House Republican Leader Jim Durkin released the following statement today on the retirement announcement of State Representative Mike Fortner:

“I have been privileged to serve alongside Mike Fortner throughout his time in the Illinois General Assembly. He has been a leading voice on important issues such as energy policy, election reform, local government and technology. Mike used his background and expertise to serve the public good and he has been a tremendously effective legislator. We will all miss his professorial intellect, wit and ability to work in a bipartisan fashion to improve the lives of Illinois families. I wish Mike all the best in his future endeavors.”

Leader Durkin appointed Representative Fortner to serve as the Minority Spokesperson for numerous House committees, including: Cities and Villages; Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, & IT; Economic Opportunity; Elections & Campaign Finance; and Tollway Oversight. Fortner has been a member of the Illinois House of Representatives since 2007.

Many bills that come before the General Assembly are designed to take a popular idea and apply it to Illinois law. But just because an idea is popular, legislators should not rush to pass the bill. Often there are details worth looking at, details that legislators should get right before jumping onto the popular bandwagon. That’s the case with Senate Bill 250 which would create Automatic Voter Registration in Illinois.

AVR, as proposed in Senate Bill 250, would automatically register voters who interact with any number of state agencies, including people who apply for a driver's license or update their address at a Secretary of State motor vehicle office. Since not everyone may want to be registered, people are given the ability to opt out. However, people who would be registered at the DMV do not get to opt out immediately. Instead, their data is sent on to the State Board of Elections and they are later sent a letter asking them to return a post card if they want to opt out. In the meantime, their data is already in the election system and those people who do not want to be in the system will not get the digital privacy we all deserve. Read the rest of the letter to the editor by Mike Fortner in the SJ-R.

Higher education in Illinois is in crisis. The state has not appropriated basic operations money to the state universities this year. As a result one institution is preparing to close on May 1 and others cannot guarantee that they will be open when students return in the fall. May 1 is also the day when students traditionally must decide where they will attend in the fall. If students are uncertain about the future of our state universities, they may not plan to attend. Waiting longer to fund our universities may come too late to get those students back. There are three things we can do now to help this crisis.

First I propose that we utilize the Educational Assistance Fund (EAF) as a stopgap to fund the universities through August. The EAF will have about $600 million left in it at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. August is an important time since that is when students return and revenue from tuition, room and board comes to the universities. In SB 2046 (J. Cullerton/Currie), the total appropriation for ordinary and contingent expenses for the state universities and the Illinois Math and Science Academy is $1,079,180,600. This represents a full year appropriation, but there was no identified revenue to pay for it. An equivalent expenditure for four months from May 1 to August 31 would be one third of that, $359,726,867. Read more.

No more snow days?

Starting Jan. 1, that might be a reality for West Chicago High School District 94 students.

The district -- which put Chromebooks in the hands of every student at the beginning of this school year -- has plans to submit an application to be part of the state's new pilot e-learning program. The program will allow three Illinois school districts to teach students through digital devices on days when they can't attend school, due to snow or other emergencies.

E-learning on emergency days is the brainchild of the District 94 Superintendent Douglas Domeracki. After hearing how districts in other states were launching e-learning programs, he proposed the idea to state Rep. Mike Fortner of West Chicago, who then sponsored legislation to create the 3-year pilot program. Read more in the Daily Herald.

Schools must have a legitimate reason to demand students provide their social media passwords under a bill signed into law this week by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Chief sponsor Rep. Mike Fortner, R-West Chicago, said his bill — HB 3527 —  strikes a balance between student privacy and school districts’ legitimate needs to investigate problems such as bullying.

“There are still different ways to get that information,” he said. “What they can’t do is to ask for that password and go off and use that password on their own,” he said.

Read more on the Illinois News Network.

Beginning July 1st, U.S. military veterans are now able to receive updated driver's licenses with a veteran designation displayed on the front of the card.  Details on the new licenses can be found here on the Illinois Secretary of State website.

The legislation enabling this new feature was carried in the House by State Representative Mike Fortner and State Representative Mike Unes as well as a handful of other legislators in 2012.  

Snow days could become a thing of the past for Illinois school districts.

If Gov. Bruce Rauner signs House Bill 2781 a pilot program will be created to replace snow days and other canceled days with electronic instruction. Those lessons would eliminated the need to use an emergency day that is tacked on to the end of the school year. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Mike Fortner.

The pilot program would be implemented in up to three school districts, which may include one elementary or unit district, through the 2017-18 school year. The state superintendent of education would select the districts.

Once the pilot program ends, legislators will decide on a statewide program to eliminate snow days. Read more in the Daily-Journal.

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.

In its attempt to get to know each of our elected officials better, INN recently conducted a Q and A session with State Rep. Mike Fortner, R-West Chicago. Here’s what he had to say:

What’s one thing you’re proud of from the Illinois legislature in recent sessions?

“I think the fact that we were able to work on a bipartisan basis to get the fracking bill done was really good. We did it in a way that brought both industry and environmental groups to the table to produce a fully negotiated bill. It’s been slow going since then, but this is an example of a successful bill coming out of a situation where all stakeholders were included in the discussion.”

What’s the biggest problem the state faces and what is the solution?

“Well I’m not sure what the solution is, but in my mind the state of our budget – that we can’t get a handle on doing things in a consistent way so that we can stay abreast of our revenues. Sometimes we do well for a year or so but usually we go back to borrowing from the future to pay for what we want now.” Read more by Brady Cremeens on the Illinois News Network.

Row 1: DuPage County legislators, Reps. Ron Sandack, Sandy Pihos & Dennis Reboletti at bill signing for SB494, legislation improving efficencies of local government.  Rep. Mike Fortner with Dupage Sheriff Deputy following the Muon g-2 Super Magnet on its way to Fermilab.

Row 2: Rep. John Cabello toured UTC Aerospace Systems. Rep. Tom Morrison and Senator Matt Murphy hosted a joint teleconference with constituents on August 5th.

Row 3: Diabetes camp with Rep. Mike Tryon and participants at YMCA Camp Duncan in Ingleside. Boot camp hosted by Rep. Jeanne Ives.

Pension Reform Conference Committee on July 8, 2013

Members of the the Pension Reform Conference Committee met for the third time yesterday to discuss options for comprehensive pension reform.

Today was the date established by the Governor to take action on pension reform. At yesterday's meeting, the Conference Committee overwhelmingly agreed that the July 9th date set by Governor was an unrealistic deadline without knowing what the Governor will accept as reform.

Testifying at the hearing were: Rep. Mike Fortner on his legislation HB 2365, Dave Urbanek on behalf of the Teachers’ Retirement System, Tim Blair on behalf of the State Retirement Systems, Jerry Stermer from the Governor’s Office, and Rich Whitney and Professor William Barclay on behalf of HB 1554 and SB 7.

At this time the Conference Committee has not set a date for the next meeting and will stand adjourned until the call of the chair.

Read more:
Rockford Register Star
News Channel 20, ABC
Capitol Fax