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Talk-Line: Li Arellano on redistricting, DCFS and more · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: We are quarter past the hour. This is Friday, It's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: August fifteen, the year is twenty twenty five, and it's
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  Speaker 1: time for another informational edition of Tuckline. Here at AM
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  Speaker 1: fourteen sixteen FM ninety five one Wixent. Good morning, I'm
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  Speaker 1: Steve Marco. It is time for our Springfield Legislative update
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  Speaker 1: for August of twenty twenty five, and to deliver the
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  Speaker 1: information from Springfield and from his own district, District thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven here in the state of Illinois is our state
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  Speaker 1: Senator out of Dixon. Our good friend Lee Arolano is
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  Speaker 1: lied with us at the microphones this morning here at
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  Speaker 1: w iaccent.
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  Speaker 2: Senator, Good morning, always good to be here. Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: Nice to have you back from Springfield after a run
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  Speaker 3: through the Illinois State Fair.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was just down there for a couple of days.
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  Speaker 4: I was there last week for the State Fair and
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  Speaker 4: get some work done in town and a lot happening.
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  Speaker 4: I've been to the State Fair before, not spent quite
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  Speaker 4: as much time there as I have this year, and
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  Speaker 4: it's really a good time. There's a lot of good music,
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  Speaker 4: there's a lot of good events. Unfortunately, for the last
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  Speaker 4: couple of days, you know, school's been slowly starting up,
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  Speaker 4: so I couldn't take my kids. But it's festival season everywhere.
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  Speaker 4: I got to take my kids to the Mendota Sweet
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  Speaker 4: Corn Festival, which is in district. Obviously, Whiteside County fairs
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  Speaker 4: coming up. Lee County had their four h fair. Ogul's
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  Speaker 4: coming up. So we're right in the middle of festival
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  Speaker 4: season and fair season, and it's fun.
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  Speaker 2: Especially when you have kids. It's a real good time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again there's been some interesting happenings at the
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  Speaker 1: state fair that we are going to kind of issue
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  Speaker 1: because we just had a couple of political days we
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  Speaker 1: did in state We did so this last week I
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  Speaker 1: was down for Agriculture Day, and of course the thirty
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  Speaker 1: seventh District very agricultural, one of the most agricultural districts
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  Speaker 1: in Illinois.
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  Speaker 4: We have a lot of corn and soybean production, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of ethanol power production out of egg and so
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  Speaker 4: this week I was down for the political days. So
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  Speaker 4: they have their Democratic Day. They had the minority leader
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  Speaker 4: of our Congress in town, Hakeem Jeffries to talk to them.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, the governor talked and yesterday it was Republican Day.
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  Speaker 4: So we started to see some of the statewide candidates
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  Speaker 4: that would be running for governor, running for comptroller, secretary
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  Speaker 4: of state, and we had a bit of a national
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  Speaker 4: flair because jerry mandering has been so much in the news,
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  Speaker 4: which is been one of my big issues for almost
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  Speaker 4: two decades.
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  Speaker 2: We had a video sent in from the Texas governor.
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  Speaker 4: The leader of the Texas GOP was there to kind
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  Speaker 4: of talk about some of those efforts and impacts. And
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  Speaker 4: for me, like I've been kind of in the middle
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  Speaker 4: of this topic the last couple of weeks because I
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  Speaker 4: am very much against jerrymandering, and not just state jerrymandering,
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  Speaker 4: county lines, city lines.
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  Speaker 2: I think they're very important ethical.
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  Speaker 4: Reforms when you draw these political maps to make sure
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  Speaker 4: they're focused on people now focused on protecting power. And
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  Speaker 4: the worse you draw these political lines, the more you
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  Speaker 4: repress voters based on their geography or their political ideology
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  Speaker 4: or the way you and your computer demographics think they're
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  Speaker 4: going to vote. And it became state news because the
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  Speaker 4: governor and some folks might remember this back when he
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  Speaker 4: first ran for office six years ago, he had promised
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  Speaker 4: to veto any partisan map. He had never been in
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  Speaker 4: political office before, he was running as a reformer, he said,
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  Speaker 4: this is one of the things I'm going to reform.
