Top: Reps David Leitch, Don Moffitt & Michael Tryon
Bottom: Reps Dwight Kay, Ed Sullivan & Adam Brown

Remarks by House Republican Leader Jim Durkin to the Illinois House of Representatives on Republican lawmakers who will be leaving the General Assembly in January:

The Republican Caucus is sad to be losing the services of six well-respected members of this body who are retiring at the end of this General Assembly.

Between them, they have 92 years of experience serving their districts and the people of Illinois.

Rep. David Leitch's work with parents of suicide victim
led to new law designed to spare others

Mike and Kim Predmore, whose youngest son, Chris, killed himself in his Illinois State University dorm room nearly two years ago, don't want other parents to go through what they did.

“Chris seemed fine when we moved him in,” said Mike Predmore, sitting with his wife in their Bartonville home. “Three months later, we were planning his funeral.”

With many students soon heading off to college, some for the first time, the Predmores hope parents will talk to their children about whatever stress they might be feeling and look into what services are available at their schools.

They also hope a law they helped get passed, the Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Act, will lead to more open communication between parents, students and health professionals at colleges and universities. Read more in the Pantagraph.

After serving 29 years in the Illinois General Assembly with great distinction, State Representative David Leitch has decided to retire. Throughout his outstanding public service career, he has been a tireless workhorse, rather than a show horse, for the people of central Illinois and beyond. In particular, his advocacy for public health issues has been truly impressive and legislatively unmatched. To honor his tremendous accomplishments, Heartland Health Services (formerly Heartland Community Health Clinic) will pay tribute to Rep. Leitch on April 9th during a celebration at The Warehouse on State, a new event center located in Peoria’s Warehouse District. Read more in Peoria Magazine.

State Representative David Leitch (R-Peoria) was honored on Monday, December 14th with the President’s Award from the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association (CBHA) in recognition of his advocacy on mental health and substance use issues.

“This recognition was awarded to Rep. Leitch by the CBHA Board of Directors as the first time the award has been presented since 2008,” said CBHA CEO Marvin Lindsey.  Mr. Lindsey went on to say that Rep. Leitch has been an, “unwavering clear voice in the Illinois Legislature who has unselfishly enriched the lives of countless men, women, families and the community and state.” Read more.

For almost 27 years, state Rep. David Leitch has quietly and competently gone about his business representing the Peoria area’s interests in the Legislature, immersing himself as few others did in the nitty-gritty of sometimes arcane policy issues, providing superior constituent service, bringing home state dollars for some very worthy projects.

He has been that increasingly rare, for the most part non-ideological Republican who believes as conservatives do that “that government is best which governs least,” but that government also can do good, can help make people’s lives better. Consider the longest-serving Republican in the Illinois House, with a short stint in the state Senate before that, “old school,” one of the individual exceptions in a generally dysfunctional Legislature.

With Leitch, 67, announcing his retirement at the end of his term in January, 2017, bipartisan tributes have poured in, from GOP House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, who like others lauded his “wealth of institutional knowledge” — the written and unwritten rules learned at the knee of late Journal Star political reporter Bill O’Connell, who would hitch rides with him to Springfield back in the day — to his local House colleague, Democrat Jehan Gordon-Booth, who noted that she gets “choked up” at the thought of “such a smart warrior for the people” leaving public service. Read the entire Peoria Journal Star editorial.

State Representative David Leitch (R-Peoria) announced today that two bills he sponsored to improve mental health services in Illinois have both cleared the Illinois House.

HB 3599, which passed the Illinois House unanimously on Tuesday, creates the Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Act.  Under provisions of the act, students would be provided the opportunity to pre-authorize in writing the disclosure of certain private mental health information to a designated person...

...Leitch also passed a second bill on Tuesday to increase mental health services for older Illinoisans.  HB 3753, which passed 110-1-1, would integrate mental health services for older adults in primary care medical settings.  “Often, mental health issues for older adults are identified at a much lower rate than other adult populations.  Undiagnosed mental illness for older adults is a huge problem in our care delivery system.  OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria is already moving this direction, but this bill would authorize the Illinois Department of Aging to enact the same protocols,” said Leitch. Read more.

Energy – Fracking
Fracking rules approved; jobs and opportunity coming to Southern Illinois. The rules, from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR), are a legally essential element for engineering teams to enter Illinois properties and drill for fossil fuels. Up until now, Illinois has not had rules or a permit structure in place to cover horizontal drilling in sedimentary beds of shale rock. A newly-invented segment of oil drilling technology, “fracking,” has sprung up to puncture these tightly-bound particles of rock and force them to yield their crude oil and natural gas. A significant deposit of New Albany shale, believed to be oil-rich, lies underneath many counties of southeastern Illinois.

Capital – Transportation Bills 
Capital bills become law: $1.1 billion to be spent on transportation projects. The 2014 capital plan centers on $1.0 billion for shovel-ready Illinois Department of Transportation projects, primarily road resurfacing and bridge renewal and repair. $100 million is included for grants to local governments for local capital projects; it is expected that these will also mostly be transportation projects, although the definition of road and street work on the local level also includes other infrastructure repairs such as the rebuilding of local sidewalks and curbs.

Graduated Income Tax  
House GOP: Graduated Tax Threat to Illinois Jobs, Families.  On Monday, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and members of the Illinois House Republican caucus announced their unanimous opposition to the graduated income tax proposal introduced by legislative Democrats. The plan, currently filed as HJRCA 33, would replace the state’s current flat tax with a graduated income tax system, with rates to be determined by the General Assembly.

