Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: State Senator Li Arellano of Dixon

Transcript

Talk-Line: State Senator Li Arellano of Dixon · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are quarter past the hour. This is Friday, It's June,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth. Year is twenty twenty five, and it's time
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: for another informational edition of Tukline here at AM fourteen
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: sixty and FM ninety five to one Wixent. Good morning,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Steve Marco. Time to talk about politics and legislation.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's time for our legislative update from Springfield, and we
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: get it every month with our legislators hopping aboard with
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: us here at your source in the Sock Valley. His
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: turn is today. He is our thirty seventh district State
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Senator out of Dixon. He is live with us by
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: telephone this morning, again talking to us. I believe the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Chicago land area. Today, our state Senator out of Dixon, Learrolano,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: joins us by phone this morning here at Wixent.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Senator, good morning, good morning, always good to be on.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Well, it is nice to have you, sir on and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I guess explanations upfront. Usually our senator is with us live.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: He likes to join us live at the microphones whenever
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: he gets an opportunity. But Senator, you've got some work
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I understand this week, did I did? Yeah? NOMA. I
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: love being in the studio there and chatting. For the
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: next days. I'm actually at a legislative exchange where state
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: legislators from all across the country come together share ideas.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I'll be doing two of those this year. Good news
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: is none of it's charged to the taxpayers, so you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: this doesn't cost any extra and their state senator gets
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to learn a little bit more about how to do
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: his job effectively. So the goal of this particular conference
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: is focusing on minority party legislators, especially from rural areas,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: how you can be effective, how you can make an impact,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: sharing different ideas on successful approaches, and sharing legislative ideas.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: And so that's what I started doing last night and
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I'll be doing that through Saturday. So even though we're
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: not in session anymore, I'm still learning and preparing, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: you know, it's fun to talk to other legislators and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: get a little mentoring and here's some experience from those
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: who've been doing it and how other states do it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Where I am right.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Now, absolutely can't hurt, you know, to put in some
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: extra time educating and getting information, especially from other venues.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And it's not just the State of Illinois, right, Senator,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this is all over the.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Nation, correct, exactly. I thought I was talking to a
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: legislator from Soda, Colorado, Nevada. You know, folks from all
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: across the country.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So Senator is speaking to us from the Chicago Land
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: area today as he takes part in those conferences this weekend.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: But we're happy to have him on board with us
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: during his busy time here at w i XM. Senator,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you mentioned the wrap up of the legislative session, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that's exactly where we want to start this morning with
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: our talk line today is the wrap up of the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: most recent legislative session through the state of Illinois. It
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: did so from April into May and May into June.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Of course, then we wrap things up with the legislative session. Senator,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it kind of all came about, came, I guess to
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a pinnacle with the budget being passed for the state
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of Illinois, and very interesting first of all, the scenario
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: behind the passage of the budget, Senator, and obviously what
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the budget holds in store for the state of Illinois
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: now as we move forward.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. You know, when when I talked to
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you last a couple of months ago, you know, it's
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: fairly positive. I mean, I really enjoyed committee work. I
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: would say the first eighty to ninety percent of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: year is fairly collaborative. Obviously, when you're in the minority party,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: you don't get as much input as you'd like, but
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: there is inclusion and discussion and opportunities to change things.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: When you get to the budget, they control the money
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: very tightly. There was no input, not just from freshman senators,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: from even the whole minority party and even some of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the rank and file members of the own majority Democratic
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Party don't get a lot of it, but they would.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: They would tell you that. They told me that, So
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't I did not enjoy from an
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: ethical point of view, watching what was happening in the
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: final couple weeks, for example, that you know, there's three
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: major bills that make up the budget in Illinois. There
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: is the it itself, which is the appropriations. There is
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the revenue Bill, which included over a billion in tax
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: increases this year on top of our existing taxes. And
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: then there's the budget implementation Bill, which kind of gives
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: some narrative and guidance them how to do it. And
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the revenue Bill which is generally the most controversial when
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it includes massive taxis like this. We got the language
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: about five hours before the vote. And to put that
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: in perspective, you know, these bills are thousands of pages,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: and the most important, say five hundred pages, are what
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: are completely hidden until the last moment. So all the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: committee hearings, all the stuff we had over the course
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: of the month leading up to it is, you know,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the stuff they were willing to try to have discussions
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: or build consensus about. The most critical stuff stays hidden
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: until just hours before the vote. So there's not time
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: for journalists or the public, or the minority party or
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: in some cases their own party to give input before
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: they slam it on you and say, hey, look, per
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: constitutional requirements, we have to have this pass by midnight
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: before June first, so now go vote, and by the way,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: you have to vote. So that part of the process
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: was unethical and unfair to everybody involved, except for maybe
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the handful of people who knew what was in the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: language before they.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Dropped Ith and Senator out of that vote. We have
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a budget now that is the biggest in the state
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of Illinois. Ever, Is that correct?
