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.

In response to the failure of Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino to answer questions amidst the ongoing federal and state investigations into his campaign spending irregularities while a member of the Illinois General Assembly, State Representative Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) announced the filing today of House Joint Resolution 158 aimed at removing Mautino from office, a measure with over 20 co-sponsors.

“Auditor General Mautino is not able to perform his duties with the trust and confidence that Illinoisans deserve,” Rep. Kay said.  “The Auditor General’s Office is a position where transparency is at the very heart of the job itself.  Illinoisans deserve a clean government and Auditor General Mautino, by his refusal to respond to public questions surrounding his ethical conduct, has demonstrated that he is unfit to remain in office.” Read more.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin today announced his appointments to the newly formed Illinois School Funding Reform Commission. The commission will be composed of five designees from the Governor’s administration and each of the four legislative leaders. Secretary of Education Beth Purvis will serve as chairperson.  

“The current school aid formula is archaic and needs to be reformed. I applaud Governor Rauner for forming this commission in an effort to bring all sides to the table to find a solution that is fair to both schools and taxpayers across Illinois,” said Durkin. “Each of my appointees to this bi-partisan, bi-cameral commission has taken a strong interest in reforming education funding, and each will bring a different regional perspective to the discussion.”  

House Republican appointees are:

• Avery Bourne, 95th District
• Sheri Jesiel, 61st District
• Dwight Kay, 112th District
• Bob Pritchard, 70th District
• Christine Winger, 45th District

The Commission is charged with coming up with a recommended comprehensive solution to reform Illinois’ school funding formula. A report is to be presented to the Governor and the Illinois General Assembly by February 1, 2017 with action to be taken in time for the 2017-2018 school year.

Illinois State Representatives Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) and State Representative Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) today reinforced their willingness to compromise on the issue of Higher Education funding, citing the numerous proposals House Democrats refused to debate prior to breaking for the entire month of March.

According to State Representative Dwight Kay, “There are four proposals to fund higher education and MAP grants, unfortunately the Speaker has not allowed the bills to be voted on in the legislature. This isn’t the time to dig our feet in politically, it’s time for us to come together and reach a compromise on a realistic plan that can fund SIUE, our community colleges, and MAP grants for college students.” Read more on Riverbender.com

The Southwestern Illinois Employers Association hosted an intimate gathering for association members and Illinois elected officials, including Gov. Bruce Rauner, Sept. 15 at the Olin Center for Excellence.

Additional guests included U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Illinois) and Michael Bost (R-Illinois); state Sen. David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville) and state Reps. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon), C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) and Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield).

Given the current climate in the Illinois legislature, SIEA believes it is critical for business leaders to be informed of legislation under review in Springfield and Washington, D.C. The forum served as an opportunity for them to hear directly from elected officials on the vital issues and challenges facing the state and the nation.

Opening the meeting, Rauner assured business owners that “your success is our success” while noting that “the southwest region should be much stronger economically, based on its location and infrastructure.” Rauner says his efforts to reform the state would promote a healthy business climate and strengthen the economy throughout the state, particularly in the southwestern region. Read more.

FY16 Budget Crisis
Budget stalemate continues in Springfield. As the State of Illinois entered the fourth week of the new fiscal year without a balanced budget in place, the Democrat majority again refused to negotiate in good faith and instead continued their piece-meal approach to the budget crisis.

In the House, Democrats again backed a temporary budget to fund certain services at a level that is not sustainable over the course of the entire fiscal year. House Amendment 1 to HB 4143 was adopted by a narrow majority of Democrats, but did not receive enough votes to be passed on Third Reading and was therefore held for future consideration.

The Illinois House of Representatives passed Governor Rauner's FY15 Budget Fix today. The legislation now heads to the Senate and should be heard later this week. Here's what some of our members had to say:

House Republican Leader 
Jim Durkin
"...Governor Rauner inherited a $1.6 billion budget deficit the day he took office...I am pleased the Illinois House of Representatives began the hard work of straightening out our dire state finances."

Rep. Dwight Kay

A metro-east lawmaker says investigators might not have received all of the emails they sought in connection with Gov. Pat Quinn's scandal-tainted Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, an anti-violence program that critics say was used as a political slush fund.

The grant program is the subject of a federal investigation and also came under fire from the state's auditor general. The auditor general, in a blistering report issued in February, found there were "pervasive deficiencies" in how the program was operated.

But some emails from Quinn subordinates involved with the program might have been hidden from the auditor, according to Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon. The News-Democrat has the story by Brian Brueggemann.

A bill filed by State Representative Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) to halt pay raises for lawmakers is stuck in the Rules Committee.

House Bill 6235 would continue furlough days and reject the automatic cost of living adjustment to legislative salaries. Kay says Democrats are trying to sneak pay raises through the General Assembly during what is supposed to be the last week of the spring session.

Doug Jenkins with WBGZ has the story.