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  Speaker 2: He made a pledge.
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  Speaker 4: Even after he was elected, he had a spokesman issue
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  Speaker 4: a press release saying, the Governor's been clear he will
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  Speaker 4: veto you know, any partisan map. And then as soon
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  Speaker 4: as the maps got done after the census, Illinois became
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  Speaker 4: one of the most jerrymandered states in the Union for
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  Speaker 4: the congressional map, because there's the state Senate maps, the
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  Speaker 4: state rep maps, the congressional maps, all of them are
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  Speaker 4: are jerrymandered. In Illinois, the congressional maps are some of
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  Speaker 4: the worst in the nation. In the last election cycle,
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  Speaker 4: forty eight percent of Illinoisans voted for a Republican congressman.
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  Speaker 4: Eighteen percent of the delegation actually is Republican, three out
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  Speaker 4: of seventeen. And so this became national news because the governor,
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  Speaker 4: and I think we all know he's kind of you know,
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  Speaker 4: he was in Boston when I was there for the
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  Speaker 4: Legislative conference talking to a national audience. He was on
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  Speaker 4: national TV a couple times this past week, and he
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  Speaker 4: decided to talk about jerrymandering because you know, I think
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  Speaker 4: he wants to run for president. He's grabbing every national
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  Speaker 4: issue and trying to put himself in front of it.
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  Speaker 4: And he got taken to task both here locally by US,
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  Speaker 4: but on Steve Colbert on meet the Press, because he
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  Speaker 4: should not be the face of jerrymandering reform. He had
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  Speaker 4: the opportunity to bring reform to the state and he
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  Speaker 4: went absolutely the opposite direction, and he got the rewards
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  Speaker 4: from it. They have a super majority, They get tons
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  Speaker 4: of corporate money and sponsorships based on all these seats
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  Speaker 4: they hold. You know, if we had fair maps, Illinois
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  Speaker 4: is almost a fifty to fifty stank and there are
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  Speaker 4: a lot of conversations about financial reforms and ethical reforms
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  Speaker 4: and geographic coalitions that could be built that aren't possible
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  Speaker 4: because of these maps. And it actually sharpens the Chicago
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  Speaker 4: versus rural divide. On a fair map, there would be
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  Speaker 4: a lot less resentment of Chicago, and Chicago would be
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  Speaker 4: a lot more incentivized to work with the suburban and
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  Speaker 4: rural regions. And that's the way it had been under
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  Speaker 4: governors like Edgar and maybe the decades before that. You
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  Speaker 4: never saw these sharp divisions, and certainly there was always
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  Speaker 4: maybe a little animosity to Chicago on some things, But
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  Speaker 4: it wasn't like we see today exactly. The money divide
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  Speaker 4: wasn't as big, the power grabbing wasn't as big. And
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  Speaker 4: so I've told people way before this became national news.
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  Speaker 4: I mentioned it in my town halls earlier this year.
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  Speaker 4: The number one ethical reform that I think Illinois needs
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  Speaker 4: is jerrymandering reform. In the actual elections. For example, you
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  Speaker 4: have less extreme districts, and so you tend to elect,
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  Speaker 4: whether it's a Republican or Democrat who wins, someone who's
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  Speaker 4: more focused on the will of the general public and
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  Speaker 4: the district as a whole. Whereas if you're in a
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  Speaker 4: jerrymandered urban district in Chicago and you know you're never
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  Speaker 4: going to have a serious general election opponent, you don't
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  Speaker 4: care about the general public exactly. You care about your
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  Speaker 4: left flank, or if you're an extreme Republican district, your
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  Speaker 4: right flank, and that's all you focus on. There's no
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  Speaker 4: incentive to have common sense legislation, and that tilts the
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  Speaker 4: field in favor of Chicago, because that's how this particular
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  Speaker 4: state is jerrymandered. And some of the financial forms that
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  Speaker 4: I desperately want to see things to address state impacts
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  Speaker 4: on mandates and property taxes, right, things about transparency laws.
