Reis Set for Fall Veto Session

October 18, 2005

Springfield…. Gun bills, teacher pensions, the “All Kids” proposal, and trapping are among some of the issues State Representative David Reis (Ste. Marie) believes could be up for discussion during the upcoming fall veto session.  Legislators head back to Springfield next week.

There are a number of firearm bills that were vetoed by the governor that will be revised including HB 340, a bill Reis sponsored dealing with the waiting period on a firearms exchange.  The 108th District State Representative said the analogy used by the governor as he vetoed the bill makes no sense.  “The Governor said he was vetoing the bill to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals” said Reis.  “Under HB340 the people wanting to make the change already have an operable gun and they simply want to trade it in for another.”

Reis also hopes to see HB 3272 brought back to the table after an amendatory veto. “The bill prohibits the legislature and the Governor from transferring or sweeping funds from the retired teachers’ health insurance fund to the General Revenue fund” said Reis.  “It will prevent the sort of action we saw at the end of the spring session when both the House and Senate narrowly approved democratically sponsored legislation to sweep special funds. This legislation would prevent the Governor from raiding this important dedicated fund.”

In addition, the All Kids program is certain to be debated.  The proposal would cover working and middle class Illinois families who earn too much to qualify for programs like KidCare.  “We all want the best for our state’s children. However, one must ask how we can afford this when we can’t even pay current bills” said Reis. “How can we think about expanding programs when we can't pay our doctors, our hospitals, our nursing homes and our pharmacists? More importantly, we are still awaiting the actual language of this proposal to emerge. Hopefully the questions we have regarding the affordability of this plan will be answered when actual details become available.”

Reis is also looking forward to advancing an Oklahoma style meth law that has been stalled in the House since April which would put products containing the powdered form of pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters and also require customers to show identification and sign a log book in order to purchase products like Sudafed. “I consider this an essential step in our fight against this harmful and devastating drug problem.” Reis said.