By Lauren N. Johnson
Lawmakers took action on a number of bills as the deadline to pass legislation out of each chamber by Friday closes in.
Chicago Democratic Rep. LaShawn Ford said “compromise helped” to gain necessary votes for a bill he sponsored that today passed on the House floor. It would ban the use of trans fats in restaurants beginning in July 2013.
House Bill 1600 excludes schools from the ban, but it would bar public and private schools from selling foods containing trans fats items in vending machines.
Sen. Donnie Trotter, a Chicago Democrat and sponsor of the bill in the Senate, has not yet gauged the support in the chamber but says there is a “good chance” that the measure will gain support because of a greater fiscal awareness and health consciousness in the legislature this year. “I think everyone understands how much is costs our state to deal with people with obesity, beginning with childhood obesity to adulthood diabetes. People are much more conscious of what the public cost is,” Trotter said. He said he foresees some problems of people refusing “to be told what to eat.”
Ford said his goal is to remove trans fat from school cafeterias by 2016. Schools contracts with food vendors are a roadblock to making the change sooner. “Many people used to believe that if you eliminate trans fats, then you can’t have French fries, you can’t have fried foods, and that’s not true.”
Currently, many cities and counties – with New York City being the first – have bans on food items containing trans fat, but Illinois would be the second state – after California – with such a ban.
Another bill, HB 94, also sponsored by Ford, to require inmates throughout the state to be counted as residents in their home towns rather than in areas where the prisons in which they are incarcerated are located, failed in the House this afternoon.
Ford said although he was sure of previously sought-after votes from his colleagues, it failed because a few members weren’t present in the chamber when the bill was called for a vote. Ford said if the bill had passed, it would have been too late for it to affect the redistricting process currently taking place in the legislature.
Showing posts with label US Census. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Census. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Illinois will lose a congressional seat
By Jamey Dunn
Illinois will lose one U.S. House seat in the upcoming remap of legislative districts, but at one expert believes it won’t have much effect on the process legislators use to draw the map.
Nationwide, 12 congressional seats will shift, according to census figures released today. Most of the states losing seats are in the Midwest and Northeast, with the exception of Louisiana. Those gaining representation are in the southern and western parts of the country.
Illinois lost one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2000 remap,and two seats after both the 1990 and 1980 population counts. Since 1970, when Illinois’ seat count held steady, the state has gone from 24 to 18 seats.
With 12, 830,632 residents, Illinois showed a 3.3 percent population growth since 2000 — when the population was 12, 419, 293. That has slowed from an 8.6 percent growth between 1990 and 2000. The state remains the fifth largest state in the nation. Congressional districts in Illinois will average 714,688 residents.
John Jackson, a visiting professor with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said Illinois’ flagging economy likely played a large role in its slowed growth. “I’m sure that our loss of jobs and our loss of people go hand and hand. … We need to turn around the economy in Illinois. I don’t sneeze off the fact that we have some variables that we need to change.”
Jackson said some of the reform issues legislators plan to take up in early January, such as changes to the state’s Medicaid and workers’ compensation systems, might improve the state’s economy. He warned, however, that Illinois must not engage in a “race to the bottom” when it comes to protecting and caring for its citizens.
Jackson said the picture painted by the business sector of people fleeing Illinois en masse for the more business-friendly climates of neighboring states might be overblown. Iowa and Missouri each lost one congressional seat, and Indiana’s count was static. “[These states are] not the Garden of Eden, perhaps,” he said.
This is the first year since the current redistricting process was put into place under the 1970 Constitution that one party will hold both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor’s office while a new map is being drawn. But Jackson, who worked on proposed reforms to Illinois’ redistricting process for the public policy institute, doesn’t think it will change the process by which the congressional districts are divided. State legislators and the governor could draw the congressional map, but they traditionally leave it to the congressional delegation to sort out among themselves. While Illinois’ delegation will soon be majority Republican, and state government is in Democratic hands, Jackson doesn’t expect that tradition to change.