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. It's over fifty five billion. When you
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: include the federal inputs, it's over one hundred billion, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: it's fifty five billion that kind of week control, about
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: two billion more than last year. It's gone up, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: this is one of the criticisms Republicans have. Even with inflation,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: it's gone up about thirty seven percent since the governor
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: took office, but fifteen billion dollars, right, And so there's
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: been a lot of I would call them excuses made
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: for this final few weeks that they're blaming what's happening
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: at the federal level for why they had to put
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: so many tax increases in this budget, why they had
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: it cut. And I'll tell you bluntly, that's not true.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: The governor in November, before the federal election, announced he
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: was expecting a three billion dollar deficit in the upcoming year.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: So we all knew the economic outlook and the financial
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: outlook for the state, and they didn't change their tune
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: until there was a president from the opposing party that
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: they could try to blame. Now, I do think this summer,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: when the federal government finishes their own budget balancing process,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I do think they will call us back and there
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: will be actual impacts that we will have to deal
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: with later this year as the state of Illinois potentially
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: loses some of the federal funds that get balanced out
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: of that budget. But that had nothing to do with
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: this budget. This budget, that was just an excuse. This
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: budget was all dealing with the long term structural debt
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: in Illinois and our economic problems that we've known about
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: for a long time and quite frankly, go back or
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: even this governor goes back three or four governors, probably
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: back to Koyevitch some of these problems, and so that's
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: that's kind of what we're dealing with. We have about
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: eight billion just in this budget alone that has pensioned
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: debt payment. The total pension payment is over twelve billion.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: But when you're carrying, you know, eight billion just in
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: one format debt, it really hamstrings no matter which party
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: is in control of what you can do.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, Senator, I guess in my take on all of
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: what happened, and you talked about the unethical procedure with
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the passage of this budget was the fact that after
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: all was said and done, in the city of Springfield
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: in the state of Illinois, nobody piped up about the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: budget at all, as far as you know, we passed
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the budget. Here it is I mean, nobody really stood out.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: And this was both you know, well the Republicans obviously yes,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you know, in their regard you know, to you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: massive increases in the budget. But really nobody stepped forward
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to defend this budget.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: No. In fact, when we were giving our midnight speeches,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: not a single Democrat from the majority party really gave
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: up much defense of it, other than the sponsors of
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: the bill that kind of had to introduce the bill.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: But you know, there wasn't a lot of public defense
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: of it. And part of that is because you know,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: they're not proud of this budget. It's not a great budget.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: It has a lot of tax increases, and we'll talk
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a second maybe about the transit bill that's coming up
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: at post have over a billion more in tax increases.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: But the challenge for all of Illinois this is minority
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: party and majority party, we under you know, in the
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: past year or so, became the highest overall tax burden
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: state for our residents. And that was before these new
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: tax increases. So when you pass the budget like this,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: knowing you're the number one in the whole nation and
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the overall tax burden you put on your residence, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: you're not getting anywhere close to the number one in services,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: whether that's school systems, transportation, roadway systems, economic development. It's
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: hard to defend that. And then to go out and
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: add another billion in tax increases and prepare for adding
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: another billion and a half more for Chicago Transit, which
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I think they hoped to vote on later this summer.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It's hard to fund that, and so they just don't.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Senator tax increases, you talk about tech, where are all
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: these increases going to be taking place?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Then that's a great question. You know, I got a
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: lot of feedback from the public on the service tax
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: that was going to be huge. You know, whether you
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: know hairdressers, engineering fees, you know all these extra service
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: fees that mostly got killed. So that is one bright
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: spot coming out of this. The so called Amazon piece
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: of delivery tax, which is a bucks fifty on every
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: online delivery, whether that's the order, food delivery, whether you
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: order retail books. Closed. That passed the Senate and it
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: died in the House, but we'll probably come back as
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: part of the Cago Transit built. What did passes? There
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: are a lot more syntaxes again, they always go back
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: to them, so you know nicotine, e cigarettes, those kind
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: of things. There are more gambling taxes, embedting taxes. Uh,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: there's new taxes on marijuana. There are some They froze
