Legislative Update

Public Notices

On February 27, 2015, an editorial was written in the Boone County Journal, R.I.P A Free Press, in response to HB261. To read R.I.P Free Press click here. 

Boone County Treasurer Curt Newport submitted the below letter to the editor in response to R.I.P. A Free Press. It is expected to run in an upcoming Boone County Journal edition.

Letter to Editor By: Boone County Treasurer Curt Newport 

“…Indeed, when we study the writings of the founders on the subject, it’s hard to imagine their definition of a “free press” as an industry that relies on government revenue for survival.  In fact, I think the idea of taxpayer subsidized newspapers would have been absolutely repulsive to those who wrote the Bill of Rights.  The ability to criticize the government is the very reason we need a free press, and a newspaper that depends on that same government for its very existence is the epitome of a conflict of interest.

Such was the irony that saturated the editorial “R.I.P. A Free Press” in the Feb. 27, 2015 edition of the Boone County Journal.  The editorial predicted that without the revenue generated by state-mandated government advertising, newspapers would fold and the free press as we know it would cease to exist.  Again, I maintain that any newspaper sustained by feeding at the taxpayers’ trough would not meet our founders’ definition of a free press in the first place….”

To read more from Treasurer Newport click here.

As reported in: Reboot Illinois
By: Caitlin Wilson
March 12, 2015

Even after tough questioning during the hearing of Illinois’ pension reform court case March 11, many analysts say it remains unclear whether or not the state’s Supreme Court will allow the 2013 reform law to stand or strike it down as unconstitutional.

The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Mark Brown writes that other than one very skeptical justice (Justice Bob Thomas), the court gave no indications on its plans to vote for or against the law, signed by former Gov. Pat Quinn.

From the Sun-Times:

Other than that, I’m not sure how anybody could have received much of a read on how the high court will rule on the challenge to the law that was intended to fix the state’s deepening pension problems.

Brown points out that the four Democratic judges didn’t make a “peep,” with only the three Republican judges questioning the state’s position out loud.

To read more click here.