Budget
House Democrats pass unbalanced budget, blowing up agreed revenue cap. Abandoning their pledge to adhere to projected FY15 general funds revenues of $34.5 billion, the House Democrats passed a series of appropriations bills on Thursday, May 15 that anticipate spending approximately $37.4 billion. Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) begins on July 1, 2014 and continues until June 30, 2015. The Democrats’ spending plan is $2.9 billion more than agreed to by the General Assembly in its previous FY15 revenue estimate.

Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) has filed legislation in response to efforts by House Democrats to sneak through what amounts to a legislative pay raise among the dozens of state budget bills being hurried through committee this week. The legislation, HB 6235, sponsored by Kay and other Republican representatives specifically calls for a continuation of furlough days and rejection of the automatic cost of living adjustment (COLA) to legislative salaries.

“First, Democrats broke their promise by going back on their pledge to let the income tax hike expire,” Rep. Kay said. “As if that wasn’t enough, they’re rushing through budget bills to spend more than the bipartisan revenue number we agreed to earlier this spring – to the tune of $2.7 Billion and climbing. Now, on top of that, they’re using an unprecedented series of politically-motivated budget maneuvers to slip in a pay raise for themselves before they go home for the summer. As usual, their priorities are in the wrong place. It’s beyond reckless and irresponsible. ” Read the rest of the story.

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Taxes – Graduated Income Tax
So-called “fair tax” will not appear on November ballot.  Although state senators who support a graduated income tax attempted to move a constitutional amendment to carry out this goal (SJRCA 40), Republicans blocked this amendment and helped prevent it from meeting its deadline for General Assembly action. The General Assembly cannot place this amendment on the November 2014 ballot and it will not, therefore, become law.

“We’ve seen three separate tax hike proposals in the last three days. It is clear that Illinois democrats are preparing to raise taxes again, and the Governor seems unwilling to accept the reality that Illinois has a spending problem, not a revenue problem." ~Rep. Mike Tryon



“Governor Quinn proved to the General Assembly and to the citizens of this State today that his promises mean nothing. With his announcement that he is pushing to make the temporary tax increase of 2011 permanent, he has shown us all that anything he says can’t be trusted. He is on record in 2011 as saying the income tax increase was temporary, but now he wants to take more and more out of the pockets of working Illinoisans and small businesses." ~Rep. Barb Wheeler 

Chicago – Neighborhood Recovery Initiative
Lawmakers Urge Freeze of Chicago Anti-Violence State Funds; Call for Additional Investigation of Programs.  In the wake of the Illinois Auditor General’s scathing audit of Governor Quinn’s $54.55 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative (NRI), State Reps. David Reis (R-Ste. Marie), John Cavaletto (R-Salem) and Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) are demanding all state funds allocated to questionable Chicago anti-violence programs be frozen.  The lawmakers are also calling upon the Auditor General to further investigate state moneys allocated to these programs.

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.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and members of the House Republican caucus today unveiled legislation asking voters to put an end to lame duck sessions of the Illinois General Assembly by moving up the date of inauguration. The proposal also requires the outgoing General Assembly to conclude their work by Election Day.

“You never know what shenanigans are going to be played in a lame duck session.  In 2011 under the veil of night, Democrats in the lame duck legislature voted to impose the largest income tax increase on families and employers in the history of our state.  Outgoing lawmakers, who are no longer accountable to the voters, should not be approving such controversial legislation,” said Durkin.

The Edwardsville office of Illinois State Representative Dwight Kay incurred damage from a fire on Monday evening and will remain closed until further notice. While the office is closed, Rep. Kay’s staff remains available to assist constituents by phone and e-mail.

Rep. Kay's constituents will continue to receive service from Rep. Kay by contacting him at 618-307-9200 or by email. 

“It’s important for my constituents to know my staff and I will continue to provide service to those with issues concerning state government by phone and e-mail until we get our district office back open,” said Rep. Kay. “In the coming weeks my office will be announcing satellite office hours in the metro east for constituents who prefer discussing issues in person instead of electronically.”

State Rep. Dwight Kay

A newspaper story about the fact that ex-Madison County Treasurer Fred Bathon continues to collect on a $90,000-per-year state pension has led state Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon, to co-sponsor a bill to ban criminals from receiving taxpayer-funded pensions.

House Bill 3665 amends the Illinois pension code to cut off pension benefits to participants in a state retirement fund who are convicted of corrupt acts linked to their public service.

Crimes covered by the measure include intimidation by a public official, bribery, official misconduct, engaging in kickbacks, fraudulently obtaining public money reserved for a disadvantaged business enterprise and certain types of theft.

Kay said in a statement that he was "outraged to learn that criminals continue to receive a taxpayer funded pension after pleading guilty for an act they committed while serving the taxpayers.

Kay added the he believed that rewarding elected officials with a pension after they admittedly broke the law while serving the taxpayers should be stopped. Mike Fitzgerald with the Belview News-Democrat tells the story.