Per the Capitol Fax Blog:
Gov. Blagojevich has called yet another special session for Sunday at 5:15 pm. This one, which nobody will probably show up for either, has to do with the RTA. As usual, the governor has not introduced or pointed to any legislation that the General Assembly is supposed to consider.
The calendar entry for this special session is not informative.
Please post any information you may have about the special session in the comments. Looks like it will be another special session non-starter.
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6 comments:
Only six representatives showed up today.
Rep. Froehlich suggested an alternative during Rep. Riley's subcommittee on Regional Equity, June 16th; an alternative to increasing the sales tax in SB572. He was concerned that the Governor was going to veto the bill.
Rep. Froehlich suggested that there be a binding referendum in the six county RTA region for the 1/4% sales tax in order to address the operating shortfalls of the three service boards.
My question is whether this is something the RTA, along with transit officials should consider? I'm only speaking from my concern of all the work done on the electric relief bill which was developed with all parties over several months and now to be held up by the Governor.
Can we expect the same response from the Governor? And if so, shouldn't we have an alternative?
The Governor called this special session dealing with RTA issues because he knew no one would show. He is punishing the RTA to show that he is not irrelevant as has been suggested publicly by transit proponents and to get what he wants from the RTA legislation. He did the same with CMAP.
If things are as messed up as indicated in Capital Fax, call in the federal troops and restore democracy. The people throughout state government, starting with the one on Sunnyside Avenue, have completely lost their sanity. The Legislature has also become a complete farce; they can't even get the budget bill certified????
The State provides considerable funding to transit but has no representation except on the CTA board. Gov wants RTA chair appointment.
4:10: The questions are:
1. If it is up to a referendum, what happens to the hole in the RTA budget if it doesn't pass?
2. Would the referendum be county by county, or majority rules? In the 1972 referendum for creating the RTA, Chicago could easily outvote the suburbs; that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case now.
3. The governor has previously indicated that the alternative was some sort of business tax, not the sales tax in any form.
8:55. If the governor getting appointment power were the only issue, he could take a bill and then use the amendatory veto to write that in. See Illinois Constitution, Article IV, Section 9(e). With the proposal now saying that it takes 9 directors' votes to pass anything, and 12 for a supermajority, the Governor could appoint another director without affecting that requirement.
Would the legislature try to put a "stymie" in the appointment powers, such as what they did for Stroger? Stroger gets his appointments, but they have to be approved by the suburban county commissioners. Can you see Peraica and his group blocking the appointments? Could you see the governor's appointment blocked by the legislature, or made effective only until Gov. Lisa attains office?
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