Local Lawmaker Calls For Legislature To Return

McHenry County State. Rep. Jack Franks (D-63) called on Governor Pat Quinn Friday to bring the General Assembly back to Springfield to work on the budget. “Illinois continues to face the worst financial crisis in the state’s history, yet lawmakers went home a week ago without a solution and there is no date scheduled to resume our work,” Franks said.

Franks claimed to be the only Rep to call for cuts in the State's main spending bill. One Franks amendment would, in effect, eliminate the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity which two years ago granted $1 million to a  politically connected private school that at the time wasn't registered with the State Board of Education and had no students, faculty or assets.

Another amendment would eliminate paid positions on boards commissions under the Governor's jurisdiction while a third would cut the salaries of General Assembly members, constitutional officers and agency heads, by 25 percent. "Our revenues match those from 2007, a time when our state was on relatively sound fiscal footing,” Franks said. “Illinois has a spending problem, not a revenue problem."

The State Constitution sets a deadline for the budget at May 31. It says it's supposed to be balanced, too.