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: essentially some of the estate tax to keep getting more
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: revenue there. That was a big battle, as you may
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: remember the Farm Bureau. That was their number one legislative
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: goal this year is they wanted some more tax relief
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: on what we call the death tax when you know
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: family farms are transferring hands. They wanted more exemptions. The
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: federal government gives way more exemptions, not just farms, for
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: everybody for family passage of money and their assets. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Illinois has had it frozen for a long time and
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: so we're we're like one fourth of what the federal
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: limit is. And so that really hurts rural area because
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: family farms, you get past a few million in farmland
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and equipment and then you get tax and they just
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: have to start selling off parts of their farmer business
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: to get it. So those are the kind of things
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: we're seeing in the budget here. There's a lot more
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: little taxes. There's you know, another tax on like cell
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: phones or telecommunications, that will add more money, and then
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: there's a bunch more that they're going to try to
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: do in Chicago transit. It all adds up to about
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: a billion what was passed, and then they're gonna discuss
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: more later this year.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Our State Senator Lie Arolano out of Dixon is our
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: guest today on the Friday Morning talk Line. This is
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: our Springfield legislative update for June of twenty twenty five.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Senator mentioned, you know the activity in Chicago with the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: transit situation. We're going to talk about that with the Senator.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: He's going to stick with us after Timley's news at
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the bottom of this hour, and we'll be discussing other
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: areas as we move forward into the summertime. What senator
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: plans for his summertime activities here in his district. Our
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: thirty seventh district State Senator Li Arelano of Dixon is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: our guest today on the talk line. Senator, we're going
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to take five minutes of news out for Tim Lee
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to come aboard and give us the information we need.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: But when we come back, we'll have more from State
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Senator Lee Arelano. He joins us on the talk line
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: today here at Wixent News versus next WI Exam stays,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: we continue our conversation with our Illinois state senator out
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: of Dixon from the thirty seventh District. Our state Senator
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: is Lee Arelano. He joins us live by telephone this
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: morning here at WI Accent. Senator, again, thanks for the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: extra time spent in your busy day in the Chicago
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Land area with the conferences going on. We appreciate you
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: taking time in joining us today here at w Axent. Senator,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: We're going to move right on into a topic that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you discussed. Well. Before we do that, just a quick mention.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: You know, the legislative session is over. We had many
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: bills that are waiting for governor's signature. Now is that
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the procedure now, Senator?
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Is that correct? Yeah? Yeah, So there's a little over
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I believe three hundred bills that passed post chambers. And
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: to put that in perspective, there was somewhere in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: neighborhood of seven thousand bills introduced, and you get it
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: narrowed it down. I think the Senate passed less than
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: a thousand, and then there's the ones that make it
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: through the House and vice versa, and We're down to
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood of somewhere around three hundred plus bills. There's
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: about I want to say, around somewhere between twenty five
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: and thirty that I was a co sponsor on and
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: was supporting and helping in addition to just being a vote.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And so you know, I am excited. Again. None of those,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: as we talked about in the first half, none of
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: those are really budget or finance related. They don't let
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: us near any of that. But you know, we I
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: homelessness is some bills that we got passed. Addressing that
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I got appointed just recently to the Illinois the state
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: level interagency task Force on Homelessness. That's been a growing problem.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Chicago's homelessness has tripled in recent years, in part due
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to the migration crisis that they kind of caused over there.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: You know, bills on non opioid alternatives, dealing with a dick,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: builds on mental health. So there, you know, there is
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: stuff we're getting done that I support, and I'm proud
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to be working on some of that stuff.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, as we move away, I was gonna say,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you know, and you mentioned some of the significant mills.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, Senator, you know, anything kind of stand out
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you mentioned your work, I mean anything stand out, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: as far as important legislation that we're going to see.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I think I think some of the
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: things that we're going to be doing just trying to
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: address the post effects of COVID, especially in terms of
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: mental health, and trying to increase economic opportunities. Yes, I
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: think those are big. Sadly, many of the key things
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: that I felt we needed to do this session, a
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: lot of which are financial related and kind of unshackle
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Illinois economy. I honestly think we went a bit to
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: other directions. We passed a lot more insurance mandates, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: for all the talk in both parts is about the
