Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Li Arellano on fall veto session

Transcript

Talk-Line: Li Arellano on fall veto session · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Our quarter past the hour. This is Friday, It's October ten,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the year is twenty twenty five, and it's time for
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: another informational edition of talk Line here at WIXN Radio.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Good morning, I'm Steve Marco. It is time for our
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: October twenty twenty five Springfield Legislative Update. We get news
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and information from our legislators monthly, and this time around
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: taking a turn at the microphones this morning is our
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: thirty seventh district State Senator out of Dixon. He joins
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: us live at the microphones. We always appreciate that our
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: good friend Lee Arolano is with us this morning here
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at wix and Senator, good.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Morning, always good to be here.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Stay. Nice to have you back with us, sir, thanks
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: for joining us. We've got kind of a busy agenda
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to talk about it. We're going to kick things off
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: with some activity actually in your district into what is
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: maybe shaping up to be a very interesting fall Veto
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: session which is coming our way shortly. NOLLI, first of all,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: take us through again the schedule of the state legislature.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: What's going to be happening, so we'll rehash that real quick. Obviously,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we're in Spring session we're in from January through May,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and that's the really busy period. That's when you're seeing
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of news or sometimes not seeing a lot
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: of news out of the springfield on what they're doing,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: what they're not doing, what they're ignoring, what they're tackling.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: And then we kind of get released into the wild
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: for the summer, which is why you've seen me on
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of tours and visiting my twelve counties, going
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: into factories, you know, going to events, holding town halls.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: That's really our period when we should be touching base
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: with our constituents, with our mayors, our elected officials, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: then repeat that cycle. There is other than spring session, though.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: There are two other times we can come back. One
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: is if we get called for special session, and one
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: is regularly scheduled, and that is the fall veto session,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: which will be starting next week, and that goes depending
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: on what the majority puts on the calendar. That'll be
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: for two weeks. Sometimes it can be longer, sometimes it
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: can be shorter. In theory, it is supposed to be
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: for the legislative branch, as a coequal branch, to come
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: back and look at what the governor has done since
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: we got out in spring, and see what did he veto,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: what did he line item veto, and what did we pass?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: And how do we as a legislative branch feel about it.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Do we want to override some vetos? Do we want
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: to engage in some negotiations with the executive branch? That's
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: what it is in theory. In one party rule government,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: which in Illinois has been in for a little while more,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: it has become an opportunity to continue the most important
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: things that were dropped in the spring. The governor doesn't
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: generally veto his own party very often for obvious reasons.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: They're generally in healthier negotiations somewhat beforehand and they've kind
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of agreed what they're going to do. And so the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: two major topics were potentially looking at, and you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it's up to the majority to adder or change is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: energy legislation and then the Chicago Transit bailout. And so
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: instead of folks seeing on vetos here in October, we're
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: going to be focused on unfinished legislative business.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, And that's the procedure that is followed
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: now by the state legislature. So we are just days
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: away yes, from this particular session to start, and like
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: like you said, Senator, it should be a very kind
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of interesting one with issues you know that probably not
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you know, right at the front burn or so to speak,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: as far as you know topics of discussion. You know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: with all of the immigration news things like that, you
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: know that are you know making the news headlines. We're
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: talking about the energy crist energy crisis, yeah, crisis.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: So there is spiking bills now in the north here,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: we not we don't feel it as much because we
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have so much nuclear Illinois being such a big state,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: it's a little strange. It's cut into two different electrical grids.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: And in the South Territory, which is Amerin as opposed
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: to comment, Uh, they have been getting nailed. They do
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: not have a lot of nuclear power down there. And
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: that is also where the governor majority parties forced closures
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: of plants, coal plants, natural gant, which they had a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: lot of in southern Illinois. It was an economic anchor.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: It provided a lot of energy. They were a net
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: producer of energy, so they would sell energy to other
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: states and it was actually one of our economic debt
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: development feathers in our caps. Everybody talks about the negatives
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: in Illinois, the high property taxes, you know for a
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: long time, some of our insurance costs, and you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: go right down the list. But we had positives. You know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: we have a great community college system. We had high
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: energy production because we were a nuclear leader and a
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: coal leader in America, while the southern part of the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: state got hammered by those forced closures of natural gas plants,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: coal powered plants, and they didn't have a lot of
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: nuclear like those of us up here and north. So
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: they are now a net importer of energy. They actually
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: have to go buy energy off of capacity auctions and
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: off of the grid, ironically buying dirtier energy than we
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: made because we had clean coal technology in Illinois and
