2018 LWVIL Legislative Interview Questions

Transcription

1 2018 LWVIL Legislative Interview Questions There are many issues of concern to LWVIL and our communities and therefore many legislative questions we would like to pose to our local leaders. However, we also know time is often limited to 30 minutes or less when conducting our legislative visits. The LWVIL Issues and Advocacy Committee requests that you ask the questions on page 1 of this document during all of your interviews and then choose two or three more questions from the subsequent pages based upon your local issues and League concerns. Please follow all of the other instructions that come with the questions. This document is in Word format so you can more easily cut and paste your questions into a document or to your legislator. Thank you! Protect Our Vote Project The LWV of Illinois and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform recently completed a study of election best practices. Three recommendations to strengthen Illinois' election systems came out of the study. Bills that would implement these proposals have been or will be introduced: 1. Voting Equipment Modernization Project, SB 3523 (Harmon), would require the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) to take an inventory and assessment of voting equipment from all election jurisdictions every 2 years. 2. Legislation that would allow election jurisdictions to extend Vote Centers up to and including Election Day. 3. Legislation that would require election authorities to report their voter accessibility, poll worker training, and voter communications practices to the Illinois State Board of Elections in order to assist the ISBE in promoting best elections practices to all jurisdictions. Will you co-sponsor these important election reform bills? If not, will you vote for them? Fair Maps Do you believe we need to end gerrymandering and change the way Illinois draws its legislative maps? Do you support an amendment to the IL Constitution initiated by the IL General Assembly to end gerrymandering by changing the redistricting process to create a nonpartisan commission tasked with drawing Illinois legislative maps? Do you support legislative changes to the current redistricting process to create rules that make the process more transparent and accountable; such as providing resources for citizens to analyze proposed legislative maps and opportunities for citizens to provide feedback on proposed legislative maps? Do you support prison gerrymandering reform bill HB0205, which requires the Secretary of State to prepare redistricting data to reflect the incarcerated persons at their residential address rather than the address of the facility in which the person is incarcerated? 1 P a g e

2 Fair tax Of the 41 states with an individual income tax, Illinois is one of only eight that has a flat income tax, and one of only four whose Constitution requires that the state's income tax be flat rate. A fair tax where those with higher incomes pay a higher rate and those with lower incomes pay a lower rate would shift the tax burden from the middle class and poor to the wealthy, while capturing revenue badly needed to provide vital state-funded services like education, health care and roads. Do you support putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot for 2018 which would allow Illinois to adopt a fair tax? Retirement Income Illinois is one of only three states that does not tax retirement income. The income tax increase approved by the General Assembly last summer only restores tax rates to what they were before. It does not raise enough revenue to adequately fund the new evidence-based model for our schools, restore the massive cuts we have made in higher education, or fund the services needed by children, people with disabilities or experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, seniors, etc. Do you support taxing retirement income, with a reasonable exemption, to help raise the funds needed to provide for these critical needs? Educational Funding The Evidence-Based Model (EBM) of school funding, which was approved by state law-makers in 2017, is designed to ensure that all schools receive funding which is adequate to address 27 evidence-based best practices that help all students learn to the limits of their capacities. The law is intended to reverse years of underfunding schools in the neediest districts. If sufficient funding is provided, the effects of the law will be fully realized in In 2017, funding of 80% of school districts in Illinois was below adequacy, according to Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) data interpretations of the new evidence-based model. ISBE estimated that in the next 10 years, a total of $6.5 Billion will be needed to bring all districts to adequacy. While an additional $361 M was allocated for schools in 2017, the school budget will need to be increased every year by $650 M beginning in 2018 and each year for the next 10, based on ISBE figures. In a situation where the state education appropriation is less than the prior year, the legislation includes a provision to ensure that the most adequately funded districts would lose any dollars they have received through EBM first. If that is not enough to cover the shortfall, then all districts would lose dollars on a per pupil basis. How do you intend to help Illinois keep its promise to improve school funding continually under the 2017 School Funding Law which is intended to end years of inequitable funding in Illinois? Without fulfilling the goal of additional funds, that public act is an empty vessel which only marginally improves fairness in and quality of education in Illinois. 2 P a g e