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  Speaker 4: We know they're not going to happen under this jerrymandered map.
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  Speaker 4: You know, the state constitution, I think I talked about
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  Speaker 4: this last time, requires at least three days of seeing
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  Speaker 4: a language before you vote on a bill. I saw
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  Speaker 4: some of the budget language five hours beforehand. But because
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  Speaker 4: they have a supermajority, they can just pass the law,
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  Speaker 4: say it's legal. They jerrymandered the Supreme Court and so
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  Speaker 4: they refuse to hear the case. They won't say it's
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  Speaker 4: legal or illegal, they just refuse to hear the case.
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  Speaker 4: And so we're violating the state constitution, we're violating transparency laws,
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  Speaker 4: we're not truly balancing our budget, and there's no repercussions.
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  Speaker 4: And I think all of that would either be solved
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  Speaker 4: or well on the road to being solved if neither
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  Speaker 4: party could draw the voters into a map to repress
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  Speaker 4: their vote and keep their own power. And so I've
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  Speaker 4: been going at the governor hard about it. I don't
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  Speaker 4: think anyone should do it, any party, any states, but
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  Speaker 4: especially in Illinois where it's been so sharp. That's to me,
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  Speaker 4: probably my number one issue. And I'll close on that note.
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  Speaker 4: If anybody said to me lee after your first session,
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  Speaker 4: you've seen the power dynamics, you've seen the ethics, you've
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  Speaker 4: seen the finances. If you could change one policy, one
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  Speaker 4: thing in Illinois, what would it be. And my answer
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  Speaker 4: would be to have fair maps that don't repress voters,
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  Speaker 4: because then the voters would be empowered to fix many
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  Speaker 4: of the things that are problems in Illinois, not just finances.
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  Speaker 4: But you go right down the line, that would be
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  Speaker 4: the thing is we need a nonpartisan map making every
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  Speaker 4: census kind of like Iowa, Indiana and some other states do,
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  Speaker 4: to take the power away from politicians and give it
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  Speaker 4: back to the people.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And again, you know, the shapes of the district is
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  Speaker 1: another joke.
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  Speaker 2: You're a national joke exactly.
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  Speaker 3: That you have to well that that the representatives and
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  Speaker 3: the senators have to contend with, right, I mean, in
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  Speaker 3: your in your travels, you have to travel great distances
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  Speaker 3: because you are, you know, in a district which which
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  Speaker 3: encompasses you just.
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  Speaker 2: You know, and especially for the people too.
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  Speaker 4: You know, there are parts of my district that are
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  Speaker 4: two hours away and they shouldn't be. And so I
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  Speaker 4: have to work harder to get there, you know, they
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  Speaker 4: have to work harder to get to their force and representative.
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  Speaker 4: I had somebody in Peoria tell me once, They said,
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  Speaker 4: you know, Lee, I like you, I support you, I'm glad,
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  Speaker 4: I'm glad you're here, but nobody from Dixon should be
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  Speaker 4: representing me in Peory. And I said, you know what,
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  Speaker 4: I agree with you. And if I ever get a
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  Speaker 4: chance to vote not to be your senator because we
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  Speaker 4: have fair maps, I pledge to you I will take
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  Speaker 4: that vote because it's not fair to the people when
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  Speaker 4: they're so separated from their their representatives and their senators.
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  Speaker 3: And it's unfortunate right now, Senator, that we are seeing
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  Speaker 3: the spillover again from this.
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  Speaker 5: Is a spillover, this is this is a spill And
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  Speaker 5: it's interesting that Illinois, you know, is kind of backseating
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  Speaker 5: this right right now and letting California, Texas, you know,
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  Speaker 5: be the spotlight of what we have.
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  Speaker 4: As you mentioned, was the Yeah, I kind of laughed.