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: now we buy from other states that don't have Illinois mandates.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: But the effect has been their average bill and amorn
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: has gone up over forty dollars a month, which you
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: know up here in Comment territory, I think it's been
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: about ten dollars a month, So they've had four times
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the impact, and it's projected to get even worse because
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: we're seeing on the demand side, tech advances like AI
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and data centers are real energy hogs right, and so
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: on the supply side, the Democrats kind of forced supply down.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: You can't produce as much energy because they killed you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: these other kinds of production. And we haven't been getting
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: able to get solar and wind on the grid nearly
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: as fast as promised, so there's no replacement. So you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: ECON one oh one tells you if you diminished supply,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: your prices go up. But ECON one on one also
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: tells you if demand side goes up, your costs go up.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And what's happening all crossing Illinois, but especially south of
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I eighties. The supply supply side has been damaged, which
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: increases prices, but also the demand side is spiking and
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: that's increasing prices. So we are right in the middle
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: of that. And it's only projected to get more expensive.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: So there's two problems. One is it really hurts our
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: economic development because it used to be one of the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: few feathers in our cap and our governor really wanted
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: to bring in data centers and these other property to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: ACKs producing job producing economy driving opportunities in the new
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: tech era, you know, quantum computing and things like that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: But also consumers are getting nailed by prices, and they're
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: getting very angry, so so angry that both parties majority
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: and minority have taken a look at it, and the
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: governor has started to soften his language on some of
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: these mandates and bands. There is there are some things
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: in the energy bill that I think are terrible and
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: will cost consumers even more money. There are things that
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I think are very good. So this as lifting the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: nuclear moratorium that Illinois has had for thirty years. We
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: haven't built new nuclear in decades, which is a massive
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: problem because now we're meeting the moment and for those
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: who are more environmentally focused, which is really what's been
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: driving both the political money and the political votes in
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Illinois for the last half decades to decade, nuclear is
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: carbon free, so it really should appeal across party lines,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: and it's starting to The Governor's softened his leguage on that.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: He's even started soften his language on natural gas, which
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: cleans much which burns much cleaner than coal. He said,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: coal remains off the table. I am in all of
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the above officials, so I am a believer that we
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: should be using all the resources we have in Illinois
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: to drive our economy. Our economy has been lagging the nation,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: and as we boom our economy, we should then be
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: funneling money into the future, whether that's nuclear, whether that's
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: the next energy text. Certainly I'm a fan of solar
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in its place. I love to see solar on say,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: factory roofs, which is a great utilization of space, or
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: some of these odd spaces. Obviously, I'm less supportive of
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: taking good farmland, but it's been pushed into that because
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: of the force closures of coal and natural gas and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: those kinds of energies production. So all of that is
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: on the table largely because of two reasons. Number one
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: is battery storage is critical to utilizing wind and solar.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Wind and solar aren't always available during peak periods. They
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: are not based load power. If the weather's bad, you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: if there's snow everywhere, if the sun's not out, if
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: the wind's not blowing, and people need power, well then
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: they still need power, right, And so battery storage has
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: become a big push in Illinois, especially among the environmental causes.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: The problem is it is massively expensive, like billions and
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: billions of dollars that will skyrocket bills even more than
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: they already happening. And in this current energy language, they
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: are talking about lifting the caps on consumers to make
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: them pay for it. Currently, under the environmental laws they
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: passed when Governor Pritsker was in his first term, there
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: were limits to how much environmental incentives that the energy
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: companies could pass to consumers. So we've been with our
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: high energy bills. We've been incentivizing the production of wind
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and solar and energy efficiency and all these other big
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: government goals. Will consumers generally pay for them, because that's
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: how the economy works. But they had a cap because
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: they didn't want consumers to get too hit too fast.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: So ironically for me, anyway, given all the language from
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: both parties about how concerned we are about energy bills
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and spiking energy bills to businesses and families, they're lifting
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: those caps in the current bill from the hundreds of
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: millions to infinity, while simultaneously trying to push battery storage
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: that will spike those costs billions and billions of dollars
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: to consumers. And so that's one of the battles, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: they're trying to trade off. Well, we'll lift the nuclear moratorium,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll allow more natural gas, although that's not actually
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: in the bill. I think the nuclear moratorium lift is
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and trying to hustle the right amount of votes to
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: get their big goals done, so as it sits, I
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: won't be voting for it because it'll dramatically spike energy
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: bills even more. Even though I'm a big fan of
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: lifting the nuclear moratorium. There's some other good things in
