

• IPA drafted and introduced model legislation – the state’s first course-choice legislation – which would have established an online marketplace where students from rural Illinois could take classes not offered at their school, essentially “voucherizing” courses. This bill was endorsed by all of the major education reform organizations, including: STAND for Children, Ed Choice Illinois and Advance Illinois. We plan to both continue our work with this coalition and earn more support for this idea with legislators over the summer.

Budget and tax campaign:

We maintain a commitment to Illinois’ constitutionally protected, flat, fair tax-rate structure.

• We defeated the millionaire/small business tax.

• We defeated efforts to amend Illinois’ Constitution to levy a progressive income tax.

• We held lawmakers accountable and defeated the proposed extension of the 2011 income tax hike. This victory guarantees the tax relief that was promised to Illinois families and returns a week’s worth of pay to Illinoisans’ wallets come January.

Labor reform campaign:

We champion a free market in labor representation and protect the rights of workers, employers and taxpayers.

• We made significant strides in advancing our contract transparency initiative this session, adding six new co-sponsors and receiving five more “yes” votes during its committee hearing compared to last year. This bill, championed by state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, would ensure that the public has an opportunity to review and comment on tentative union contracts prior to their ratification. If enacted, this bill would enable the public to hold union bosses and elected officials more accountable to the taxpayers who fund the contracts that they write. This would lead to collective bargaining agreements that allow government agencies and their various departments to function more efficiently and cost-effectively.

• We killed a bill that would have allowed arbitrators to set minimum staffing levels for local fire departments, which would have weakened local control and worsened the financial burden on taxpayers. Arbitration of bargaining disputes means that important contract terms are decided by outsiders who are neither beholden to taxpayer interests nor bear the consequences of their decisions. This bill would have made arbitration even more dangerous. Local officials would have been at risk of potentially being forced to both unnecessarily hire more firefighters and dole out hefty raises. We worked with municipal leaders to call attention to the hazards of this legislation, which we ultimately defeated in defense of taxpayers and their respective local governments.

• Thousands of families throughout Illinois benefit from a program that provides state support to disabled people and family members who care for them, but executive orders signed by Govs. Quinn and Blagojevich allow for these family-member caregivers to be unionized. Unionization should be reserved for employees, and these caregivers are simply not employees, but mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. House Minority Leader, state Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, introduced a resolution supporting Pamela Harris in her lawsuit against the Quinn administration over the unionization of home-based caregivers, and called on the governor to rescind his executive order. Our support of this resolution helped call attention to the first amendment rights of Illinois families.

Pension reform campaign:

We seek to modernize Illinois’ retirement system by eliminating political control over pensions and giving government workers the secure retirement they deserve.

• We were relentless in our fight to stop fake Chicago pension reform. Following the passage of an inadequate Chicago pension reform plan that gives Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Council the green light to hike property taxes, IPA launched a holistic marketing campaign to urge Gov. Pat Quinn to veto the bill. Quinn has until June 9 to sign this bill, so we’ve upped the pressure to persuade him to do the right thing for government employee unions and taxpayers. This May, another fake Chicago pension reform proposal was introduced by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, which we were successful in defeating before it even had a chance to take off; Preckwinkle’s bill never received a floor vote by the House.
• We also mobilized Chicago residents – private-sector workers and government employees, Democrats and Republicans – to speak out. Hundreds of Chicagoans have been connected with the governor’s office by phone and email, and more than 30,000 people have watched our hard-hitting videos at chicagotaxhike.com. We will continue our fight for real pension reform that makes the most sense for the city, government workers and taxpayers.