McHenry County Blog

A message from State Rep. Mike Tryon to his constituents:

Friends,

As the General Assembly heads into its final weeks of the legislative session, I wanted to update you on some important pieces of legislation.

Budget talks are taking center stage this month and I will continue to provide a voice of fiscal conservancy in the Illinois House.

Mike Tryon

It appears that Governor Quinn is still out of touch with the realities of today’s economy and remains an advocate for runaway spending.

At home in District 64 and across the state I have seen firsthand how families have responded to the current economic conditions by getting by on less and I believe they want their government to do the same.

I will not support a budget that further increases debt.

Significant budget reductions are in order if we are ever to make Illinois a financially-stable state.

To that end, I will do my best to advocate for programs and agencies which rely on state funding, but will be a vocal supporter of initiatives that

• reduce waste,
• eliminate outrageous salary increases for State employees and
• fairly address the failing pension system.

Last week two key votes took place on controversial issues in the House.

HB 148 would have permitted people 21 and older to carry guns if they were properly registered and had completed eight hours of training, including target practice. Applicants would have also needed to pass a background check and a review of their mental health history. The bill came up six votes shy of the 71 affirmative votes that were needed to bring Illinois in line with the 48 states that currently allow concealed carry in some form. I was a co-sponsor of this bill and will continue to fight for the Second Amendment rights of all Illinois citizens. Another high profile vote last week regarded the medical use of cannabis.

HB 30 would have created a three-year pilot program to allow people with certain medical conditions to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from registered non-profit dispensaries. I voted against the bill because I still have significant concerns about federal enforcement of medical vs. recreational marijuana and also about how the drug would be distributed.

Over the last few months I served as chief sponsor of several bills that passed through the House and which now are pending in the Illinois Senate. Here is a summary of a few of those bills:

• HB 308 would protect the quality of groundwater in Illinois by providing regulation of the installation of geothermal heat pump systems. The construction of these systems can impact nearby septic systems and water wells, creating a risk to the water supply, and proper regulation would prevent potential problems. Twenty-nine other states protect their groundwater by providing some form of registration or licensure of closed loop well contractors.
• HB 309 would expand the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP) to include information about the recipients of gubernatorial and legislative member initiatives. State law does not currently prescribe procedures to be followed in the administration of these grants, and HB 309 would provide full and complete disclosure to the public about gubernatorial and legislative member initiatives and hopefully eliminate the misuse of public funds by listing the expenditures in a searchable database.
• HB 3103 would further expand the ITAP to include all floor and committee roll call votes from the House of Representatives and Senate. The bill would make State government more accessible to the people of Illinois and hold legislators accountable for their attendance and activity, or lack thereof.
• HB 2915 also enhances transparency to the taxpayers of Illinois by adding the salary, insurance benefit, and pension/annuitant payment information for all State employees of the legislative branch of government. This would include members of the House and Senate. The bill would also provide that the ITAP must include a database of all current State grants, sorted separately by grantee name, awarding agency, grant value, and the purpose for which the grant is awarded and also a public forum and commenting interface on the site.
• HB 1101 was filed in response to Governor Pat Quinn’s proposal to sell the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal Bureau of Prisons last year. There are substantial public policy implications in selling any valuable piece of State property, and I believe the General Assembly deserves to have a say in large transactions like these. Under this bill the Governor would be required to seek General Assembly permission before selling any state asset with a value of $1 million or more.
• HB 2558 would address the perceived financial issues that arose during the recent corruption trial of the McHenry County State’s Attorney. The bill would mandate that when a sitting public official is investigated and tried on charges, the courts would look to other public prosecutors to do the work. The bill would also require that the scope of the investigation be well-defined and that county boards be given estimates on costs so they could plan for the expense. The bill would also allow county boards to receive itemized bills for the fees.

As always, do not hesitate to call or email me if you have additional questions or if you would like to discuss any other issue. I can be reached at (815) 459-6453 or via e-mail at mike@miketryon.com.

Best Regards,

Michael W. Tryon, State Representative, District 64

= = = = =
I have searched in vain for Senate committee votes.

Advocates of gun owner rights made their presence known at last summer's McHenry County Fair. Here you see Lou Rofrano, President of the McHenry County Right To Carry Association, explaining the contents of his organization's petition.

