State Senator Chapin Rose had a capital idea: let's get rid of the lame duck sessions in the Illinois Legislature. You know...that time in Springfield every other year right after the November elections when we, as voters, get all sorts of awfulness sent our way like the income tax hike they billed as 'temporary'.
Well...the Chicago Democrats have said: not so fast, my friend. They don't want anyone touching their little 'playground'.
From the Illinois Review:
Republican State Sen. Chapin Rose's bill to eliminate lame duck sessions was shot down in a General Assembly committee on Thursday.
The legislation would have moved up the swear-in date to the first week of December after the General Election and would ban the Assembly from meeting until new lawmakers were in office.
Rose said the bill, which failed along party lines, was not surprising because the same people who voted for a 67 percent income tax hike during the lame duck session of 2011 would not want a change.
"I think everybody remembers that the largest tax increase in state history was brought to us by lame duck legislators after spending their whole careers telling us they were anti-tax," Rose said. "I think it's a real problem because lame ducks cause mischief, chaos, and damage at the end of the day to the taxpayers of this state."
