McSweeney Puts Pressure on Senator to Put Lt. Gov. Abolition Amendment on Ballot

A press release from State Rep. David McSweeney:

House Approves Rep. McSweeney’s Measure to Eliminate Mailing Requirement for a Constitutional Amendment to Eliminate Lt. Governor Office

Eliminating mail requirement and eliminating the Lt. Gov. Office would save taxpayers a total of $2.8 million

Springfield, IL – The Illinois House yesterday approved legislation sponsored by State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) to end the requirement for the Secretary of State to mail out information about a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the Office of Lieutenant Governor.

Under current law, any proposed change to the Illinois Constitution requires a mailing to all Illinois households informing them of the change as it will appear on the ballot.

House Bill 348 removes this requirement for any constitutional amendment aimed at eliminating the Office of Lieutenant Governor.

The legislation would add an online notice requirement and still require newspaper notices for all constitutional amendments.

David McSweeney

“I have been pushing to eliminate the Office ofLieutenant Governor for a while now because it would save taxpayers about $1.5 million annually,” McSweeney said.

“If we get a Constitutional Amendment eliminating the Office of Lieutenant Governor on the ballot, not only can we save taxpayers money by eliminating this office, but with House Bill 348, we also will be able to save taxpayers money by eliminating the mailing requirement. These two ideas are a win for taxpayers.”

McSweeney said removing the requirement to mail voters about a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the Lieutenant Governor’s office would save taxpayers about $1.3 million.

In 2013, the Illinois House voted 83-28 to support McSweeney’s measure to eliminate the Office of Lieutenant Governor.

Last year, the House overwhelmingly approved a similar McSweeney-sponsored Constitutional Amendment with 95 votes in favor of the measure and only 10 votes against it.

Unfortunately, a former Republican nominee for Governor filed to become the chief sponsor of the measure in the Senate in a hostile move to ensure the Constitutional Amendment was never called for a vote.

Senator Tom Cullerton, who supports eliminating the Office of Lieutenant Governor, is the lead Senate sponsor of Representative David McSweeney’s HJRCA 5, which is a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the Office of Lieutenant Governor.

“Let’s save $2.8 million total by eliminating the Lieutenant Governor’s office and eliminating the mailing requirement,” McSweeney said.

“We need to eliminate wasteful spending.”

House Bill 348 passed the House on a vote of 112-0 and now moves to the Illinois Senate.


Comments

McSweeney Puts Pressure on Senator to Put Lt. Gov. Abolition Amendment on Ballot — 10 Comments

  1. Mcweeney at it again says he will save money.

    Really he wants to NOT inform the voters of any Illinois constitutional amendments by eliminateing the notice required.

    He also knows that the republicans do not have the majority to do anything in Springfield so all this is smoke and mirrors.

    Hear the hot air coming.

  2. Mcdork all blow no go.

    He has really done little or nothing.

    Even his own Republican caucus despises him.

    Hopefully the Democratic will run a well funded candidate.

    Right about now his minions are getting husband calls, ordering them to post comments demonstrating his heroic accomplishments….

  3. If the amendment were passed, the Attorney General would be next in line to be Governor.

    Considering that Lisa Madigan is AG, the proposal could well attract Democratic Party support.

  4. The Lieutenant Governor’s office does not have any union employees so it might have a good chance of passing the Senate and being approved by voters.

    ++++++

    Conservative state legislators can’t accomplish much in Illinois because they are in the minority.

    So they have to settle for small reform which means we keep falling further in debt, because the reforms don’t slow the debt, they allow the debt to get bigger.

    +++++++

    The 5 state pension funds have a $130,000,000,000 unfunded liability (taxpayer IOU to the pension fund).

    That is $130 billion dollars.

    $3,000,000 / $130,000,000,000 = .00000000002.

    The 2 is in the 11th decimal place (ten billionths).

    Thus eliminating the Lt. Governors office is 2 ten billionths of one percent toward fully funded state pensions.

    But taxpayers have lots more debt:

    – state retiree healthcare unfunded liability

    – state unpaid bills

    – state bond debt service (principal and interest)

    – county and local unfunded pensions, state retiree healthcare, unpaid bills, bond debt service

    – transit unfunded pensions, unfunded retiree healthcare, unpaid bills, and bond debt service.

    – Federal pensions, unfunded retiree healthcare, unpaid bills, and bond debt service.

    The debt is out of control.

    ++++++

    Truth in Accounting and the US Debt Clock are good sources regarding debt.

  5. By the way, that’s if the actuarial projections are correct.

    There is growing research into that area.

    There are a lot of variables, options, and methods available to actuaries in making projections.

    This can result in a lower employer contribution to the pension fund, freeing up money in the current year budget for other uses.

  6. I bet there will be 30 posts before this one Peters out and 29 of them will be Rain Man, How Freaking Predictable!!

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