3 Educational Funding - continued SB444 reflects the intent of the Evidence-Based Funding Law, but makes two technical changes - restoring wording which was mistakenly omitted from the Law and correcting the placement of a comma. The omitted wording regards reducing the Equalized Assessed Value (EAV) for a district if there is a tax abatement (a decision to lower the amount of taxes collected) in the district. This language was included in prior law and was not intended to be changed by EBM, but was inadvertently deleted in the language for the new law. SB444 adds this language back in to the bill, so it matches what was intended and modeled. The misplaced comma mistakenly implies that only districts that increased their tax rate through referendum would use their Property Tax Extension Limitation Law tax-capped EAV to determine their resources. Most of the districts under PTELL did not increase their tax rate through referendum, and they would be penalized unless the PTELL EAV is used if it is lower than a district s EAV regardless of whether or not the district increased their tax rate through referendum. Do you think that the Governor should sign SB444, which corrects the School Funding Law to ensure that districts would not be unfairly penalized? Why or Why not? Consolidation of Government Units In 2017 a number of bills were approved by the Illinois Legislature to provide framework for reducing the number of taxing bodies, including: SB3 Allows county governments throughout Illinois to consolidate units of government in their jurisdiction; it also allows neighboring townships to dissolve or merge. SB607 Allows for referendums on whether a road district in a township should be abolished. What additional legislation would you support to give local governments the tools they need to improve their own operations by eliminating or consolidating redundant and ineffective units of government? Criminal Justice Reform There were good criminal justice reform bills passed in the last session. But sentencing reform is needed if we are to reduce the prison population. The League recognizes the need for greater certainty and fairness in sentencing. Will you support legislation that will convert the sentencing recommendations of the Illinois Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform (specifically, numbers 9-19) into law so that inmates will be released in a time consistent with a successful return to society? 3 P a g e

4 Gun Policy Bump stocks are trigger modification devices that are designed to accelerate a firearm s rate of fire. On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, using bump stocks, opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured in 10 minutes. The Chicago media reported that Mr. Paddock had attempted to book rooms in a hotel during the Lollapalooza concert. MA and CA have banned the devices. What leadership will you provide to ban the possession and manufacture of bump stocks in IL? Immigration LWV supports and has continued to support Dreamers, DACA and the DREAM Act and has positions supporting immigration at the national and state levels: LWVUS Position in brief is: The League of Women Voters believes that immigration policies should promote reunification of immediate families; meet the economic, business and employment needs of the United States; and be responsive to those facing political persecution or humanitarian crises. Provision should also be made for qualified persons to enter the United States on student visas. All persons should receive fair treatment under the law. LWVIL Position in brief is: LWVIL supports specific state and local community services for all immigrants. The League opposes extending voting rights to undocumented immigrants. Illinois passed The Trust Act last summer, which protects and helps to build trust between law enforcement agencies and immigrant communities by limiting police involvement in federal immigration enforcement. What else can Illinois do to help protect our immigrant communities? What can Illinois do to ensure that for-profit private immigration detention centers are prevented from being built in our state? What can Illinois do to protect Dreamers in our state and help them pursue education, training, and jobs, especially if Congress does not act on DACA? How can Illinois be more welcoming to immigrants and refugees, helping them to integrate into our communities? 4 P a g e

5 Health Care The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) recently announced they will allow states to apply for waivers allowing work requirements for able bodied Medicaid recipients. Data shows most Medicaid recipients who are able to work already do so. Three out of four non-elderly adults and children enrolled in Medicaid live in a family with at least one worker. The majority of those not working have health conditions, care for children or other family who are ill or have a disability, or are in school. The administration of work requirements in other programs have proved time consuming, lacking in realtime accuracy, and burdensome to states rather than connecting people to evidence-based employment services and supports. Do you approve of Illinois requiring Medicaid recipients to be working or in school before they are eligible for the services? Please explain your answer. Social Policy Given that the higher number of low income individuals seeking jobs are women, would you support SB2233 which makes it illegal for employers to ask their employees or job applicants about their previous wage or salary history? This bill is already passed in Massachusetts in Given that even in higher income levels in many IL Counties show a high need for food for families and individuals, would you support improvement in the SNAP/Link in Congress now? What are your thoughts on legislation regarding affordable housing needs in our State, even in the higher income areas? Are you aware of any incentives that might be given to increase the mixed income housing? 5 P a g e