Lawmakers pulling plug on Quinn's veto power

SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's scorecard on preserving his vetoes of legislation is not looking good halfway through the General Assembly's fall session.

Lawmakers in at least one house have voted to override a third of the 18 bills the Democrat vetoed last summer. They've accepted only two, both of which simply change the laws' effective dates. One failed to get enough votes in the Senate to override.

Some lawmakers say the governor hasn't shown initiative in pushing his agenda — not trying, for example, to persuade lawmakers to adopt his idea for direct citizen initiative in the legislative process, which he added to one bill through veto authority that allows him to amend bills.

The spotty performance could be a foreshadowing of things to come for Quinn, who is ready to begin his first full term in January.

How a governor fares in the fall "veto session" doesn't often spell doom or glory. But last year, when Quinn was an unelected governor filling a spot vacated by the ousted Rod Blagojevich, 11 of his 12 outright vetoes survived, while about 30 percent of his amendatory vetoes remained intact.

Not only has Quinn inserted in legislation proposals that would fundamentally change government, such as through citizen initiative and by opening up primary elections, he also made key changes to legislation that would weaken the Freedom of Information Act and set up a commission to review government programs for potential spending cuts.

But don't count Quinn out just yet. There are still three days of work left for lawmakers in the second week of the fall session, which resumes on Tuesday. At least eight vetoes await action, and most of those that have fallen to override votes must still go through the Senate, where Quinn could still bring pressure.

In some cases, a Quinn veto might have served his purpose even if in the end, legislators reject it.

The General Assembly sent Quinn 625 pieces of legislation this year. Quinn vetoed 18 — including using his veto amendment power on the two rewrites to include citizen initiative and create an open primary in which voters no longer need to declare for which political party they're voting.

The citizen initiative idea got tacked on through an amendatory veto to a bill that would modernize the way the names of deceased voters are removed from registration rolls. Quinn's provision would allow citizens to write legislation on ethics or campaign finance and with enough signatures, force lawmakers to vote on it.

That bill is an example of how recent governors have, in legislators' view, exceeded their constitutional authority to amend legislation with vetoes, essentially rewriting a bill with new initiatives.

Rep. Dan Brady feared that his bill on purging voter rolls of names of dead voters would become "hostage" to Quinn's changes. But the Bloomington Republican said he's unaware of House members the Quinn administration lobbied to preserve his veto. When the issue came up on the floor, no one even mentioned the changes as lawmakers voted 106-7 to override.

"As you went further into the campaign season, maybe there wasn't time to work that bill," Brady said of Quinn's handling of the legislation. "The vote tally would indicate that if they worked it, they didn't work it very hard."

Quinn's office didn't respond to a request for specific examples where the governor has worked to persuade lawmakers to uphold his vetoes. But spokeswoman Annie Thompson says the governor stands by his actions and wants to see them approved.

"The administration continues working with members of the General Assembly to strengthen government accountability, support education and preserve the services on which Illinois families rely," Thompson said.

Another example of legislation Quinn substantially changed deals with creation of an Internet voters' guide. Quinn rewrote the bill to eliminate party declaration in primary elections, for a long time a quest of reformers and a practice safeguarded by political parties not wanting outsiders determining their nominees.

The original bill on the voters' guide passed both houses without opposition last spring, but lawmakers have yet to consider Quinn's alteration in the fall veto session that ends Dec. 2.

Less substantive changes suffered defeats similar to that of the citizen initiative veto.

A bill exempting personnel records from the newly re-energized Freedom of Information Act survived after the House rejected Quinn's change to exempt only those reports of law enforcement officials. That bill now moves to the Senate.

Also awaiting Senate action is legislation setting up a "sunshine commission" of four lawmakers and four other taxpayers to examine every state government program to determine its effectiveness and efficiency. The state is facing what could be a $15 billion deficit by the end of the budget year next spring.

Quinn amended the measure to give the governor four appointments, specify that members have expertise in social services, health care, labor, and education and require the commission to conduct public meetings.

It went down in a House override vote of 91-22. But sponsor Rep. David Reis said Quinn might have won the battle, if not the war.

Had the governor signed the bill after it reached his desk in late May, the commission could have started work right away — and potentially turned up some embarrassing expenditures during a tough re-election campaign, Reis said.

"More than anything, the governor just didn't want any of this stuff going on this summer," said Reis, R-Willow Hill. "He made radical changes to the bill that quite frankly could have been made earlier in the year."