Political Rewind: Quinn's Vetoes Face Tough Road in Legislature

Editor's Note: This article was created by aggregating news articles from Illinois Statehouse News that were written by various Illinois Statehouse News reporters.

Quinn’s vetoes face tough road in Legislature

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has been busy with his veto pen this past session, but it is likely all for nothing.

Quinn has vetoed 30 pieces of legislation from the 97th General Assembly, which was sworn in January. Lawmakers will return Oct. 25 to Springfield to act on the governor's vetoes.

But an analysis of vetoes from the 96th General Assembly does not bode well for Quinn.

The governor has a poor track record with his vetoes, with almost 90 percent being overturned or left to die in the Legislature.

From July 2010 to January, Quinn vetoed 18 pieces of legislation passed during the 96th General Assembly.

Lawmakers accepted only one veto that changed the effective date on a law that dealt with substitute teacher registration. Another line-item/reduction veto on the state budget was allowed to stand.  

Of the remaining vetoes, lawmakers overrode three: Quinn's bid to create a citizen's initiative process, to keep evaluations for only police officers and prison guards out of the public record, and to change another effective date.

Thirteen vetoes died either because lawmakers did not have votes to accept or override the veto or never called the vetoed legislation for a vote. 

Some support Quinn’s facility closing plan, kinda

Advocates and lawmakers could support Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close five mental health and developmental disability centers. But only if he does it properly. 

Quinn on Thursday proposed closing the Tinley Park in Tinley Park; the H. Douglas Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford; the Chester Mental Health Center in Chester; the Jack Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon; and the Jacksonville Developmental Center in Jacksonville.

The governor said he has to “manage the budget” and “tough choices have to be made.”

Tony Paulauski, executive director at ARC of Illinois, a group that tries to move people with disabilities into community care, said closing the doors at the Mabley Center or at the Jacksonville Developmental Center would be acceptable if the residents could be transitioned to smaller settings and more focused care.

“The smaller the housing situation, the (better) the quality of life for the people,” Paulauski said. “Because (caregivers) are really focusing on the people who are residing there.”

Quinn vetoes Smart Grid, lawmakers already talking override

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn surprised no one Monday morning when he vetoed the Smart Grid legislation backed by the state's two largest utilities. 

The proposal would have allowed Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison Co. to rebuild their electric grid and distribution networks over the next decade without going through the  regulatory process. Both utilities said Smart Grid would speed up infrastructure improvements. 

But the legislation also would have allowed the utility companies to raise customers' monthly rates for 10 years — Ameren by $3.40 and ComEd by $3.

Those increases doomed the Smart Grid plan.

"All of this is being done to merely guarantee double-digit profits, while diminishing ComEd's accountability to rate payers as well as regulators," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said during a Chicago news conference. ComEd serves Chicago and the northern third of Illinois.

Lawmakers pan Quinn proposal

The closest Illinois lawmakers will come to agreeing with Gov. Pat Quinn's plan to close seven state facilities and layoff nearly 2,000 workers is an acknowledgement that state government could be trimmed.

But few, if any legislators here, are supporting the plan Quinn outlined Thursday afternoon.

In all, 1,938 state employees will be laid off.

But Quinn said he has no choice.

"We clearly do not have enough money in the budget, that was appropriated by the Legislature in the spring, to pay the personnel and facility costs of a number of facilities and people who work for the state of Illinois," the governor said.

Lawmakers see things differently.

State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, who lost to Quinn in the 2010 gubernatorial race, said Quinn is targeting GOP lawmakers and Illinois residents with severe disabilities. 

"He's attacking six out of seven facilities that are in Republican districts; he's holding some of the most vulnerable citizens of our state hostage," Brady said.