After learning that yet another meeting of the Special Investigating Committee (SIC) into the conduct of House Speaker Michael J. Madigan was canceled and work of the committee has been postponed indefinitely, Republicans serving on the bipartisan panel are demanding the committee get back to work.

The Votes We Didn’t Take in May
by State Representative Grant Wehrli, 41st District

Lawmakers considered a mixed bag of legislation during our four-day session in May. Some measures, like legislation that provides for the automatic rollover of certain property taxpayer exemptions (senior, senior assessment freeze,

As the spring legislative session got underway in Springfield last week, House Republicans once again are laser focused on ending corruption in state government. Assistant House Republican Leader Grant Wehrli and State Representative Patrick Windhorst talk about the need to end the corruption and unethical practices that have been plaguing Illinois.

Ruth Hanna McCormick and fellow women’s suffragist 
Anna Howard Shaw, 1914.

State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) was a proud Chief Co-Sponsor this year of HR 96 which recognizes Illinois as a leader in the story of women’s suffrage in the United States, and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment’s ratification in Illinois on June 10, 2019.

“The 19th amendment forbids the states or the federal government from denying a person the right to vote on the basis of sex. This momentous act opened the door for women to vote for all offices,” stated Wehrli in a news release. “HR 96 commemorates granting women the right to vote with special attention to Illinois’ proud place in the effort. Illinois is home to storied women’s right advocates and suffragists like Jane Addams, Frances Willard, and Ruth Hanna McCormick.” Read the rest of the story in Positively Naperville.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, along with 49 other members of the House Republican Caucus, filed House Resolution 975 today to state their opposition to a proposed progressive income tax.

Below is video from the press conference where Leader Durkin along with Reps, Wehrli, Jesiel and Reick introduced the resolution.

State Reps. Michael McAuliffe, Christine Winger, Peter Breen, Grant Wehrli, and Keith Wheeler today introduced legislation, House Bill 4082, to immediately repeal the one-cent-per-ounce Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax. The tax, which went into effect on August 2, will result in Cook County consumers having to pay on average 67 percent more for a 2-liter of pop, 43 percent more for a gallon of juice drink or sweetened iced tea, and 29 percent more for a 12-pack.

A few days ago, state Rep. Sam Yingling, D-Grayslake, wrote a Tribune commentary accusing Gov. Bruce Rauner of not caring about the people of Illinois and state government's role in serving their needs. I'm here today to disagree. To borrow the opening construction my colleague used in attacking the governor:

Mike Madigan doesn't care. That's the conclusion I've come to after serving in the General Assembly since early 2015.

It has been clear that he doesn't care about the financial well-being of the residents and businesses of Illinois since he first took office in 1971. Unbalanced budgets, chronic overspending, increased debt load, underfunded pension schemes and expansion of entitlement programs have left Illinoisans paying one of the highest overall tax burdens of all 50 states. And it is still not enough to pay for his reckless ways. Madigan doesn't care.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, rank-and-file House members have been working across the aisle to fix some of the systemic problems connected to our state budget — workers' compensation reform, pension reform, a fair and equitable K-12 education funding formula and meaningful property tax relief — only to have Speaker Madigan swoop in at the last minute and kill the discussions. Why would he do that? The answer is simple, power.

Read the rest of Rep. Grant Wehrli's commentary:

A group of Illinois lawmakers began in February formally requesting that Auditor General Frank Mautino work expeditiously to answer serious questions about campaign expenditures and reporting procedures dating back to his time in the Illinois House of Representatives. Today, more than three months later, lawmakers stressed that Mautino’s foot dragging needs to stop.

“Our first letter to Auditor General Mautino was sent on February 1st. He requested a bit more time to which we willingly agreed. At the end of February, he told us we could expect an answer within weeks. But now we’re in the month of May, and these questions are still festering because he simply won’t address them,” said State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville). “If there’s nothing improper, as he asserts, then why won’t he simply answer the questions so he and we can put this issue behind us?” Read more.

Forty emerging leaders from throughout Illinois have been selected as 2015 Edgar Fellows in the fourth year of an initiative to inspire bipartisan, inter-regional cooperation in addressing major challenges for the state in the years and decades ahead. Among the leaders selected are Representatives Tim Butler, Tom Demmer, Sheri Jesiel and Grant Wehrli from the House Republican Caucus.

The Edgar Fellows Program is an initiative of the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs. It focuses on developing leadership and governing capacity in Illinois. It emphasizes the need to forthrightly address major policy issues without permitting partisan, ethnic and regional rivalries to trump statesmanship. It is designed to influence attitudes and foster mutual understanding. It holds the promise of facilitating bipartisan and cross-regional cooperation as class participants assume more influential public leadership roles.

“Since we launched this initiative in 2012, we have seen Democrats, Republicans and independents, from the neighborhoods in Chicago to the rural areas of deep southern Illinois, discover they have much in common even as they develop an appreciation for other viewpoints,” former Gov. Jim Edgar said. "I am confident this class of fellows also will form bonds that will serve them and our state well as they climb the leadership ladder.”

Legislation recently passed in the House by Rep. Grant Wehrli would prevent costly “double dipping” in the downstate law enforcement pension system. House Bill 1320 eliminates a loop hole that has allowed some retired police officers to receive an annuity from a Downstate Police Fund while at the same time receiving a full salary as a chief of police. Moving forward, it also ensures that a retired police officer cannot return to active service as a full-time police officer of any municipality without first suspending their pension. 

