Bears, budget and other bills: Legislators discuss recent session at Mount Prospect chamber event

A trio of legislators spoke about the recent General Assembly session at a breakfast Wednesday hosted by the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce at the Old Orchard Country Club.

Not surprisingly, the Bears topped the agenda, but the panel, consisting of State Reps. Nicolle Grasse, Mary Beth Canty and Michelle Mussman and moderated by chamber President Trisha Chokshi, covered a wide range of issues handled by the House.

Canty explained how a bill passed by the House in April offered a framework for development of a stadium or other megaprojects in the state. It would have given each of the taxing bodies within a mega-project district a weighted vote on any incentive deal and set minimums for incentive payments.

“We did it this way, because we know that development can be really good for communities, but it doesn’t always look the same from Chicago to Arlington Heights to Mount Prospect to Cairo,” the Arlington Heights Democrat said. “We needed all of our communities to be able to take advantage of this program.”

What the Senate sent back at 11 p.m. Sunday was “a wholly different concept” she was told it was similar in structure to the deal the Bears received from Indiana.

“I think what Indiana put out there was a bad deal for their taxpayers and the people that live there, so I would not have a strong interest in doing that to the people of Illinois,” she explained.

“We really didn’t have an opportunity to vet the proposal,” said Mussman, a Schaumburg Democrat. “We will continue trying to work on it.”

Grasse, who said her committees focus on health and human services appropriations, pointed out that Illinois’ roughly $56 billion budget includes nearly $40 billion in funds for education, health care, social services and public safety.

However, the Arlington Heights Democrat argued the state’s regressive tax structure does not generate enough revenue to sustain those priorities. Since 2000, she said, overall budget spending has increased by about 8.5%, while revenue has only grown by about 1.2%.

She warned the state will have to try to backfill about $51 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade. She said the program pays for nearly half of all births in Illinois and more than 90% of seniors in skilled nursing homes.

Mussman also touted the passage of a bill she sponsored placing limits on the use of cellphones in schools. She acknowledged every school district already had the ability to adopt its own restrictions. But she said the bill was meant to create more uniform rules and guidance for students needing their phones for translation services, special-education plans or diabetes monitoring.