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  Speaker 4: I mean I was angry, but I kind of laughed
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  Speaker 4: when the governor said, well, we'll just Jerrymander of Texas
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  Speaker 4: does and I thought, how you got us down to
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  Speaker 4: eighteen percent. The reason they stopped the jerrymander at three
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  Speaker 4: Republican seats wasn't because they suddenly had a burst of ethics.
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  Speaker 4: It was because mathematically and demographically, they were worried if
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  Speaker 4: they chopped it down to two, they would have deluded
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  Speaker 4: other congressional districts too much and we might have won
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  Speaker 4: two or three seats back they would have lost it.
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  Speaker 4: So they stopped because this is that's as far as
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  Speaker 4: they thought they can go. So there's a part of
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  Speaker 4: me that says, let's open it up, Governor, let's open
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  Speaker 4: these maps up, and let's have a conversation about the
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  Speaker 4: new maps, because you probably demographically will make a mistake.
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  Speaker 3: Is it that important? Is it that important in this
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  Speaker 3: decade maybe of politics that we see this happening now?
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  Speaker 3: To me, exactly, it.
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  Speaker 4: Is the most important part of the next four years
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  Speaker 4: for me. To me, we should be focused in Illinois
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  Speaker 4: on ethical reforms for the next couple of years, transparency
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  Speaker 4: reform to defend the state constitution, gerrymandering reforms, and policy
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  Speaker 4: reforms in terms of how we create laws, to create
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  Speaker 4: a more ethical process and to try to balance the
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  Speaker 4: geographical division. And that needs to be the focus by
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  Speaker 4: the next census. If Illinois has those fixed or at
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  Speaker 4: least improved, then the twenty thirties in Illinois could and
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  Speaker 4: should be an era of growth and healing, of getting
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  Speaker 4: out of debt and re empowering what should be one
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  Speaker 4: of the most economically powerful states in the United States
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  Speaker 4: of America. But we will not be able to get
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  Speaker 4: the financial reforms to get out of debt, lower property
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  Speaker 4: taxes empower the economic development if we do not get
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  Speaker 4: the ethical reforms. So that should be our focus, and
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  Speaker 4: I relate it to my time as mayor. I was
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  Speaker 4: lucky when I came in as Mayor of Dixon in
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  Speaker 4: this sense, I inherited a lot of bad finances, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of bad things. The counsel and I the new
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  Speaker 4: council and I had a lot of reform work to do,
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  Speaker 4: but they had caught and gotten rid of the person
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  Speaker 4: who was creating the corruption. The challenge we have in Illinois,
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  Speaker 4: and I saw this during my first term, is the
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  Speaker 4: culture of corruption in Springfield is still there. There are
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  Speaker 4: still people on trial. One of my senate colleagues is
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  Speaker 4: on trial for bribery. We just spent sent the comment
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  Speaker 4: Ford to jail in Madigan. But a lot of the
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  Speaker 4: people Madigan left behind, including his handpicked new speaker, are there.
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  Speaker 4: My Senate President is currently being looked at for ten
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  Speaker 4: million in bad and bad money given to his campaigns
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  Speaker 4: that he gives to his candidates. Right, And so I
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  Speaker 4: could go right down the line. I've already talked in
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  Speaker 4: the past about the corruption and how the budgets are
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  Speaker 4: passed and how they're not truly balanced. So the challenge
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  Speaker 4: I have down in Springfield is we have not gotten
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  Speaker 4: rid of the corruption, the ethics of power and money
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  Speaker 4: over people in good policy that have been destroying Illinois
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  Speaker 4: and have affected both parties to some degree. We've the
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  Speaker 4: last four governors, two Republicans, two Democrats. I think they
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  Speaker 4: were all bad. I think our last good governor, certainly
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  Speaker 4: financially was Edgar and that is going back almost to
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  Speaker 4: the last century.
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  Speaker 2: So we've had a quarter century.
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  Speaker 4: Of people who pick politics and giving people jobs and
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  Speaker 4: corruption over people, and we need to get that flipped,
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  Speaker 4: regardless of party. And that's how our current governor ran.
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  Speaker 4: He said he was going to be a reformer, and
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  Speaker 4: that's why this has been national news is because he lied.