Two Investigations
They retire as Chicago police officers and get rehired by the city, doubling up on two taxpayer subsidized paychecks, one for a civilian job and the other for a police pension.

The Better Government Association and CBS 2 Investigators found that some even get hired back in a day to jobs at the top of the police department, all at a time when the police pension fund is only about 30 percent funded. Read more by CBSlocal.

Rep. Grant Wehrli serves the 41st District and is a lifelong resident of Naperville where he currently resides with his family. Before his election to the Illinois General Assembly Rep. Wehrli served a Naperville City Councilman.

More about Rep. Wehrli.

Just a few of the visitors who came to Springfield last week:

Gov. Bruce Rauner
State’s chief executive appoints new leader for one of Illinois’ largest agencies. The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) operates 25 prisons throughout Illinois. The Department also operates boot camps, work camps and adult transition centers. Nearly 49,000 persons are residents of State of Illinois confinement facilities. In addition, IDOC supervises about 29,000 men and women who are on parole.

With an annual budget of more than $1.3 billion, IDOC is on the front lines not only of Illinois’ public-safety and security needs but also its current budget situation. Governor Rauner has gone outside Illinois to appoint a new director for the Department. Donald Stolworthy, age 54, will head Illinois’ correctional system. After becoming experienced in corrections management in the Alaska Department of Corrections, Stolworthy moved to the federal government and worked at a high-ranking executive level in Iraq and in the international War on Drugs.

Today, State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) moved his first bill in committee earning unanimous support with an 8-0 favorable vote. DuPage County Coroner Dr. Rich Jorgensen joined Rep. Wehrli in committee as a witness to offer supportive testimony on HB 438 a bill that would allow schools to administer an opioid antidote in the event that a student overdoses due to the usage of an opioid.

“I am very encouraged to see committee movement on this legislation. Heroin usage has become an epidemic not just in the home but also in the schools. Overdosing from opioids, most commonly used heroin, has become a very real reality in DuPage,” said Wehrli. “One opioid antidote is already administered by emergency first responders for overdose victims. Providing schools with this antidote and the proper training can mean saving a student’s life while waiting for emergency responders to arrive.”

House Bill 438 would allow school nurses and trained personnel to administer opioid antidotes to students, staff members, or visitors at a school or a school activity if the nurse or trained personnel believes in good faith the person is experiencing a drug overdose. It has the potential to save the lives of those suffering from a drug overdose. Read more.

The bipartisan House Task Force on Education Funding will hold its first organizing meeting on Wednesday, March 11 at 3:00 PM in Room 118 in the Capitol. It is expected the Task Force will set objectives and future meetings. The Task Force will study equity and adequacy issues as it relates to funding schools in Illinois and from the information gathered, propose any necessary changes to the current school funding formula.

Rep. Robert Pritchard is the Republican Spokesperson for the 23-member Task Force and Republican lawmakers include Representatives Steven Andersson, Peter Breen, Mike Fortner, Jeanne Ives, Ron Sandack, Joe Sosnowski, Mike Tryon, Grant Wehrli and Barbara Wheeler. In January, Rep. Wheeler sponsored and filed HR9 calling for the creation of a committee to examine the existing school funding formula.

Last month a group of lawmakers sought to advance a package of legislation aimed squarely at a $750K severance buyout that left local taxpayers reeling. Now revelations by the Chicago Tribune that College of DuPage administrators spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on taxpayer-funded outings at the high-end publicly-owned restaurant on the campus of College of DuPage has raised the ire of those same lawmakers.

Here's what they have to say:

Rep. Steve Andersson (R-Geneva)
“The article today by the Tribune is just another example of the largesse that Dr. Brueder engaged in to the detriment and expense of the taxpayers. The COD Board has failed its citizens in allowing this sort of abuse to occur. It is unfortunate that such an “asleep at the wheel” attitude by the Board has cost so many so much. This will likely cause other districts to lose flexibility due to the actions of the COD board.  However, reform must occur to stop this sort of misconduct from recurring.”

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield)
“I think once people read these new revelations, there will be a renewed call for an electoral remedy for the college board members who allowed this to happen. There should be resignations, but short of that, voters should have the right to recall these officials.”

Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard)
“This situation clearly extends beyond just an egregious severance package, to the point we need to hold immediate public hearings, and possibly to demand resignations of those involved. We’ve been measured but firm in our call to action thus far, but it is clear we need to move more quickly.”

Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton)
“This is just one more example of the type of malfeasance that has been going on at the College of DuPage for years. It is also an example of exactly why the COD trustees need to comply with the legislative request that the Illinois Auditor General be allowed to come in and do a thorough performance audit.”

Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove)
“As more details emerge about the impetus of the ousting of the head of the College of DuPage, the taxpayer funded, high-end restaurant on the College of DuPage campus, it only adds to the clear need for this situation to be fully vetted in the eye of public hearings.”

Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville)
"Once again, we have seen irresponsible, reckless spending out of our leadership and elected officials from the Community College of DuPage. This is just another reason why a full compliance audit of C.O.D must be completed by the Illinois Auditor General to create better transparency, reinforce accountability and start to regain the trust of the taxpayers."


Read the Chicago Tribune story in its entirety here:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-college-of-dupage-waterleaf