He believes Republicans will agree to sacrifice the seat of one of the new members elected in the November general election keep their map out state legislators’ hands.
“I think this one will be an easier one than some of those in the past because you have four brand-new freshmen, and they are all Republican. … I am not sure that the Republicans will fight real hard for any of those four.”
He thinks current delegation members’ opinions of the freshmen will play a much larger role in deciding who “gets voted off the island” than shifts in population. “It will be the guy they like the least.”
Jackson points to the last time Illinois lost a seat, when there was “a bipartisan agreement to throw [former Democratic U.S. Rep.] David Phelps overboard.” He was drawn into the same district as Republican and fellow incumbent Rep. John Shimkus.
Jackson said Democrats on the state level will likely be much more concerned with their own battles to protect their districts, with “self-interest being the number-one factor.”
The U.S. Census Bureau will begin releasing the data needed for redistricting, which drills down numbers to a block-by-block level, in February.
For interactive charts, data, video guide to the congressional reapportionment process and more, visit the U.S. Census Bureau's website.
Illinois will lose one U.S. House seat in the upcoming remap of legislative districts, but at one expert believes it won’t have much effect on the process legislators use to draw the map.
Nationwide, 12 congressional seats will shift, according to census figures released today. Most of the states losing seats are in the Midwest and Northeast, with the exception of Louisiana. Those gaining representation are in the southern and western parts of the country.
Illinois lost one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2000 remap,and two seats after both the 1990 and 1980 population counts. Since 1970, when Illinois’ seat count held steady, the state has gone from 24 to 18 seats.
With 12, 830,632 residents, Illinois showed a 3.3 percent population growth since 2000 — when the population was 12, 419, 293. That has slowed from an 8.6 percent growth between 1990 and 2000. The state remains the fifth largest state in the nation. Congressional districts in Illinois will average 714,688 residents.
John Jackson, a visiting professor with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said Illinois’ flagging economy likely played a large role in its slowed growth. “I’m sure that our loss of jobs and our loss of people go hand and hand. … We need to turn around the economy in Illinois. I don’t sneeze off the fact that we have some variables that we need to change.”
Jackson said some of the reform issues legislators plan to take up in early January, such as changes to the state’s Medicaid and workers’ compensation systems, might improve the state’s economy. He warned, however, that Illinois must not engage in a “race to the bottom” when it comes to protecting and caring for its citizens.
Jackson said the picture painted by the business sector of people fleeing Illinois en masse for the more business-friendly climates of neighboring states might be overblown. Iowa and Missouri each lost one congressional seat, and Indiana’s count was static. “[These states are] not the Garden of Eden, perhaps,” he said.
This is the first year since the current redistricting process was put into place under the 1970 Constitution that one party will hold both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor’s office while a new map is being drawn. But Jackson, who worked on proposed reforms to Illinois’ redistricting process for the public policy institute, doesn’t think it will change the process by which the congressional districts are divided. State legislators and the governor could draw the congressional map, but they traditionally leave it to the congressional delegation to sort out among themselves. While Illinois’ delegation will soon be majority Republican, and state government is in Democratic hands, Jackson doesn’t expect that tradition to change.
He believes Republicans will agree to sacrifice the seat of one of the new members elected in the November general election keep their map out state legislators’ hands.
“I think this one will be an easier one than some of those in the past because you have four brand-new freshmen, and they are all Republican. … I am not sure that the Republicans will fight real hard for any of those four.”
He thinks current delegation members’ opinions of the freshmen will play a much larger role in deciding who “gets voted off the island” than shifts in population. “It will be the guy they like the least.”
Jackson points to the last time Illinois lost a seat, when there was “a bipartisan agreement to throw [former Democratic U.S. Rep.] David Phelps overboard.” He was drawn into the same district as Republican and fellow incumbent Rep. John Shimkus.
Jackson said Democrats on the state level will likely be much more concerned with their own battles to protect their districts, with “self-interest being the number-one factor.”