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the bill that I think are helpful, But instead of
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: just passing those things where there's majority approval across both chambers,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: they're making a big omnibus so they can stick in
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: all of their other little ideas and Christmas tree ornaments,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: as government tend to do. And to me, this is
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: really an example of where one party rule is kind
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: of hurting us, because if it was a bipartisan discussion,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: some of these more extreme cost hitting consumers, woondn't even
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: be on the table, and we'd be able to negotiate
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: the things that we have clear agreement across party lines
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: and across geographical territories. There's clear agreement on some of
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: these things. And instead I listened in on a four
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: hour energy hearing and consumer costs took up maybe ten
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: minutes of that, and the rest was about labor discussions
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: and environmental discussions and you know, battery storage and you know,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: just all these other things that don't actually reduce costs
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: for consumers or help us produce more energy, all right.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: And so that obviously is going to be one battle
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that is going to be looked at obviously during this
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: fall vitual session. And of course you mentioned the transit
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: syst This is this seems to be something that's you know,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this is this is something that I think we've been
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: talking about how many years now.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: There, Yes, they've they've kind of I think I mentioned
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: before with you. There previously had been a two bill
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: discussion or reform bill to adjust leadership and problems so
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: we don't hit fiscal cliffs and transit again, and then
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: a revenue bill which was basically a tax increased bill.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: And Republicans were fairly supportive of the reform bill. There
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: were some good things in there. It had multi geographical leadership,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: which gave input across different counties and across the state
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: even and that's kind of shifted to give Chicago more power.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: And when they did that and realized they were going
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: to lose a lot of geographical votes because Chicago was
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: grabbing power. They also in the Senate just combined it
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: all into one bill, did this dramatic Amazon tax, pizza
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: delivery tax, whatever you want to call it, the dollar
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: fifty per online delivery, and just powered it through the Senate.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: The House, the majority in the House didn't even call
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: the bill, like they didn't like the statewide tax. Obviously,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of arm twisting to get some of
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: those House Democrats to agree to it, but the House
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Democrats are actually the ones who blocked it in the spring.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't call the bill. They said it was too much.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: They had just passed a whole bunch of tax increases
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: in the spring and they didn't want to do more.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: On the flip side, they have to do something about
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: transit now. In the meantime, and here's what your listeners
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: might not know, the governmental bodies shuffled a lot of
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: money around and revised down how much money they needed.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: They cut the fiscal cliff more than in half, which
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: tells me if we did a real reform bill that
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: actually lowered costs to what a normal city Chicago size
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: and a normal state like Illinois pays for infrastructure, there
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: would be no fiscal cliff at all. We don't need
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: these tax increases at all. But because there's certain things
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: that they want to get paid and paid off, and
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: they want to they want to give jobs in a
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: certain kind of way and do certain things, it's more
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: expensive than it should be. And so I expect to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: see we're going to vote on that either here in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: October or the Speaker of the House said it might
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: be in the spring, because they haven't been able to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: get it all together into soup yet, so we'll see. Unfortunately,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Republicans were part of that discussion for about a year
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and a half, even before I was sworn in. They've
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: kind of been cut out now that they're making more
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: of a power move about it, and so we might
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: not be very actively in the discussions here in Veto
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the way we're originally planning on being.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: We'll see, all right, though, so the issues coming our
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: way during the fall Veto session. Senator Lee Arelano talks
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: about it this morning here at Wixon. We're going to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: take a short break for news first at the bottom
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: of the hour, but when we come back, we have
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: more issues to discuss with our senator from Dixon. Senator
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Lee Arellano is with us today on the air with us,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: this is the Friday morning talk line here at WIXS
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: and we're going to take a break for news first
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: with Charlie Beatleman next on WIX and stay with us
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: six at FM ninety five one and A fourteen sixty
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: wikes and we continue our conversation with our thirty seventh
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: District State Senator out of Dixon. Our good friend Lee
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Arolano is lied with us at the microphones this morning
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: for this expanded legislative talk line today here at WIS
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and Senator again, thank you for spending the extra time
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: with us. I appreciate that. Of course, we discussed the
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: fall Veto session and the issues facing the legislature in
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the fall Veto session. Hopefully we've gotten word out and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: center stage that in our first portion of the talk line. Senator,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: before we go any further, we need to take care
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of this situation involving Chicago, involving immigration, involving federal agents.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: You wanted to comment on that this month.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's been I mean, that was one of the
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: reasons one of the big things I talked about as
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I was coming into this office. It was very obvious.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: There were some easy fixes. Unfortunately, Illinois gone the other direction,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: and you see, you know, National Guard, they're trying to