“There is a movement in Springfield by the majority party to move Illinois from a flat income tax to a graduated tax,” said Durkin. “The same party responsible for years of overspending, over taxing and a mountain of debt wants to move to a graduated tax for one reason and one reason only – to raise taxes and spend more money.”

Reps Anthony, Kay, Morrison & Reis 

In a presentation to Republican lawmakers, Travis H. Brown, author of How Money Walks shared his findings on the effects of population migration on the fiscal health of states.

Representatives David Reis, David Leitch and Renee Kosel hosted the presentation.

Data maps showed gains and losses of population and adjusted gross income (AGI) at several levels of government. Key findings for Illinois:

• Between 1992 and 2010, Illinois lost $29.27 billion in net AGI
• Between 1985 and 2010, 536, 963 people moved out of Illinois
• Florida gained $6.77 billion of Illinois' lost AGI

According to Rep. Tom Morrison, "Behavior does change when you change tax rates...we need people to migrate to Illinois to have a thriving economy."

Mr. Brown suggested Illinois take a look at its taxing policies and consider that states like Florida and Texas with 0 income tax are gaining AGI while at the same time Illinois is losing income.

Today 23 Republican members of the Illinois House of Representatives signed letters sent to the Governor and Attorney General regarding the shortage of propane, urging them to take further action. The shortage during severe weather is causing prices for propane to skyrocket. Many are finding it impossible to pay their heating bills and keep their families warm.

House Republicans thanked the Governor for the recent disaster proclamation and asked him to:

1. Allocate additional emergency funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to assist Illinoisans in paying their propane or other heating bills.
2. Provide emergency low-interest loans/temporary lines of credit to propane distributors/suppliers to ensure they will have the resources necessary to purchase additional propane to alleviate shortages.
3. Work with the General Assembly to pass a temporary suspension of the state sales tax on LP/propane in order to provide some relief to families struggling to heat their homes.
4. Urge the federal government to create a strategic reserve of LP/propane and moderate exports of the fuel while supplies remain critically low.

Additionally, they asked the Attorney General to protect Illinoisans from improper tactics firms may be using during the crisis to gouge consumers.

Budget – Medicaid
Big Medicaid changes could save money for Illinois taxpayers, but must be closely watched.  The State of Illinois is pursuing a comprehensive restructuring of the way services are delivered to the 2.8 million enrollees who receive medical coverage through the Illinois Medicaid program. This restructuring, which would be directed through the federal ‘1115 Waiver’ process, would allow the use of innovative service delivery models not currently standard under federal Medicaid guidelines. On Wednesday, the House Human Services and Appropriations – Human Services Committees held a joint hearing, the second in a series of such meetings, to receive testimony from administration officials and stake holders regarding the proposed waiver.

Pictured: Reps Bill Mitchell, Dennis Reboletti, Patti Bellock, Chad Hays, Jim Durkin, Mike Tryon, David Reis, JoAnn Osmond and David Leitch.

Chicago – Schools

·         Chicago Public Schools receive $235 million in overpayments from Illinois taxpayers; Rep. Pihos files reform package to hold Chicago accountable.  In response to recent revelations that Illinois taxpayers overpaid Chicago Public Schools (CPS) by $235 million in block grant funds for the 2011-2012 school year, Representative Sandy Pihos has filed a package of bills that would repeal the preferential block grant funding for CPS and require CPS to submit claims for reimbursement of special education costs, just like the other 859 school districts throughout Illinois are required to do.

According to Pihos, the root of the problem can be traced to a lack of accountability with how grant money is sent to CPS and a failure within CPS to comply with reporting mandates required within the Illinois School Code.  Whereas every other public school district in the state gets reimbursed for services delivered, current law allows CPS to receive their block grant money up front.  For 2011-12, CPS received $483.7 million in block grants, but provided only $249 in student benefits.  Nearly 30 percent of special education funding was earmarked to CPS, which only had 16 percent of the special education student population in the state.

House Republican Leader- Elect
Jim Durkin

Today, Leader-Elect Jim Durkin named State Representative David Leitch (R-Peoria) and State Representative Patti Bellock (R-Westmont) as his Deputy Leaders.   Leitch is the longest serving member in the Illinois House Republican Caucus and brings tremendous knowledge to the team.   Rep. Bellock has successfully led the charge for Medicaid reform over the past several years and is the first woman to serve as a Deputy Leader for the House Republican Caucus.

“One of the largest and most complicated segments of the state budget is Medicaid and no one knows the topic better than Representatives Bellock and Leitch.   Both are very compassionate when it comes to caring for our most vulnerable citizens, while making sure taxpayers are protected from waste and abuse.  Members of our caucus have to come to rely on their opinion on issues related to human services programs and the budget and both are highly respected by their peers.  I am thrilled to have both of them on my team.”

Durkin has named State Representatives:  Dan Brady (R-Bloomington), Chad Hays (R-Danville) Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth), JoAnn Osmond (R-Gurnee), Dennis Reboletti (R-Addison), and Mike Tryon (R- Crystal Lake) as Assistant Leaders.  Mike Bost will serve as Conference Chair.   It will be his job to ensure caucus meetings are conducted in an orderly manner.

“Each of these members brings a different perspective and area of expertise to the team and all want the best for the residents of Illinois.  I have tremendous faith and trust in each of them and am ready to sit down with them to develop an agenda and work on issues important to families and employers in Illinois,” said Durkin.

While the team has been selected and will meet during the first week of veto session, Durkin’s new leadership team becomes effective on November 1, 2013.