The U.S. Census Bureau will begin releasing the data needed for redistricting, which drills down numbers to a block-by-block level, in February.
For interactive charts, data, video guide to the congressional reapportionment process and more, visit the U.S. Census Bureau's website.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Illinois returns most census forms
By Jamey Dunn
Almost two thirds of Illinois residents returned the 2010 U.S. census forms they received in the mail.
“We are off to a good start. Seventy-three percent is a good start, but we have a long way to go,” Gov. Pat Quinn said. The national response rate is 71 percent.
Census workers will visit households of people who failed to mail back their forms before the April 16 deadline. Gov. Quinn encouraged citizens to respond to the surveys those workers will be conducting.
“We wish and hope that everyone in Illinois will be cooperative and helpful because this is a very important financial issue for the people of our state. For folks who depend on education funding, and health care funding, human service funding and public safety funding, all the important things in life. We want to make sure that Illinois has an accurate count of everyone who lives here,” he said.
The federal government uses information gathered in the census, which is required in the U.S. Constitution, to dole out more than $400 billion in funds to state and local governments. The count also determines how many seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives. Illinois lost a seat after the 2000 census and is in danger of losing another after this one. Individual information collected by census workers is confidential for 72 years, after which it can be publicly released.
Almost two thirds of Illinois residents returned the 2010 U.S. census forms they received in the mail.
“We are off to a good start. Seventy-three percent is a good start, but we have a long way to go,” Gov. Pat Quinn said. The national response rate is 71 percent.
Census workers will visit households of people who failed to mail back their forms before the April 16 deadline. Gov. Quinn encouraged citizens to respond to the surveys those workers will be conducting.
“We wish and hope that everyone in Illinois will be cooperative and helpful because this is a very important financial issue for the people of our state. For folks who depend on education funding, and health care funding, human service funding and public safety funding, all the important things in life. We want to make sure that Illinois has an accurate count of everyone who lives here,” he said.
The federal government uses information gathered in the census, which is required in the U.S. Constitution, to dole out more than $400 billion in funds to state and local governments. The count also determines how many seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives. Illinois lost a seat after the 2000 census and is in danger of losing another after this one. Individual information collected by census workers is confidential for 72 years, after which it can be publicly released.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Senate passes remap plan
By Jamey Dunn
A constitutional amendment that would change the way Illinois draws its legislative districts passed in the Senate today with only Democratic support.
The legislative leaders from the House and Senate would be charged with naming a 10-member committee for their respective chambers. These commissions, which would presumably consist of five Democrats and five Republicans each, would hold hearings throughout the state to take input and inform the public.
However, the General Assembly would have the first shot at drawing the voter districts. A map that includes both chambers could pass just like any other bill and then go to the governor’s desk. If that doesn’t happen by June 20 of the year after the census, each chamber could draw its own map through a resolution, which requires a three-fifths majority vote but doesn’t have to be signed by the governor.
If the legislature cannot agree on a map or maps, the redraw would fall to the commissions. Each commission would approve a map for its respective chamber. Six members out of the 10 would have to agree.
If the commissions cannot pass a map, the senior Illinois Supreme Court justices from each party would appoint special masters to do the job. If they do not choose maps by October 5, the task would go back to the General Assembly.
The act also contains protection for minority populations that exceed those in the federal Voting Rights Act.
Republicans argued that any plan that allows the legislature to draw its own districts is not a step in the right direction. A Senate committee voted down a Republican plan, backed by several reform groups, earlier this week.
“The people have made it very clear with increasing volume that they don’t trust the Springfield leaders,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican.
Murphy said both parties have come together recently to pass positive changes, such as pension reform. However, he compared the legislative process surrounding redistricting to the partisan fight over reform that took place last year. That battle resulted in Democrats passing a plan that was opposed by many of the same organizations that are against this amendment.
“This redistricting proposal, like so-called campaign reform last year before it, is a cynical ploy to convince the people that real reform has arrived, while all that was really achieved is the continued consolidation of power in the hands of the few. This is a blatant incumbent protection plan,” he said.
