Springfield Update

Illinois Association of REALTORS
Quorum Call Week in Review
Friday, July 18, 2008
Quorum Call is distributed Fridays when the Illinois General Assembly is in session. For more information, contact Greg St. Aubin, Director of IAR Governmental Affairs, gstaubin@iar.org, or Julie Sullivan, Assistant Director, Legislative and Political Affairs, jsullivan@iar.org. Full text of legislation cited in this newsletter can be found at www.ilga.gov. “Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off.”~Bill Veeck- The Illinois House of Representatives convened this week in a shortened schedule for consideration of overrides of item and reduction vetoes made by the Governor to the Fiscal Year 2009 State budget (HB 5701). There were 33 separate motions filed by members of the House on the $1.4 billion in cuts made by the Governor. Ultimately only 6 motions were approved which restored $480 million in cuts. However, the Senate must also take action on these six motions in order for these funds to be restored. Senate President Emil Jones has previously indicated that he did not intend to call the Senate back until the regularly scheduled fall session in November. - No action occurred on the issue of fund sweeps from State dedicated funds. You may recall that the Senate approved legislation in the spring (SB 790) that authorized the Governor to make sweeps from these funds but did NOT specify what funds or amounts but it was reported that the amount would total $530 million. SB 790 did list 29 funds that were exempt from the sweep. The House removed all substantive provisions from SB 790 last week with the intention of amending the bill to authorize specified funds and amounts totaling about $300 million. However, the House adjourned on Wednesday afternoon without any legislative activity on the issue. The General Assembly is currently not scheduled to be back in session until November 12, 2008. For more information, contact Greg St. Aubin, Director of IAR Governmental Affairs, gstaubin@iar.org, or Julie Sullivan, Assistant Director, Legislative and Political Affairs, jsullivan@iar.org.