Page 23 - Demo

Is there hope in sight? Maybe off in the distance
A new year generally brings hope for the future. That may not be the correct word to use when describing what’s happening
in Springfield and with Illinois politics.
Democrats no longer have a 71-seat super majority, but they do still hold 67 seats. Sixty are needed to retain the majority. In the State Senate, the Democrats still hold a super majority with 37 seats. They lost two seats from their previous mark of 39, but needed to hold
DAVE
DAVE
SULLIVAN
SULLIVAN
Parts of the state’s government oper- ations still do not technically have
a budget as of Jan. 1; other parts are R funded, and still other sections are un- der court orders to be paid. The stale-
mate and mess continue. I wish I could report that there is an end in sight, that a grand compromise is just around the corner and the state will be able to move for- ward. That would be naïve or misguided. This, too, shall pass; just don’t count on it passing anytime soon.
This new year has brought some changes to our gov- ernment. In Illinois, the Democrats won a U.S. Senate seat and a Congressional seat on the North Shore, and won the State Comptroller’s Office. The Republicans, on the other hand, won a net four seats in the Illinois House and two seats in the Illinois Senate. In the House, the
at least 36 to retain their super majority.
As you may have seen, Gov. Rauner donated $50 million to his campaign fund at the end of 2016 in anticipation of his re-election effort in 2018. There are several names being mentioned as possible Demo- cratic opponents, including Chris Kennedy, J.B. Pritzker, Treasurer Mike Frerichs State Senators Kwame Raoul and Andy Manar. We can probably expect 2018 to be a long
and expensive campaign.
Regarding police issues, we do anticipate many aris-
ing. There certainly have been in the past. While we are thrilled that we were able to get the COLA bill passed, we know that there will be many more discussions in the fu- ture regarding policing. d
L
R
E
E
e
e
c
c
G

RE
R
R
T
IS
d
d
E
O
i
in
n
P
L
g
g
S
e
A
O
S
p
T
e
e
R
R
t
c
c
IV
r
r
T
e
et
ta
a
r
ry
P
y
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2017 23