State Rep. Brandon Phelps reports legislative scrambling
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With less than 10 days until a scheduled adjournment state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, said lawmakers are scrambling trying to push their own legislative agendas while at the same time dealing with some of the major budget issues facing the state.
Tornado Bill - HB 4242
Phelps' legislation to create the Natural Disaster Homestead Exemption passed the Senate as amended late Tuesday on a 57-1 vote. The bill now returns to the House of Representatives for a vote to concur with the Senate changes.
It originally passed the House on March 30 even though it needed a few changes. The Senate Revenue Committee made the fixes on May 2 and recommended it to the full Senate on a 9-0 vote.
The bill would allow homeowners hit by the tornado to rebuild without facing major increases in their home's assessed valuation for property taxes. The bill creates at homestead exemption equal to the difference between the new value and the old.
To get the exemption homeowners would have to sign up within a year of the disaster, rebuild within two years and keep the square footage of the new home within 110 percent of the original.
Earlier this month the Senate passed a second Phelps bill - HB 5073 - allowing the Secretary of State to waive certain fees for disaster victims 30 days after a disaster. The bill had already passed the House and now heads for the governor's signature.
Mass Gathering Bill - HB 5479
Phelps' bill to help Hardin County deal with the Juggalos and other mass gatherings appears to be dead.
Phelps introduced HB 5479 earlier this year to help Hardin County deal with the negative effects of annual Gathering of the Juggalos as well as some other Hogrock events.
The bill would have allowed non-Home Rule counties authority to regulate and tax such events. Although geared for tiny Hardin, it developed major opposition from a number of interest groups from outside the county such as the Illinois Farm Bureau, ABATE and Taxpayers of Illinois.
Phelps said the interest groups worked out a compromise that would limit the scope of the proposed law and still allow Hardin County to do what they needed, but the local committee working with him on the bill rejected it.
"They didn't want to change the bill (so) it's dead. The committee was divided on the issue," Phelps said. "There's no way the bill would pass in its present form, no way. There was no use to run the bill if we didn't have the votes."
Concealed Carry - HB 148
Phelps' highest profile bill, HB 148, which would open Illinois up to concealed carry of firearms currently sits in the Rules Committee awaiting a vote where the representative is not sure when or even if it will be called this session.
"We're waiting for the speaker to call the bill. The problem right now is with the time we have with Medicaid, pension reform, and the (state facility) closings," he said. "We're hoping to get to it. It may be one of those things we have to wait for the fall sessions."
Tamms Closing
Workers at the Tamms Correctional Center received their official layoffs notice on Monday. Phelps said if lawmakers don't add money to the budget to keep the prison open it's set to close in late July or early August.
He said the fight isn't so much over money as over "philosophical differences" with Chicago-area lawmakers.
Prisoners at Tamms stay in their cells for 23 hours a day. It was designed to be a deterrent for the worst offenders in the state prison system, but "because of the overcrowding problem some of those inmates have been down there for 10 years," Phelps said.
Phelps and state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, have been shifting tactics and are now arguing to keep the prison open by making it a regular facility.
"We're trying to make sure to get it in the budget so it can't be zeroed out," he said.
Phelps thinks he has the votes to kill another bill that could close the Tri-County Detention Center in Ullin a privately-operated prison that serves as the county jail for Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties.
Senate Bill 1064 is written to block a private sector facility proposed for Crete that would house illegal immigrant detainees for the federal government.
"The way it's written there's some uncertainty that it might (impact) Tri-County," Phelps said, explaining that the bill is being pushed by the Hispanic caucus in the legislature.
"I think I've got it beat," he said counting the votes.
The moves by Chicago-area lawmakers acting on either regional or liberal interests against downstate interests irks Phelps.
"It's the worst I've seen. They're going after our road money. They're going after our transit money. It's ridiculous," he said.
When it comes to Tamms, "they think it's the scariest place on earth."
Medicaid Reforms
Gov. Quinn announced a series of Medicaid reforms this week. Phelps said he had a lot of questions. Part of the reforms are proposed to be funded with an increase in the state's cigarette tax.
"I've never voted for a cigarette tax," he said. "We have a lot of questions. We just saw it late last night. We're still reading it. We're going to be caucusing over it."
The good news he said was the governor's indication that the state would start rechecking Medicaid enrollees to make sure persons on the state program were actually Illinois residents.
The plan cuts hospital reimbursements, but protects hospitals in some rural regions as well as those that serve the inner city poor.
"We took care of our hospitals in rural Southern Illinois by this version of what we saw. Southern Illinois hospitals are spared and taken care of," he said.
The lawmaker said earlier versions of the proposals didn't include that.
"The hospitals told us in Southern Illinois that there was no way they could have withstood that," Phelps said.
Budget Deal
"We're supposed to be done May 31 at the stroke of midnight," Phelps said. "You have (Republican) leader Tom Cross and Speaker Michael Madigan working together on a lot of these issues. I think at the end of the day there is going to be an agreement between the House Republicans and the House Democrats."
But first he noted he and his fellow lawmakers have to deal with some big issues.
"You've got to do the Medicaid reform first and you've got to do the pension reform first," he said.
With all the cutbacks the state faces one of the problems is the House budget is expected to be $200 to $300 million less than what the Senate is considering to spend.
"I think we should use the House numbers because we don't want to spend money we don't have. You do have Democrats and Republicans working together on this budget in the House. Every member has their say," he said.
That means he's had to plead for his projects like the possible closing of Tamms Correctional Center.
"(Monday) I got to go in there and talk about Tamms for a hour and a half. I got grilled. I got skinned, but I took it. You can't go to your leadership, you've got to go to those committees and plead your case," he said.
Phelps doesn't like the retiree insurance bill that passed the House that will force some state retirees to pay for a portion of their health insurance costs.
"I wish we not would have done that. We made promises to those retirees twice in the last 10 or 15 years. I had elderly ladies up here (Tuesday), who are widows practically in tears because they don't think they can pay for their insurance," he explained.
The bill would give the director of Central Management Services and a joint review board made up by appointments by the legislative leaders the power to set rates.
"The General Assembly is not going to have any input on what that will be. I think that's wrong," Phelps said.
Harrisburg TIF I Extension
Phelps said he and Sen. Forby will support the City of Harrisburg's request to extend the life of TIF I if the city and the taxing bodies can reach an agreement.
Although the end of the spring session is near he thought there would be an opportunity to move legislation during the fall veto session if it's necessary. The TIF expires next March.