Friday, October 30, 2009
Chicago Tribune
by Ray Long and Monique Garcia

SPRINGFIELD - -- Illinois lawmakers voted Thursday to make it easier for Cook County Board members to reduce the sales tax increase championed by President Todd Stroger, sending Gov. Pat Quinn a bill aimed at insulating suburban politicians from the unpopular tax.

With a Friday deadline looming, House lawmakers voted 66-49 to send the Senate a compromise plan to impose the first-ever sweeping limits on political contributions. The House was poised to debate a bill to eliminate free rides for senior citizens on buses and trains.

The Cook County bill is aimed at assisting county commissioners' repeated efforts to repeal the penny-on-the-dollar sales-tax increase Stroger championed in 2008. The legislation would reduce the margin required to override a veto from four-fifths to three-fifths.

The County Board has 17 commissioners, and the legislation would reduce the number of commissioners needed to override a veto to 11, three lower than the current 14. County commissioners have previously mustered 13 votes to override Stroger.

Some suburban Cook lawmakers, potentially vulnerable in next year's election due to the unpopularity of the county sales tax increase, pushed for the legislation. The Senate voted 48-1 for the measure, and the governor's office said it would review the bill before commenting.

Stroger traveled to the Capitol this month to oppose the legislation, arguing the sales tax increase is a key reason the county is one of the few major governments in the state to remain solvent while the economy is tanking.

"We're disappointed that the legislature chose not to use logic and decided to change the rules in the middle of the game," said Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis.

The campaign finance legislation, which the House was debating late Thursday and was expected to be voted on by the Senate on Friday, would limit how much money individuals and special interests can give to candidates and requires those donations to be publicly reported more frequently.

In at least one area -- curtailing the ability of powerful legislative leaders to influence House and Senate races -- the latest measure is not as strong as a previous version of campaign finance reform that Quinn vetoed in August at the urging of reform advocates.

But lawmakers and reform groups were ready to compromise. Lawmakers were faced with the prospect of going home for the year without being able to tell voters they did something to fix what's wrong in Springfield following the corruption arrest and impeachment of ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And reform groups acknowledged they needed to get what they could while the issue was hot.

At the heart of the legislation are the first-ever limits on campaign contributions: Candidates could get up to $5,000 each for the primary and general elections from individuals, $10,000 from corporations and unions and $50,000 from political action committees.

But the proposal also would allow all four legislative leaders to spend unlimited sums of money from their campaign accounts to individual legislators or candidates in general election races. Since Madigan also is state Democratic chairman, he also could devote unlimited party campaign resources to hard-fought contests.

In primary races, however, the legislative and political party leaders combined would be restricted to giving $200,000 to a statewide candidate, $125,000 to a state Senate candidate, and $75,000 to a state House candidate.

House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego said the campaign finance proposal fell short of scaling back the power of legislative leaders and political parties because the bill also should impose limits in the general election.

"This is the only way to enact change, this is the only way to reduce the power, this is the only way to reduce the control," Cross said, saying the "status quo remains the same."

Madigan defended the decision to exempt legislative and party leaders from donation limits in general elections. Along with Supreme Court rulings that make it difficult to limit funding, Madigan said, the general election is an all-out battle between parties.

"My view is a political party exists to support its candidates in the general election," he said.

Also awaiting action Friday is a measure that would scale back free bus and train rides for seniors. Quinn said public transit leaders need to back away from their plans for fare increases in return for help from the state. He wouldn't say if he would support the free-ride bill without a freeze on transit fares.

rlong@tribune.com

mcgarcia@tribune.com

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