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  Speaker 4: He flipped on that campaign promise and now he's going
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  Speaker 4: after national folks for doing the same thing. And you know, Governor,
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  Speaker 4: you're just not a good spokesman on this. You should
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: have sat that issue out. This is one you should
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  Speaker 4: have tried to just duck low and pretend you hadn't
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  Speaker 4: been a hypocrite on it, because Illinois needs that reform desperately.
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  Speaker 1: Our State Senator lie Airelano voicing his opinions here at
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  Speaker 1: WIX during his time. It's our Springfield legislative Update for
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  Speaker 1: August of twenty twenty five. We're going to take a
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  Speaker 1: break for news first to the bottom of the hour,
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  Speaker 1: but Senator, we've got I had other issues to discuss,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll do that between eight thirty and nine.
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  Speaker 3: Next on w i.
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  Speaker 1: Axents, we continue our conversation with our thirty seven district
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  Speaker 1: Illinois State Senator out of Dixon. Our good friend Lee
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  Speaker 1: Arolano joins us this morning that the microphones for our
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Springfield legislative Update for twenty twenty five in the month
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  Speaker 1: of August, and Senator, I guess we concentrated a lot
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  Speaker 1: on one topic in the last half hour, except but
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  Speaker 1: an important time it really was.
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  Speaker 2: It is, yeah, the ethics reforms.
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  Speaker 4: I mean that's part of why I'm doing this job,
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  Speaker 4: is my belief and the need for ethics reforms and
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: financial reforms. But Angry ran done. We can move on
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  Speaker 4: to some of the positive things.
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  Speaker 2: Happening well as we work our way through the summer.
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  Speaker 3: As you mentioned, it's kind of been a busy summer
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: of politics, and you know, the state of Illinois.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Politic has been.
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  Speaker 4: There's been a lot of bills signings recently, including on
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: some of the bills that I was co sponsors of. So,
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: for example, we have a new bill that will focus
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: on how to get new farmers, yes, young farmer specifically
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: into owning agricultural land in Illinois. That's a big deal
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: because we've seen out of state ownership of land, we've
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: seen foreign ownership of farmland. That is both a national
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: and a statewide and a local concern. We want our
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: young farmers getting the land around here. They're more invested
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: in our community. It's just much better for our agricultural economy.
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  Speaker 4: That is one of the anchors in Illinois.
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  Speaker 2: So that was a bill.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: There was some bill dealing with pfasts, which are forever
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: chemicals and things like firefighters suits, so they're going into
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: fires in these suits with these chemicals that we're.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Trying to protect people from.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: A bill to help protect access to the elderly by
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: family members going into nursing homes and things of that nature.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: I've already had some constituents meet with me this summer
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  Speaker 4: about how to extend that to family members of folks
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: and developmentally disabled community. So that's been an ongoing topic
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: of discussion. Things for like financial taxi vultures and grants
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: for people who have been victims of sexual assault, making
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: sure some more of their care is covered than is
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: currently covered. I will be working on advancing that even
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: further next session. For example, Shining Star here locally, one
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  Speaker 4: of our state's children Advocacy centers helps provide medical and
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: other services for children of sexual assault. They have to
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: actually fundraise because the state doesn't provide money to pay
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: for some of those medical exams, which blew my mind.
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  Speaker 4: So that's something I'm going to be working on. Tiny
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: homes for veterans. There's all these I think pretty decent bills.
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  Speaker 4: They're not kind of some of the big ethical and
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: financial reforms that I would like to see happen and
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: that I've introduced bill on, but we're still getting work
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  Speaker 4: done where we can where there is some bipartisan agreement.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: On the flip side, obviously, Senator, there are a couple
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  Speaker 1: of bills that you really have taken note of, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: one a controvertyl bill that would increase the burden on
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: job creators and working families.
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  Speaker 3: This is a very and I think you touched on
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  Speaker 3: this the last time we talked.
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  Speaker 1: I want to say it's SB three twenty eight. It's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the bill that allows out of state plaintiffs to sue
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: out of state businesses in the state of Illinois, although
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: they don't have anything to do with Illinois.
