City of Evanston Blog
City Officials Lobby Illinois General Assembly
Mayor Tisdahl and I went down to Springfield for the day Thursday to participate in the annual lobby day of the Illinois Municipal League (IML). Since we had a City Council meeting the night before, we decided to try taking the train to Springfield. We left Evanston for the quick Metra trip to Chicago at 5:45 AM and boarded an Amtrak train to Springfield at 7:00 AM. By 10:30 AM, we were in Springfield.
Our first stop was the IML headquarters for a briefing of the over 200 city officials from around the State present. The main issues we would be focusing on for the day was the Governor's proposed shift of 30% of the state income tax received by municipalities to the State and continued discussions on reforms for Police and Fire pension funds. We would join other local officials from the Evanston area in the afternoon for larger group meetings, so we decided to look up Representative Hamos and Senator Schoenberg first.
We were reminded immediately that Thursday was Representative Hamos last day in the General Assembly as she is starting on Friday as the new Director of the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services. Our first visits to both Hamos and Schoenberg's offices found them not in. By now it was nearly 1:00 PM, so we decided to find lunch. After lunch, we tracked down Senator Schoenberg in his office and discussed the income tax shift, pensions and other issues of concern in Evanston. We then joined other local officials representing the Northwest Municipal Conference for a meeting with Representative Karen May and then House Speaker Madigan's Chief of Staff Tim Mapes. Same issues. Hope that the income tax shift would not prevail and that some sort of public safety pension reform will pass before the end of the current session in May/June.
After our meeting with Mapes, we got a call from Representative Hamos saying that she was packing in her office and that we were welcome to stop by. The Mayor and I spent almost 30 minutes talking with Hamos about her good work for Evanston in the General Assembly and our hopes for new collaborations in her new position at the Department of Health Care and Family Services.
We ended our lobby day back at IML catching up with other area officials on our successes. Wilmette Village President Chris Canning was there as were representatives from other nearby villages of Lincolnwood, Skokie, Morton Grove and Winnetka.
Our return trip left Springfield at 7:30 PM and we were home by 12:30 AM.
The capitol was full of all sorts of groups yesterday on "Lobby Day." This is a different kind of lobbying, where large groups of folks come to Springfield to make their issues known en masse. The role Mayor Tisdahl and I played was both as members of the IML mass as well as checking in with Senator Schoenberg on specific Evanston issues and an unexpected conversation with Representative Hamos on many subjects.
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