Archive for December, 2010

Springfield out to weaken collective bargaining rights

by , posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 at 11:52 pm

The war on the middle class continues to be waged on both sides of the aisle.  This is less of a comprehensive blog about the topic and more of a call to action.  After America more or less lost our manufacturing base and moved to a service economy that exports bad debt as our main source of GDP, Wall Street types decided to start making profits off of government services.  In Illinois, this means that the fight to protect our education system from Wall Street profiteers is on.  An Oregon-based organization is pushing legislation that will deter the best and brigthest from teaching and ultimately enter Illinois’ schools into the race to the bottom.

State Representative Keith Farnham, an Elgin Democrat, is holding a town hall forum at the Gail Borden Public Library (270 N. Grove St., Elgin, IL) on Wednesday, Dec. 29th at 7:00 p.m.

Representative Farnham is on the education committee and it is important that he hear from teachers, parents and community activists before returning to Springfield in January.  It is believed that this legislation is being put together in a hurry and that it is part of a backroom deal (Republicans will get a large part of their anti-middle class agenda in exchange for a tax increase).  It is expected to pass before January 11th, 2011 (when the new assembly takes office).

This bill does not have an official number yet, but here is a screen capture of part of the copy that I obtained.  Click the pic to read the most significant part.  Click the link to read the entire bill.

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Illinois General Assembly passes civil unions

by , posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at 12:09 pm

While the Illinois General Assembly has yet to create jobs, pass a balanced budget, or find a way to fund the $80B pension liability, they did a very courageous thing during veto session by passing a civil unions bill.  This strikes me as one of the biggest “change” votes taken by the ILGA and perhaps the biggest act of courage in my memory. It was a positive step forward for residents of Illinois as we seek to join other states who view equality as a centerpiece for social and economic justice.

In the 21st century, I find it hard to believe that there are still people in Springfield and Washington who honestly feel that some in our society should be treated like second class citizens in the eyes of the government. But, some still voted “nay.” You can see the entire Senate vote here. You can see the entire House vote here.

If you agree that this is a good step for Illinois, please call or write members in the Fox Valley to let express appreciation or disappointment.  Altough he has delayed signing the bill until 2011, it is expected that Governor Quinn (312-814-2121 / Online Contact Form) will sign the bill.  It probably does not hurt to send the Governor a note to thank him for his support of equality.  See list of Fox Valley Representatives below.

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