Belvidere… Illinois has problematic issues that constantly keep the State from recovering. Due to the State failing to resolve its most critical concerns, State Representative Joe Sosnowski (R-Belvidere) has offered commonsense solutions by crafting a better government legislation package that improves government transparency, efficiency and accountability.
“It’s highly imperative that we restore faith in government,” said Rep. Sosnowski. “This package serves as a step towards turning Illinois in the right direction by reducing regulations and promoting responsible government.”
The better government package includes legislation to address the state’s growing pension crisis. Illinois has a pension deficit approaching $111 billion, which means one in four State tax dollars goes towards funding pensions. This legislative package will stabilize the pension issue, provide the budget relief to fund other programs like education, and create changes to our business environment.
House Joint ResolutionConstitutional Amendment 9 if passed by the General Assembly will place a constitutional amendment on the next general election ballot allowing voters to repeal the pension protection clause in the Illinois constitution. We all contribute to the pension system and therefore deserve the opportunity to redefine the structure if necessary.
House Bill 314 changes our state’s economic development model to a public-private partnership modeled off of Indiana where key community and business leaders are brought together to help lead our retention and recruitment efforts and to foster a positive atmosphere through partnerships, government reform, and pro-business policy changes that create jobs and community investment.
“This design works great at a local level with our regional economic development councils (similar to RAEDC); we need to do the same thing across the state of Illinois,” Sosnowski said.
Other bills within the package (House Bill 315 and House Bill 258) creates an optional self-managed plan (SMP) for all state employees modeled from the SMP that was enacted for the State University Retirement System (SURS) and eliminate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for State government legislative and executive elected officials and qualifying appointees.
“Saving the State money while taking steps to fix the pension crisis in Illinois is essential to improving how we operate,” said Rep. Sosnowski. “Our growing financial obligations to state employee pension systems continue to grow every day we fail to act. However, we can begin to mend the problem with these commonsense reforms.”
The better government legislative package reduces state spending and promotes economic growth. Additional highlights of the legislative reform package are below:
Better Government Package Highlights:
House Bill 256: Reduces filing fees imposed upon limited liability companies by 50%.
House Bill 253: Stops abuses in the state plans regarding overtime.
House Bill 260: Reduces State stipends for county officials based on population.
House Bill 314: Private Public Economic Development Program.
House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 10: Prohibits a person from holding the office of State Senator or State Representative or a combination of those offices for more than 20 years. (Term limits)