Democrat Jack Franks represents a lot of gun owners.

After all, his district covers the most rural part of McHenry County.  That’s where one hunts in McHenry County.

He also has many trade union members who like to hunt.  He gets lots of money from their labor unions.

The only call I ever got from a union president was from the Operating Engineers head.  He asked me to vote against a gun control measure.  I was more than happy to tell him my vote was not in doubt.

So, after refusing to reveal how he would vote, I admit Franks led me to conclude that his vote would be “No” on the horribly characterized “conceal carry” bill.

I guessed wrong.

I figured that he still had statewide ambitions.  After all, he capitulated to the pro-abortion forces.  The evidence is his endorsement by the most pro-abortion political action committee–Personal PAC–for the last two election cycles.

Can’t be Pro-Life if one wants to win statewide as a Democrat.  Glenn Poshard demonstrated that when he lost to George Ryan.

The 65-32-1 roll call on House Bill 48. 71 votes are needed to have a veto-proof majority.

The bill to allow people to protect themselves by having a handgun on their person failed 65-32-1 yesterday.

To my surprise, Franks voted in favor of House Bill 148, as did Republicans Mark Beaubien and Mike Tryon.

Lakemoor gun rights rally crowd.

Maybe he saw photos of the crowd when not-yet Congressman Joe Walsh spoke to gun rights advocates before the GOP primary election last spring.  He skipped the rally.

Yesterday I wrote about how Winnebago County’s board had decided they, as part-time employees didn’t deserve to have pensions.

Front page of the Chicago Tribune April 10, 2010.

Today, the Sunday Chicago Tribune has a front page article by Christy Gutowski, Joe Mahr and Joseph Ryan entitled,

Quite a deal

Former DuPage County official Bill Maio was able to

secure a $100,000 a-year pension

after working mostly part-time

I wrote yesterday of how it used to be and to some extent still is the number of years one have of government pension credits, plus the final salary that counted, that a McHenry County Board member could take the credits from the relatively lowly paid County Board post, get elected to a countywide office which now, astoundingly, pay $100,000 a year and, then, retire after 40 years total annual pension participation at 75% of final pay under the well-funded Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF).

(I also pointed out my generous legislative pension in yesterday’s article.)

The Tribune article reminds me of a gambit that elected county officials convinced legislators to pass when I was in office to turn county officials into state legislators, as far as pension benefits went.

It’s called the “Elected County Officials” option.

Notice that to be eligible one has to be a politician.

Among retired DuPage County Officials who benefited from the special pension plan was former State's Attorney Joe Birkett. After resigning his post, he was apppointed to the 2nd Appellate Court. Click to enlarge

The request of legislators was to allow elected county officials to retire after 20 years at 80% of final salary.

That’s pretty close to the benefits legislators themselves had.

But, legislators are nervous folk.

If you can keep your county officials happy, maybe they won’t run against you.

Congressmen figured this out when they allowed state legislators to keep any expense money paid for being at state capitols tax free…whether or not it was spent on room and board.

Since some lobbying group or another is holding a reception with decent food virtually every session night, it’s not hard to spend the entire per diem payment. Former State Senator Jack Schaffer used to suggest that such money should not be paid unless it was spent.

But, back to the “Elected County Officials” pension plan.

The Tribune’s research says the bill passed overwhelmingly.

The Senate voted for it 55-2 n May 16, 1997.  Senator Dick Klemm of McHenry County supported the measure.  One of two senators who did not was Chris Lauzen from just south of the McHenry County border.

The Senate's May 16, 1997, vote on the county officials pension improvement bill.

The House, 105-10. (I voted against the bill, as you can see from the roll call below.  Ann Hughes, the other representative from McHenry County favored the bill.)

The May 23, 1997, House roll call on the county officials pension sweetener bill.

Governor Jim Edgar signed the bill.

As the arrangement went down, county officials would have ther pension payment increased from 4.5% of salary to 7.5%.

Local property taxpayers would pick up the rest.

The Tribune reports that more than half of Illinois county boards signed up for the benefit.

McHenry, Kane and Lake were not among them, but DuPage and Will Counties were.