Chicago Democrat Sen. Kwame Raoul, sponsor of the amendment, said that many of his Republican critics approved the last map that they are now saying was cut through backroom deals.
“The congressional map that people refer to that shows the gerrymandered districts was a map that was sponsored by you, not me. Had I been there, I would have voted against it. … I chose the people over the legislative leaders. The people would choose who would draw the map under this scenario, not the legislative leaders,” he said.
The amendment now goes over to the House. Speaker Michael Madigan has not said whether he supports it. However, he backed a similar plan that passed in that chamber in 2008. The measure has to pass by May 1 in order to appear on the ballot next November. If it does not or if voters reject it, the current plan would stay in place.
A constitutional amendment that would change the way Illinois draws its legislative districts passed in the Senate today with only Democratic support.
The legislative leaders from the House and Senate would be charged with naming a 10-member committee for their respective chambers. These commissions, which would presumably consist of five Democrats and five Republicans each, would hold hearings throughout the state to take input and inform the public.
However, the General Assembly would have the first shot at drawing the voter districts. A map that includes both chambers could pass just like any other bill and then go to the governor’s desk. If that doesn’t happen by June 20 of the year after the census, each chamber could draw its own map through a resolution, which requires a three-fifths majority vote but doesn’t have to be signed by the governor.
If the legislature cannot agree on a map or maps, the redraw would fall to the commissions. Each commission would approve a map for its respective chamber. Six members out of the 10 would have to agree.
If the commissions cannot pass a map, the senior Illinois Supreme Court justices from each party would appoint special masters to do the job. If they do not choose maps by October 5, the task would go back to the General Assembly.
The act also contains protection for minority populations that exceed those in the federal Voting Rights Act.
Republicans argued that any plan that allows the legislature to draw its own districts is not a step in the right direction. A Senate committee voted down a Republican plan, backed by several reform groups, earlier this week.
“The people have made it very clear with increasing volume that they don’t trust the Springfield leaders,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican.
Murphy said both parties have come together recently to pass positive changes, such as pension reform. However, he compared the legislative process surrounding redistricting to the partisan fight over reform that took place last year. That battle resulted in Democrats passing a plan that was opposed by many of the same organizations that are against this amendment.
“This redistricting proposal, like so-called campaign reform last year before it, is a cynical ploy to convince the people that real reform has arrived, while all that was really achieved is the continued consolidation of power in the hands of the few. This is a blatant incumbent protection plan,” he said.
Chicago Democrat Sen. Kwame Raoul, sponsor of the amendment, said that many of his Republican critics approved the last map that they are now saying was cut through backroom deals.
“The congressional map that people refer to that shows the gerrymandered districts was a map that was sponsored by you, not me. Had I been there, I would have voted against it. … I chose the people over the legislative leaders. The people would choose who would draw the map under this scenario, not the legislative leaders,” he said.
The amendment now goes over to the House. Speaker Michael Madigan has not said whether he supports it. However, he backed a similar plan that passed in that chamber in 2008. The measure has to pass by May 1 in order to appear on the ballot next November. If it does not or if voters reject it, the current plan would stay in place.
Friday, May 01, 2009
May issue: A break from the past
Read the latest Illinois Issues magazine to see how Senate President John Cullerton is "reigning in the Senate." The Democratic leader has revived a bipartisan spirit, but how long that lasts depends on upcoming polarizing votes.
Also read what's at stake when the federal government takes its census of Americans.
And learn how Illinois is waiting for the federal government's signal about whether "clean coal" technology is worth the risk.
Available in the print edition only are stories about Illinois' infrastructure needs and costs, as well as the push for legalization of medical marijuana.
Also read what's at stake when the federal government takes its census of Americans.
And learn how Illinois is waiting for the federal government's signal about whether "clean coal" technology is worth the risk.
Available in the print edition only are stories about Illinois' infrastructure needs and costs, as well as the push for legalization of medical marijuana.
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