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: cost of health insurance, it's only going to be going
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: up from what we did. And same for some of
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: the local mandates that affect property taxes. The one part
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: of our annual budget that is for school property tax relief,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: we actually got cut from this budget, and we passed
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: new mandates in some of those other three hundred plus
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: bills that will be affecting So if anything, the state
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: of Illinois triggered people's property taxes that go even higher.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: So quite frankly, and most of the things that I
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: was passionate about, we went the wrong directions this year.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And speaking about the wrong direction, Senator, you wanted to
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: talk about an area that you mentioned during our first
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: portion of our talk line today, and that has to
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: do with Chicago transit.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So this is a huge bill, and I just
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: want to make sure our region understands what's in it,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: because our region will not be benefiting. I mentioned the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: so called Amazon tax dollars fifty on every delivery. That
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: would be the largest. I think there's nineteen others states
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: that have some version of this. We would have the
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: largest of any state, because of course we would. Unfortunately,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: but this is almost entirely going to Chicago. And so
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: there are multiple public transit in the collar counties and
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: in Chicago, and this bill is so bad and favor
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: of Chicago so much that the other counties that would
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: be benefiting it to collar counties like to Page County
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: and those right next to Cook County. They kind of revolted.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: And that's why the building's get called in the House
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: because even the counties benefiting said this is a bad deal.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: We don't have enough representation on the board. We don't
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: have enough policy oversight, and most of the money is
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: going to bail out Chicago Transit, which has been run
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: very poorly. I kind of call it the Sears effect, right,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: is when you have something you really care about that
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: once was very good, like Sears, they started throwing a
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: bunch of tax money to keep it from going bankrupt.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: But if the underlying model is being run poorly, you
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: are just wasting that money. That's what kind of the
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: rest of us, even some of the legislators in Chicago said,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: is we have to reform how this is run and
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: make it more effective before we throw money at it.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: So the Senate passed the bill anyway, with over a
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: billion and a half of bailout dollars that the vast
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: majority went to Chicago, most of the rest went to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: some of the color counties, and almost now would go
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: to So the whole state is going to pay for this.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: The House killed it for those reasons. But there is
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: so much pressure on those Chicago legislators to get something
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: done for Chicago Transit that what I'm hearing is this
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: bill will almost certainly come back at some point, and
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: it's going to have to include a bunch of tax
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: increases to do what they want to do. So it's
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: something we're all keeping an eye on.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And it just seems like year after year, Senator, it
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: just seems like Chicago, obviously, you know, one of the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: main metropolitanations of the areas of the nation, just continues
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to be bailed out in one way or not. It
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: just seems like that's you know.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: It is most because in a healthy Illinois, Chicago is
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: one of our economic anchors for the state. We have agriculture,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: we have transportations in our airways and waterways, you know,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: and the city of Chicago, and if they were run well,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: they would bowy up not only themselves but the whole state.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: But they have so much pension debt, so much mismanagement now,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: so much transit and public infrastructure debt, and they still
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: are run poorly. The current mayor, I think his popularity
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: is around ten percent because of what a poor job
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: he's doing. And it drags down the whole state. And
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: they got to reach into the money of the whole
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: state to fix it. And I want Chicago to succeed,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: but throwing more money at them is not the solution.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: They need governmental and operational reform.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Senator a couple of bright spots, though. You did have
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: some good news to tell us about transportation enhancement projects
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: here locally in your district.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think one of the brightest financial spots in
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: the millin right now is a number of years ago,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: we had something called the lock Box Amendment, which meant
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: you can't sweep road funds the way they always and
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: still do sweep funds into your operational budget. And because
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: of that, we've had billions in road funds because of
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: that that citizen you know, approved constitutional amendment that have
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: piled up for infrastructure in Illinois, and we have so
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: much funds right now, I believe over six billion. That
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: are the fact that we're behind and hiring for IDT
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: and we're not able to pull off projects is what's
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: stopping us from doing more world work, not money, which
