After winning control of the legislature and fast-tracking a binge of Republican initiatives last year, this year’s GOP-controlled General Assembly might have been hard-pressed to find issues to add to its agenda.
But lawmakers found many. The problem was, with attention focused on re-election contests in November, anything deemed too controversial fell by the wayside in the spring session that ended Saturday.
That’s why the legislature’s failure to consider a proposed constitutional change in school funding, a riverboat gaming-tax hike, a ballyhooed ethics-reform package, creation of a regional airport authority, and improvements to state employee and teacher pensions made this session one that may be remembered more for what didn’t get passed than what did.
Still, if there was a way for lawmakers to appeal to a voter’s moral conscience or anti-crime fears or a way to curry favor with business, the legislature found a way to act:
Education: Legislators pushed several last-minute reform bills that would give school authorities greater control over locker searches and to impose dress codes or require uniforms. Elementary pupils would be subject to basic-skills testing, and graduating high school seniors would face an exit exam that potential employers could review.
Lawmakers approved and Gov. Jim Edgar signed the creation of 45 charter schools, largely free of state rules. Pending on Edgar’s desk is a bill that would allow teachers to use historical documents that make references to God in their classes.
Legislators also pumped $288 million more into public grade and high schools, but they made no dramatic effort to change the over-reliance on property taxes to fund education. That’s on the post-election agenda.
Crime: Getting tough on criminals stood high in the minds of incumbent legislators seeking another term, foreshadowing what’s to come in fall campaign brochures.
Tired of the image that inmates live “country club” lifestyles, lawmakers passed bills to do away with some privileges; force the removal of curtains over cells; make prisoners pay for room, board and schooling; and reduce good-time credits for sentences for filing frivolous lawsuits.
A bill that would have brought back chain gangs fizzled after legislators argued that the practice is reminiscent of slavery.
Legislators also proposed re-enacting a law requiring police to notify residents when a released child molester or murderer moved to town. The law had been struck down because of the way it was passed.
Under one bill, child molesters also would have to submit blood samples to state police to register DNA in a statewide database. Local school boards also would have to be told when a school worker has been convicted of a sex offense.
Legislators approved a measure limiting drunken-driving offenders to one sentence of court-ordered supervision and require the fingerprints of those arrested for the offense be submitted to the state police.
Business: Early in the session, business won a $250 million break on jobless-benefit taxes, despite union complaints that it was a shortsighted plan. Business, however, said the benefit fund was overfunded.
Lawmakers also approved a 1-year delay in plans for higher employer taxes and benefit cuts. They also endorsed a measure requiring business to pay more money into the chronically underfunded program providing benefits to spouses and children of workers injured on the job. They lumped that plan into a bill that would give businesses lawsuit protections for providing details about a former worker to a prospective employer.
Lawmakers also voted to reimpose a fee on tanker deliveries of gas to pay for the cleanup of leaking underground tanks, despite fears that it would be a passed-along tax for motorists. The tax had been struck down because of the way it was lumped with a sex molester notification plan.
Edgar and lawmakers scaled back a law approved last year by narrowing the businesses that can listen in on employees’ workplace phone calls. The new law restricts the bill to telemarketers and pollsters.
Another bill sent to Edgar would give banks and automatic teller machine operators protections from lawsuits if they meet safety requirements.
Environment: Pro-environment activists hailed legislation that repealed the incinerator subsidy, but Edgar’s signature on the bill angered municipal bond holders who planned to build incinerators based on the subsidies.
A measure to step up regulation of waste management on large commercial livestock farms also as approved.
Health: Health plans must provide pregnant women a minimum of 48 hours in the hospital after delivering a baby under a bill sitting on Edgar’s desk. Lawmakers also gave women participating in managed care more freedom to visit obstetricians and gynecologists.
A tax long opposed by suburban hospitals used to fund health care for welfare recipients will expire in April rather than July 1997 under a bill sent to Edgar.
Legislators also approved harsh criminal sanctions for adults who give child-athletes drugs to gain or lose weight.
Transportation: Spurred by the deaths of seven students in a school bus-train accident in October in Fox River Grove, lawmakers approved measures requiring school buses to stop at railroad crossings whether they are carrying students or not. They also sent Edgar a plan for a pilot program in DuPage County to ticket motorists who violate crossing warnings through a photo-monitoring system.
Lawmakers also set an official 55-m.p.h. limit on unposted county and township roads.