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: get that called in. You see heavy ice presence, and
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: there is really a very easy solution. And part of
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: the problem dynamics fall on Governor Honor before this and
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: now on Governor Pritzker. You know, typically the way immigration
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: control should be working is you have coordination between local, state,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: and federal police, just like you would and human trafficking
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: controls or drug task forces or any other part of
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: law enforcement. And the advantage of that is your local
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: police they know their community better. They live in and
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: around their community, they under stand the dangers, and they
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: can provide a lot of good intelligence and feed on
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: the ground that belong to the community. The state provides
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: another tier, and then the Feds provide the overarching dynamics.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: And in that scenario for immigration control, the way it
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: used to work is if the local police or the
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: state's police ran into immigration problems, they could report it,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: especially if there was criminal activity. That person would get
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: booked in the jail, and instead of seeing these big
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: dramatic in the community enforcements, you would see our local
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: police or state police give a call to the Feds
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: and say, hey, we got somebody here. They committed X crime.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: They do not appear to be in the country legally,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: come pick them up. And that's what would happen. Instead
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: of seeing these big dramatic operations out in the streets
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: that the FEDS have to do when they're going it alone,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you would see coordination between governments. You would see less
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: criminals on the streets because they were getting picked up
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: during state and local operations. And what happened under Governor
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: ro Honor is they limited the ability for state and
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: local police to work with federal law enforcement. And then
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: under Governor Pritzker, they passed more laws making it even
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: harder to do it, and then double down on incentivizing
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: illegal immigration by offering you know, free rent, free legal
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: obviously there's always free education in America, and you know,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: helping with housing, just all these other things. And of
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: course we saw a lot of people come here, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: we saw southern states get really frustrated that had been
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: dealing with this border crisis and just start sending people here.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: They're like, all right, you know, if this is all
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: you want to do at Illinois, have some of our problem.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: This would be very easy to solve by repealing the
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Trust Act and going back to local, state, and federal
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: coordinated law enforcement. It is safer for the public, it
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: is safer for the law enforcement agents themselves. As we've
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: seen Ice and even local officers dealing with problems doing this.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: We are doing it the wrong way. The problem is.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: The problem is we have a mayor who literally in
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Chicago literally called law enforcement a sickness, which is not
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: a good scenario. And we have a governor who really
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: seems to be more fixated on battling with the Feds
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: than working with them. So I don't think under our
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: current dynamics that's going to change. But it would be
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: very easy to change, you know, if we just had
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: some leadership saying we tried this, it's not working. We
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: need to go back to coordinated law enforcement that gives
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: local and state agencies and governments a voice and a
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: part of the operation. It'll be better for law enforcement,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: it'll be better for the public, and it'll be more
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: effective at good immigration control. That's what should be happening.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Instead we having this big battle between the City of Chicago,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: between the State of Illinois and the feds, and everything
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: is worse. Safety is worse, and enforcement's worse.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: And again the problem not again getting I guess the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: attention that it should, like you mentioned lee from, you know,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: solutions instead where we're going the wrong way.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: There are easy solutions to do. I'm not saying they
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: wouldn't be hard votes for some of these people who
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: have really walked down a path with their words and
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: would have to undo it. But the actual solution itself,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: this is the way it's done in most states in
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the Union, and it is far more effective. We know
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: it's out there, we just won't do it.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Politics again, Yeah, it seems to be brewing here in
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: this situation. But you know, let's talk about your town halls. Now, yeah,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: you have town halls. You have already had a town hall,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I believe, and if you have another one coming up.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: What kind of reactions are we getting from constituents, What
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: types of issues are are they.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. That's part of why I do
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the town halls is to see what's on people's mind.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can talk about what's important to me,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: or I can even talk about what the legislature's doing,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: but I need to know what's on people's mind, and
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: so you know, through the town hall some questions I
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: see fairly consistently. Obviously, high property taxes is a bit
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: of a concern, and you see these other taxes. You know,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: one of the interesting ones is I've been getting a
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: lot of messages about the brand new sports wagering tax
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: because it's football season. And once I started getting the
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: emails in the comments, it made sense to me. But
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: we just passed a new per bet tax in the spring.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I didn't vote for it. I didn't vote for any
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: of the taxes, but the state of Illinois did. And
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: you know, if you want to place about a dollar