So, think back to who was serving you on the McHenry County Board in the mid-1990′s and thank them for their good judgment, even though some countywide officials wanted the board to approve the plan so their pensions would increase a lot.

Melissa Bean worked the entrance to the McHenry County Fair last August.

Melissa Bean has used a Washington inside dopester publication Roll Call to reveal that she will not be trying to regain her old congressional seat in 2012.

Although the closest race in the nation for Congress with a 291 victory margin for Republican Joe Walsh, Bean has decided to stay with the job she just got as Executive Director of the Executives’ Club of Chicago.

The publication says that Illinois Democrats may try to eliminate Walsh’s 8th Congressional District since the state will have one fewer district than during the last decade.

House Bill 5154, the bill that would allow McHenry County College to keep ex-President Walt Packard’s performance standards secret, passed the Illinois Senate overwhelmingly on December 1st.

The vote was 48-3.

The only local state senator who voted against this restriction of the Freedom of Information Act is Dan Duffy. Pam Althoff supported hiding Packard’s performance evaluations with her vote.

Pam Althoff voted for the rollback.

The roll call for House Bill 5154.

Here’s the article on the House amendatory veto override.

The vote there was closer. It “only” passed a bit over 2-1.

Dan Duffy

Pam Althoff

The bill passed 32 to 24 with one person voting “present,” the equivalent of a “no” vote because 30 votes are required to pass in the Illinois State Senate.

McHenry County’s two state senators, Pam Althoff and Dan Duffy both cast votes against the legislation.

The roll call is below. Click to enlarge the image.

The Illinois State Senate roll call on Senate Bill 1716, the legislation that legalizes civil unions.

State Representatives Jack Franks and Mark Beaubien supported the measure when it was voted on in the Illinois House at dinner time. Mike Tryon opposed the bill.

Democrat Jack Franks

Democrat Jack Franks, a man who has fashioned an image that portrays himself as a conservative, voted for legislation to legalize civil unions among same sex partners in Illinois.

Republican Mark Beaubien

Senate Bill 1716 pass the house 61-52 after an hour debate.

Also voting for the bill was State Rep. Mark Beaubien, who has the reputation of being a liberal Republican.

“Now is the time to support this bill,”

Beaubien is reported to have said during House debate.

Franks has been moving left politically as his ambitions for statewide or congressional office have grown.

After redistricting, Franks is expected to be newly-elected Congressman Joe Walsh’s Democratic Party opponent in 2012.

This morning, the Northwest Herald provided political cover for Franks by endorsing the gay rights bill in an editorial.

Franks’ Republican opponent, John O’Neill, opposed civil unions, even participating in a demonstration in front of Franks’ Woodstock office after his election defeat.

Republican challenger to State Rep. Jack Franks in this fall's election was among the demonstrators in the post-election Patriots United demonstration against the civil unions' bill in front of Jack Franks' Route 47 office.

State Rep. Mike Tryon voted against the bill.

The bill now moves to the State Senate where it is expected to pass.

Governor Pat Quinn has already said he will sign it and was on the House floor when it passed.

The roll call is below.  Click to enlarge.

Five Republicans voted for the bill. They are Suzie Bassi (a lame duck), Bill Black (another lame duck), Beth Coulson (still another lame duck), Rosemary Mulligan and Skip Saviano.

Here’s what the Senate tote board showed after the roll of the 59 Illinois state senators had been called.

59-0 in favoring of kicking Governor Rod Blagojevich out of office.

All those Democrats scurrying for cover lest they be thought to agree with the governor’s closing argument:

“Take those four tapes as they are and you, I believe in fairness, will recognize and acknowledge those are conversations relating to the things all of us in politics do in order to run campaigns and try to win elections.”

If true, the problem is a lot bigger than our ex-governor.

Here’s what the Senate tote board showed after the roll of the 59 Illinois state senators had been called.

59-0 in favoring of kicking Governor Rod Blagojevich out of office.

All those Democrats scurrying for cover lest they be thought to agree with the governor’s closing argument:

“Take those four tapes as they are and you, I believe in fairness, will recognize and acknowledge those are conversations relating to the things all of us in politics do in order to run campaigns and try to win elections.”

If true, the problem is a lot bigger than our ex-governor.