Illinois House Speaker and Senate
President of  the 51st General Assembly.

The 101st Illinois General Assembly convened on January 9 of this year. On the 9th day of its existence, the 763rd House bill was introduced. In those nine days, the members of the Illinois House introduced the same number of bills as their predecessors did in the entire two-year term of the 51st General Assembly which convened 100 years ago.

The 2019 Senate took a little longer to reach the 1919 Senate’s output. This year’s Senate did not catch its predecessor’s output of 580 bills until January 31, the 23rd day after convening.

As Illinois began the first year of its second century of statehood, its 204 state legislators (51 Senators and 153 Representatives), representing its 6,485,280 people, had a lot to do. Appropriations for “hard roads,” working conditions for women, a proposed statewide police force, and even the legalization of ten-round boxing matches were some of the pieces of legislation on the agenda of the 51st General Assembly when it met in Springfield in January 1919.

TAXES
Democrats advance graduated tax hike legislation. On Monday evening, the Democrat majority passed a graduated income tax amendment out of the House Revenue and Finance Committee, over Republican objections.

SJRCA 1 passed out of the House Revenue and Finance Committee on a partisan vote of 9-6, with all Republican members voting ‘No.’ The graduated income tax constitutional amendment now goes to the full House of Representatives for a final vote. If approved by the House, the constitutional amendment would be placed on the November 2020 general election ballot.

The 1953 Illinois Blue Book includes a list of seven Illinois cities likely to be targeted during a Soviet atomic attack. The next page features a terrifying photo of a hydrogen bomb blast with a city skyline; said to be Chicago; superimposed in front of it.

In the years following World War II, the optimistic belief that the threat of global war had perhaps been eliminated forever began to wane. Europe hardened into distinct eastern and western spheres, the Soviets blocked Berlin, civil war reignited in China, and American forces went into combat in Korea. All the while, weapons became more powerful and their delivery systems became faster and their ranges longer. By the early 1950s it seemed nowhere was safe, even the middle of North America.

Our guest today serves the residents of portions of Kankakee, Will, and Grundy Counties. She continues a family tradition of being committed to community volunteering and philanthropy and promoting community growth, and has dedicated her life to serving others as a mom, wife, daughter, aunt, and practicing attorney. She and her husband share a passion for family, friendships and food. Our guest is state representative Lindsay Parkhurst.

TAXES
House Republicans: A tax increase is not necessary to achieve a balanced FY20 budget. Illinois House Republicans held a press conference Thursday at the Capitol to reiterate the message that a tax increase is not necessary to achieve a balanced Fiscal Year 2020 budget.

House Republicans presented a document detailing $2.6 billion more in revenue than the House working groups had previously planned for. These new revenues clearly demonstrate that the General Assembly can pass a balanced budget without raising taxes on Illinois families and businesses.

The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy.
Photo from the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Sitting down at a desk at the Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower began composing his report. It was November 1919 and Eisenhower had just completed an arduous two-month drive across the United States with a column of Army trucks on the Lincoln Highway, the new transcontinental highway stretching from New York’s Times Square to San Francisco’s Lincoln Park.

At least, that’s the road which the Army thought it was going to use. In his report Eisenhower cleared up any misconception which the Army might have had about the Lincoln Highway being an actual road.

TAXES
Durkin: “We have the money to balance the budget without new taxes.” On Wednesday, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, along with Deputy Leaders Dan Brady and Tom Demmer, held a press conference to reiterate the need for bipartisan negotiations to pass a balanced Fiscal Year 2020 budget.

In light of this week’s announcement that April revenues were up by $1.5 billion and that FY20 estimated revenues were revised upwards by $800 million, Leader Durkin announced that we have the money to balance the FY20 budget without new taxes. Durkin’s full remarks follow:

Woman stands with original steel plow at
the Smithsonian in the late 1930s

An Illinois farmer 200 years ago may have wondered if it would someday be possible for Illinois to be an agricultural powerhouse. It was conceivable that the state could one day be among the nation’s leaders in production of crops like corn and soybeans. With miles and miles of wide open prairies and a temperate climate, there was certainly the potential that Illinois might one day be known as one of the leading farm states in the young nation.

That is, if the farmers could just find a way to break through the ground.

In Illinois’ first 20 years of statehood, and for generations before, small subsistence farms had been the norm. Native Americans followed by settlers from the rocky Appalachians and the sandy eastern states had come into Illinois and worked their small plots, scraping out a living, but had not been able to farm huge plots of the prairie. Part of the blame went to their incorrect belief that the soil that produced the tallest trees had to be the most fertile, causing some to avoid the open prairies that cover most of the state. But there was another, larger problem that had stymied Illinois farmers for years.

TAXES

Senate Democrats Advance Massive Tax Increase. On Wednesday, May 1st, Illinois Senate Democrats passed a graduated tax package out of the Senate that would increase taxes by more than $3.5 billion per year.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin released the following statement on the graduated tax package votes in the Senate:

“The Senate's votes today are a slap in the face to thousands of Illinois families and businesses - just another step towards handing a blank check over to the Democrats and their reckless spending habits.”

Lincoln Home in Springfield draped in mourning, 1865

The crowd gathered in the morning chill on 8th Street in Springfield eagerly awaited the appearance of their triumphant friend and neighbor. Three months earlier, the man they had so often greeted in passing on this dusty street had been elected President of the United States. On that exciting night, Abraham Lincoln had rushed the five blocks from the state capitol building and burst through the door of his family’s house at the corner of 8th and Jackson, shouting to his wife, “Mary! We are elected!”