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  Speaker 4: And that bill was crazy because that's another one of
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  Speaker 4: those unethical processes where they introduced the bill hours before the.
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  Speaker 2: End of session.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: So this is one of the many bills that they got.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: The entire original bill. They introduced brand new language. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: should be against the Illinois Constitution which requires three days
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: to read language, but they have a supermajority, so they
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: just ignore that and they gutted this whole bill, put
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: in new language and allow people to sue other people,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: and they basically they call it lawsuit tourism. They get
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: to pick their venue where they think they're going to
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: get a faboral result, which drives up inflation because you
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: have more huge lawsuit outcomes and they don't even have
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: to sue in their own state. And Chicago is known,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: it's rated nationally as one of the best place is
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: to sue somebody, because the trial lawyers like to make
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: a lot of money. They get a percentage of the
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: settlements and of the lawsuits, and they have controlled the
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Chicago courts and they have a lot of connections to
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: the political power in Chicago. And so now people from
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: outside the state want to sue people in Chicago. And
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: so this law makes it easier to shoot people in Chicago,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: even if you don't have a business in Chicago, and
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: even if you yourself don't live in Chicago. And this
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: idea has been vetoed by the New York governor. So
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: this isn't like a democratic versus Republican things. There are
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: democratic leaders in relatively liberal states who said, no, this
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: is bad for the economy, this is bad for the
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: justice system. We shouldn't do that. It's been tried in
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Illinois and never moved. And they introduced that language in
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: a gut and replaced bill hours before, while we were
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the budget fight trying to fiure
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: out what's going on the budget, they dropped this language
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: in and slid it through, and of course the Chamber
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: of Commerce went crazy, the business groups went crazy. The
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: justice Justice reform like tort reform, groups are very angry,
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: and quite frankly, consumers should be angry because this drives
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: up costs. If businesses are getting sued all the time
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: with little of the normal oversight from a normal court system.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: You know who pays for the settlements of businesses. It
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: is the consumer exactly. Either the business fails or they
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: have to pass cost to the consumer. So we don't
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: want bad actors to get away with things, but we
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: also don't want lawsuits flying everywhere.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Well, and now has that passed?
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I mean it is.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, We've been calling on the governor to veto it.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: We were hoping he would do what you know, Governor,
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: the governor of New York did. I believe he has
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: signed it. I think he has since signed it and
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: it's going to be law, and so well, we'll see.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Now that's another example not to go back to jerry mandering.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: This is a bill that absolutely wouldn't have passed if
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: you had people more focused on the general public and
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: less focused on special interests.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: All right, well, you have issues concerning DCFS.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: That is I mean, that could be, That could be
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: a book. I'll start off by saying I have met
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: multiple times with the current director of DCFS. I think
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: she is a good woman, appointed appointed by Governor Pritzker.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: I think she's working hard. She has inherited a mess
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: that goes back multiple parties, multiple governors, multiple administrations, but
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: we still don't have it fixed. And at the end
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: of the day, that has to be the standards. We
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: have literally hundreds of young children have died under DCFS
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: care and watch and in this most recent case, and
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: I don't want to go too far into the details
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: because I'm still studying it, but we appear to have
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: a caseworker who was contracted out because the state is
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: underfunded and desperate for people, so they contracted it out.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: This woman has some interesting the caseworker parts of her
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: background that probably shouldn't have survelved a background check. There's
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: been accusations that she was copying and pasting notes from visits,
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: so there's a question of whether she even made some
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: of her most recent visits that she documented to this
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: home where the young girl died, and what ended up
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: happening is a worse and worse case for this foster
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: child and ended up being murdered by her foster mother
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: and another member of that family. And we've seen things
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: like this too often. And I want to be careful
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: with this topic because I think we have some great
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: employees at DCFS who have too many cases and are overworked,
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: and that's getting better. And I think DCFS has kind
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: of been, you know, trying to get itself out of this,
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: but we're not there yet, and no one from either
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: party should be there yet. And this is one of
