Reacting to the official notice that State Rep. John Anthony (R-Joliet) is resigning his position as State Representative of the 75th District, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) today is praising Anthony for his service and accomplishments.

“When John was appointed in August of 2013 he immediately hit the ground running and was able to accomplish much in a very short time frame. A former law enforcement officer, John quickly became a go-to guy on issues related criminal justice and corrections. His expertise and insight on these matters will be missed.”  

State Representatives John Anthony (R-Morris), John Cabello (R-Machesney Park) and Elgie Sims (D-Chicago 34th) along with Senator Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago 13th), were pleased to announce today that a landmark law enforcement reform package they negotiated has become law. The groundbreaking, bipartisan measure includes standards for the use of officer-worn body cameras and makes Illinois one of the first states to codify recommendations issued this year by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

General Assembly Pay
House Republicans vote for bill to deny pay increase for selves in FY16. The measure, HB 576, amends State law to block implementation of the automatic pay increases slated to be paid in FY16 to Illinois elected officials. This action is necessary to prevent an annual automatic pay increase from being paid to members of the General Assembly, statewide elected officials, certain Cabinet-level executive branch agency directors and appointees, and county state’s attorneys. Automatic pay increases of this type have been mandated by the Compensation Review Act since 1984.

Rep. John Anthony & John Cabello were instrumental
in crafting bipartisan body camera rules. 

The Illinois House passed a police reform bill Thursday that includes rules for the use of body cameras.

Senate Bill 1304 passed by a 107-3 vote. It includes provisions for body camera guidelines, independent investigators, special prosecutors and new training. Illinois would be the first state in the nation to pass a comprehensive package of recommendations put forth by President Barack Obama's police task force.

Rep. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, said the bill is the result of months of negotiations between Democrats, Republicans, police organizations and community groups.

Rep. John Anthony, a Plainfield Republican and former police officer, said that overall he is pleased with the compromise. Read more from the SJ-R.

Pensions – Illinois Supreme Court SB 1 Ruling
Illinois Supreme Court strikes down pension reform law. On Friday, May 8, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed a lower circuit court ruling on State pension system reforms contained in SB 1 (P.A. 98-599). In response to enactment of P.A. 98-599, five separate actions were filed in Cook County and Sangamon County courts to enjoin implementation of the pension reforms, claiming the reforms were unconstitutional due to a violation of the provision in the Illinois Constitution (Article XIII, Section 5) that asserts pensions are a contractual right and cannot be diminished or impaired. The five suits were subsequently consolidated into one action in Sangamon County Circuit Court.

Rep. John Anthony and John Cabello

Two House Republican legislators with law enforcement backgrounds advanced separate criminal justice reform bills in the Illinois House of Representatives on Thursday aimed at strengthening the ability of current and former inmates who complete an educational degree during their sentence to gain employment upon re-entering the community.

The House approved HB 3884, sponsored by Rep. John Anthony (R-Plainfield), which increases from 60 days to 90 days the length of service credit an eligible offender can earn by completing their high school equivalency testing while in the custody of the Department of Corrections. HB 3884 passed the House by a vote of 95-19 with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Illinois Budget
Concerns continue as no agreement reached on growing spending crisis. With the FY15 budget more than $1.6 billion out of balance, more and more subsectors of the Illinois economy were affected this week. House Republicans reaffirmed their commitment to solving issues related to immediate funding issues faced by child care, corrections, and court reporter sectors of the economy.

“The unbalanced FY15 budget needs to be corrected immediately and brought into balance,” asserted House Republican Leader Jim Durkin on Tuesday, March 3. Pointing to the State’s failure under former Gov. Pat Quinn to meet its constitutional responsibility to enact a balanced budget, Durkin and his leadership team pledged to help “clean up the mess Governor Rauner inherited on January 12, 2015.”

Two Illinois lawmakers plan to propose bipartisan legislation Monday to combat growing heroin and prescription drug abuse, though they acknowledge it may be tough to pass in a difficult budget year.

The 240-page bill, sponsored by House Democratic Assistant Majority Leader Lou Lang and GOP State Rep. John Anthony, is a byproduct of legislative task force that traveled around the state over recent months to hear testimony from doctors, coroners, pharmacists, treatment centers, addicts and family members on heroin use and its correlation to prescription drug abuse.

The legislation, the details of which Lang shared with The Associated Press in advance of its filing, would require drugs combating heroin overdoses, such as Narcan, to be dispensed more widely to those who have been trained to properly administer them.

Currently, some police units carry the antidotes, but the legislation would require all state and local government agencies that employ law enforcement officers and firefighters to possess them. School officials and family members of addicts could also administer the drugs, if they received proper training. CBS Chicago has the story.

Bruce Rauner – FY16 Budget
Governor Rauner lays out turnaround budget blue print.  The budget for fiscal year 2016 (FY16) presented by Governor Bruce Rauner to the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday, February 18 contains many challenges to traditional spending patterns in Springfield.  Serious cuts are imposed on a wide variety of expenditures, especially in areas covered by GRF spending ($31.5 billion).  Rauner says Illinois taxation and spending has, for too long, been on autopilot and that he was elected to pull the State’s government out of a death spiral.