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: is amazing. And so we're starting and we're starting to
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: see all across Illinois more projects popping up. I was
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: able to announce several million just in the thirty seventh district,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: including Mendota, which I think got the max two millions.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: I know Walnut got the money in Bureau County. And
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: we're going to see more projects like those some of
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: those are federal pass through dollars. We're going to start
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: seeing more projects like that with state dollars because of
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: that amendment, as soon as we can get that pipeline fix.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: And that's something that's very by part of it. You know,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Senators from both parties are saying, look, we need to
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: figure out now that we have this money, how we
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: can get it into our districts and get infrastructure and
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: roadwork done. Obviously, we're seeing a lot of roadwork right
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: there in Dixon as they improve multiple state highways, and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: we're seeing that all across the district. So that is
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: very good. I would say that is probably one of
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: the brightest spots in Illinois right now financially because when
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: you improve infrastructure, it is also the start of better
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: economic development. Because businesses, whether they're big employers or tiny
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: mom pop they love to have good transportation foot traffic,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: vehicle traffic, you know, interstate traffic all around them. It's
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: a very good.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Thing, Senator, to kind of wrap things up, a look
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: at the summertime schedule. But first of all, I see
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: you're incorporating a summer reading program for the kids to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: take part in.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I am, yeah, we're we have a little program out.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: You can go to my website that's Senator Leeli dot com.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And you know, we got a bit of a reading
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: challenge for the kids, and as they meet it, we're
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: going to throw some ice cream parties and do some
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: other stuff for him. When I was a kid, I've
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: loved the Book of Challenges, and you know the personal
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: pam pieces from Pizot. I think you know, you look
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: at almost any studies and getting kids reading young is
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: very critical to their educational success and it even has
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: ties in to career successes. And so I'm trying to
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: do my little part of being part of some fun
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: little reading programs that gets kids into libraries or gets
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: books in their hands and then rewards them for you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: developing their mind a little bit and experiencing new things
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: through reading.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and that will take place during the summer this
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: summertime challenge. Go to his website, go to Senator's website
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: for more information about that particular program and find out
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: more about that. And Senator, to kind of wrap things up, obviously,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: we're moving from the legislative session into the spring and summertime,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and that means visits in your own district, and you're
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: going to be making some stops, and you wanted to
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: mention a couple of these important things.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean one of the first ones I want
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: to mention. I'll be doing town halls across the district
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: in addition to my visits and meetings and those kind
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: of things. And Dixon at the Dixon Theater June twenty fourth,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: we will be there. It is an end of session recap,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: so I'm going to go into a little bit of
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: depth and some of the things we saw during the session,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: as well as take questions and have a town hall atmosphere.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And I will be doing those in Chilla Coffee, going
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: to do in Geneseo, going to do one in Rochelle
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: with Representative Fritz and the mayor of Rochelle. We're doing
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: one combined. And in Dixon we'll be at the Stork
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Theater June twenty fourth. That's a at the Dixon Stork Theater.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: But I'll also be doing visits to chambers and you know,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: speaking at you know, your lions meetings or your rotary
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: clubs all around the district. For example. That's coming Monday.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I'm spending the whole day in Mendota going to visit
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: the chamber, going to visit their Senior Center for an hour,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: and they're going to have go to the town hall
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: and have an hour just open to the public. So,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you know, in addition to festivals and events and those
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: kinds of things that you normally see your representatives and
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: senators at, I'm trying to do some ones that invite
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: the public in and get questions answered. So we're looking
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: at different kinds of ways we can interact with people
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: on their terms where they're at.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Stanator Lee Arelano of Dixon, we thank you so very
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: much for joining us on the Friday Morning talk Line today.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time taking out of your busy day.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: We'll let you get back to work in your work
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in and around the Chicago land area, but we appreciate
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: you stopping and joining us today here at WIKES and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: what was a pleasure having you on board.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Senator thanks so much. Love to be able to report
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: in to your listeners.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Our thirty seventh district Illinois State Senator Lee Arolano joins
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: us this morning for the Friday Morning talk Line here
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: at w Miikes and Sports Versus. Next, it's time to
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: sell