Capital Bill
The main reason that the General assembly was back in session yesterday was to deal with SB 2414. The capital bill needed legislative action in order to prevent the stoppage of capital and road projects across the state. The amended version of the bill, which was supported by IEA, would have generated an additional $430 million in revenue for education and human services. At the end of the day, the House was opposed to any additional spending and therefore the revenue limits which were set at the beginning of the session remained intact. The bill passed the Senate 52-0. It now awaits the Governor’s action.
Collective Bargaining
There was not enough support in the State Senate for them to call SB 1556. The legislation, which had been initiated by the Governor, called for a limitation on who was within the provisions of the collective bargaining law. The proposal would have impacted potentially several thousand workers. The IEA was neutral on the bill but worked along with IFT, AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU.
What’s Next
The next time the General Assembly is scheduled to be in session is Veto session on October 25-27 and November 8-10, 2011.
Illinois Education Association is an association of more than 130,000 members composed of Illinois elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.