Health Care – Medicaid Expansion

Medicaid expansion bill signed by Governor. Many health care advocates have expressed concerns to the State about various payments made and not made, and treatments offered and not offered, within Medicaid under current law. SB 741 contains a complex package of changes to the Medicaid system negotiated by the State, hospitals, nursing homes and other medical care provider organizations. Some of these revisions are designed to draw in matching funds from the federal government, but the State and its taxpayers will also have to put up a stream of money. The annual cost of the changes contained within SB 741 is estimated as at least $221 million per year. Persons concerned about this bill believe the cost could be more accurately estimated at $275 million per year.

Rep. John Anthony, R-Plainfield, will be utilizing his knowledge as a former sheriff’s deputy in his new appointment to two panels dealing with criminal justice reform and illegal gun trafficking.

Anthony has been appointed by House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, to serve on the panels, according to a news release.

The Joint Criminal Justice Reform Committee, comprised of five members from the House and five from the Senate, will examine the impact of the current sentencing structure, ensure enforcement and punishment of crimes does not disproportionately or unfairly affect certain racial, ethnic or minority groups; and develop solutions to address issues that exist within the system. The committee is required to submit a report to the General Assembly by Dec. 1.

The other three House members on the committee, appointed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, include Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago; Rep. Arthur Turner, D-Chicago; and Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside. Former prosecutor Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, is the other Republican appointed. The committee was established May 30. Read the story by the Morris Daily Herald.

State Representative John Anthony is a full-time legislator who previously served his community as a Law Enforcement Officer since 2005 when he joined the Champaign Police Department.  In 2008 John joined the Kendall County Sheriff’s Department where he served as a Deputy Sheriff.

John was awarded the Ervin H. Warren “Cop of the Future” award given to police officers who show strong leadership under duress and maintain integrity and character.  Continuing his desire to serve the local community, John and his wife, Deborah, began a non-for-profit charity organization called YARN.  The YARN Foundation seeks to strengthen families hand help children by providing educational programs and scholarships. Read more about Rep. Anthony.

Legislation to prohibit the use of ticket quotas by police departments in Illinois won final approval in the Illinois House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 106-9 with one member voting present. The bill’s Chief Co-Sponsor, Rep. John D. Anthony (R-Morris), a former Kendall County Sheriff’s deputy, led efforts to educate members of the House on the importance of prioritizing public safety in the administration of local law enforcement.

Senate Bill 3411 would prevent ticket quotas at any state, county and municipal police departments. It also states that departments would not be allowed to evaluate an officer's performance based on the number of citations they issue. The bill earlier passed in the Illinois Senate on April 10 in a 57-1 vote.
Read more about this legislation.

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. Brian Stewart

Multi-million dollar boondoggle jeopardizes police safety; wastes taxpayer funds

Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Freeport) has renewed public pressure on the Quinn Administration to quit wasting taxpayer dollars and jeopardizing the safety of frontline state law enforcement personnel by keeping idle 85 brand new cruisers waiting to be out into service for the Illinois State Police; while also acting to amend state law to reverse a snafu that prevents the existing funding mechanism used to purchase the cars to also prepare them for service.

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.

Republican state lawmakers are drafting legislation to ban former gang members from working for the Illinois prison system and three other state agencies in the wake of a Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

Under the proposal by Reps. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, and John Anthony, R-Morris, a person who is “documented to have been a member of a criminal gang” would be prohibited from employment by the state Department of Corrections, State Police, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Family Services. SunTimes reporters Chris Fusco and Frank Main have the story.

Video from recent press conference:

Reps Reboletti, Anthony & Ives at press conference calling
for hearings on Illinois' hiring practices

A group of Illinois Republican lawmakers are taking action in the wake of the recent investigative report detailing the troubling situation surrounding the high-paid corrections employee with a history of gang membership and falsified job qualifications spanning multiple state agencies.  The trio, including State Rep. Dennis Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), State Rep. John Anthony (R-Morris) and State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), is seeking a legislative remedy for the future and a potential investigation into the apparent gross lapses in employment standards within the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“There’s been a clear breakdown in the system involving in what at best could be described as incompetence and at worst as the clout induced, high cost shuffling of an unqualified, former gang member,” stated Rep. Reboletti.  “This situation is appalling at so many levels, but the one I’m most concerned with is the threat to public safety imposed by a former gang member working on the inside of the Illinois Department of Corrections.  While I believe the situation in its entirety must be examined, this in particular must be addressed immediately.”

The cleanup and recovery from the devastating tornadoes which struck Illinois on Sunday November 17 continues. Six people were killed in Illinois and hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in a line of storms which affected the entire state, from Brookport at the southern tip all the way to Chicago. We have compiled the latest information from state agencies, non-profits and media in the disaster areas to try and assist the victims and their families, and to provide an outlet for those who want to help.