Page 23 - January 2016

deeper
comes to public employees. At least one concrete proposal from the governor for pension reform for state employees contained language that would prohibit collective bargaining over wages and seniority for state employees. While the language would not apply to the FOP, it’s really hard to imagine what a union can do to rep- resent its members if it cannot bargain for wages.
The bottom line is that these interrelated budget and labor rela- tions issues have caused a snag that is difficult to untangle. The longer the state goes without a budget, the harder it will be to resolve the stalemate. For example, by not resolving the budget in calendar year 2015, the income tax rate for calendar year 2015 was cut. This means $5 billion less in revenue, or a loss of $1 of every $6. The ability to increase income tax revenue for 2015 is now gone, and somehow the state has to recoup that $5 billion. Closing the gap would be difficult enough even if you could raise income tax rates, but it becomes close to impossible when you can’t change the rates and you don’t have a budget.
It’s possible we’ll have hoverboards before we have a solution to the budget stalemate.d
Vasyl Markus is the Director of Special Projects for the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability.
Bills to watch in 2016
LODGE 7 LEGISLATIVE REPORT
DAVE SULLIVAN
It certainly goes without saying that there has been a lot going on with issues related to law enforcement lately. Since the release of the videos showing the shooting of Laquan McDonald by Officer Van Dyke, there has been much news coverage. The mayor has said he is sorry and Superintendent McCarthy has been shown the door. Some have called for the mayor and state’s attorney to resign. The state’s attorney is in the middle of a tough re-election campaign with two opponents in the March Primary.
On the legislative side, several bills and resolutions have been introduced, and I expect more will come. HR 898 and HB 4358 attempt to address the issue of rules regarding the non-lethal use of force and HB 4355 sets up new procedures regarding filing Freedom of Information Acts to release police videos. SB 2207 requires Chica- go to require body cams to be worn by all police officers and to adopt policies not inconsistent with guidelines of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board.
There will be more bills with new ideas.
The Illinois State Legislature does not come back into session until mid-January. d
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2016 23