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: those issues. I think if we were in session, you
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: would see bipartisan look at like this is another issue
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: that's not Republican or Democrat. This is we have a problem.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: We have not taken care of this agency for decades.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: We're still struggling to take care of it, and children
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: are dying, literally dying, and that should be at the top.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Of all of our lists.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, Senator, we only have a couple of minutes
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: left in our talk line today, but we will live
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: visn't eating with you down the line, but obviously as
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: we wrap up the summer of twenty twenty five, you're
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: going to be making stops. Obviously you've been making stops
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: in your district. Yeah, you know, at various events. We've
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: got to Amboy Depot Days coming up. We've got some
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: county fairs still, Whiteside County Fairs being held over Morrison.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: We've got the activities you know coming up all over
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the district. And you've had your town halls. So yeah,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I've had my town halls.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: I have some traveling office hours next Tuesday in the
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: city of Peoria and Germantown Hills again, trying to get
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: to those far away corners of my Jerrymanor district and
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: not ignore people. But it is festival season. Please get out,
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: support your local community, you know, talk to your local vendors,
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: have a little fun. I did go to Boston recently
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: for a legislative conference. I actually stayed in a hostel
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: to save the taxpayers a bunch of money. So that
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: was that was a fun experience. Reminds me of my
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: military time. But did some legislative learning, yes, yes, And
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: so there's a lot of a lot of good things
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: happening too. And you know I'll end on this note.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: You know, now is the time when we're not in
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: session where I'm getting bill ideas. I'm talking to the public.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: So if there's people out there that have thoughts or
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: ideas on bills, or have a piece of how Illinois
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: works that they think I should see, reach out to
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: my office, you know, set up a visit, set up
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: a call, or shoot an email to my staff. I've
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: already gotten this summer three new bill ideas that I
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: think I'm going to propose from my constituents, and so
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: their voices, their ideas are going to be presented in
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Springfield and Jane, and I still got months left to go.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: So everyone out there, if you got a good idea
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: that you think I should be thinking about, reach out
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: and let me know absolutely.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: And you've had your grand opening of offices.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I see.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: So Dixon is staffed all the time. I have remote
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: offices in Peoria and Geneseo. I mentioned I'll be in
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Peoria Tuesday. And so Nancy Naylor is my chief of staff.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: She's also on the Lee County Board, and she is
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: in the Dixon office most of the time. If she's
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: not at an event or on County business and we're
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: always available by phone. So you know, for locally here
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: people have the best of it. They don't have to
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: worry about the jerry mandard maps because this is where
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: our main office is and state represented Fritz has an
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: office in the area as.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Well, so exactly, and you know, obviously, you know the
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: summer is going to give way. We do have some
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: business upcoming then, right.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there, So there had been a lot of talk
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: with the federal big beautiful bill as it were, that
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: we were going to have a special session. I kind
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: of thought that was all some political theater, and I
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: think it was because they haven't called us back. So
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: our next regular session is veto session in November, and
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: that is where I think the Amazon tax, the online
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: dollar fifty tax for Chicago transit, I think that is
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: going to be a hot topic. It's already past the Senate,
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: but if they do changes in the House, it'll have
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: to come back to the Senate for concurrence. So I
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: think both chambers will be discussing that, and then I
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: think we're going to have to take a look at
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: some of the medicaid implications of the national bill because
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: Illinois has poor performance numbers in some of these areas,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: and for example, in the SNAP changes, you get punished
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: by the FEDS if you have bad performance numbers, if
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: you have too much fraud in your food stamp and
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: your SNAP system. And so I think hopefully the governor,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: when he's done talking about the issue and we're back
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: in session, we're actually going to take some action on.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: The issue, and that'll be in November.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Senator Lie Arolano of Dixon, we thank you so very
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: much for the time spent with us. Always a pleasure
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: having you on board and look forward to more discussion.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Thanks always glad to be here, our state Senator Lie Arolano,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: our guest today on the talk line here at W
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and Sports First, isn't it