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: debt now and you get a fifty cent tax, that's like,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: that's like a fifty percent.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Tax, right right. Yeah.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: So that's a good example of as the seasons change
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: and the different things happen, I see different feedback and
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: get different feedback. Obviously, energy prices, especially in the southern
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: part of my district, have been a huge topic. People
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: sharing their bills, literally, businesses sharing their bills saying this
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: is what my bill was two years ago, this is
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: what it's now. You know, it's doubled, and you're like, oh, man,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: that's hard for a small business to absorb. I've definitely
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: been getting some questions and concerns about the immigration issue.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: The Safety Act still comes up, Transit has been popping up.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Rural health care has become a bit of a topic,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: both because of recent federal actions and also just because
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: of the path the state was on when we were
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: having hospital closures already in recent years and people getting
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: bailed out, and so figuring out rural health care when
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: our budget is so tight has been very, very difficult.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: And as the Feds have tried to balance their budget,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: the state really wasn't prepared for that. So that's another
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I serve on Health and Human Services Committee. That's another
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: issue I'm really having to sink my teeth into and
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: try to convince the state to re prioritize some of
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: its spending from things that quite frankly, aren't as important
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to saving people's lives, but get the money anyway.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Now. You had to one recently at stock Valley Community College, I.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Believed my Youth Advisory Council over yes, and so that's great.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: That's probably one of my favorite events of the year
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: because that's where we get high school students. We had
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: roughly fifty students from ten different counties, from twelve different
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: schools come in and we talk about policy. They actually
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: get to go through a process where they create legislation,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: and then in the spring they're going to come down
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: to They're going to come down to Springfield and actually
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: have a mock committee hearing in an actual committee hearing
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: room and talk about their legislation and of course give
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: me feedback on what they're seeing through their young student
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: lens of how is government working, what is Illinois looking
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: for them? A lot of it's learning, but I also
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: do some learning too. I'm here to tell you every
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: time I talk to these kids. So that was a
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: lot of fun. We did the Youth Advisory Council out
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: at Souk Valley Community College the first part and then
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: part two will be down in Springfield. And then we
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: had an online town hall for the whole district and
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: that was I mean, that went pretty long, over an
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: hour and a half. We'll probably do some shorter ones
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: updates during VETO to give people direct online updates on
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: here's what discussions are and here's what's passing. And then
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: we're gonna have an in person town hall in Princeton
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: next month following the town hall to discuss what actually
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: happened and maybe what the next steps are, and then
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: of course, as always, to get feedback from the public.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: All right, Lee, we're running out of time. I wish
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: we had more time to talk, but unfortunately again we're
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: limited on time. I know that we had some other issues,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: but heading forward into the next General Assembly session, any preview.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm prepping some legislation myself. There's some stuff
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: that would help Shining Star right here in Dixon with
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Children's Advocacy cover some of the medical costs they incur
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: during their work with children, which unfortunately has to be
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: fundraised right now, which to me is shameful compared to
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: some of the things we do spend on in Illinois.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Also looking at some infrastructure work as always. We just
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: made big infrastructure announcement in the past month and continue
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: to work on some of those for the region. And
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: then we're going to continue to work on pension orform
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: ideas and some tax ideas to ease affordability in Illinois.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: So those will be some of my big pushes.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Looking forward to Again, obviously the information coming our way
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: from our thirty seventh District State Senator. But for now, sir,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I thank you so very much for joining us. I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: know that this is kind of a bittersweet time for you, yes,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: because we'll be kind of hanging up the microphone in
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a short bit. But I appreciate you visiting with us,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: not only as our newly elected state senator, but of
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: course as our mayor of Dixon for many years you
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: have been you know, we've many many.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Years, done this for a long time, and it is bittersweet.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: I was sad coming in here and saying, is this
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: my last interview with Steve. We better make this a
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: good one. I don't know if we we lived up
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: to the billion or if I did, but thank you
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: for all you've done getting word out to people and
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: your listeners over the year years as a mayor, it
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: was very important to me. People would talk about, you know,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: what we had discussed on here and asked me questions.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: So I know people got value out of this show
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: and the information you bring to people. So thank you
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: for doing that for all these years. And I've had
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: a blast and I know you have too.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Well, and I appreciate your kind words and hopefully well
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: can carry on with the information circuit here at AM
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: fourteen sixteen FM ninety five one. We'll see you down
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the line, all right. Are State Senator the Arolina with
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: us today on wy XN