State legislators hold town hall in Effingham

Jul. 5—Following the 2023 spring legislative session, Illinois State Rep. Brad Halbrook and Illinois State Sen. Steve McClure have been traveling throughout their districts to speak to constituents.

They stopped by Effingham City Hall June 29 for a town hall in which the two legislators discussed various aspects of the $50 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year the state passed in May and updated constituents on other recent legislation.

During the town hall, McClure claimed that budget negotiations between the Democratic majority and the Republican minority fell apart, and no senate Republicans voted in favor of the budget.

Both McClure and Halbrook said one of their top priorities when trying to negotiate the budget was to insure the continuance of the Invest in Kids scholarship program, which gives scholarships to children who need financial assistance in order to attend a private or parochial schools.

"We tried to do our best to get some bad things taken out and to fight for the Invest in Kids scholarship program," McClure said. "And unfortunately, at the at the end of the day we just could not come to an agreement."

Another aspect of the state's budget Republicans like McClure and Halbrook have been critical of is the $550 million set aside for health care for non-citizens, and Halbrook said estimated costs will be even higher.

"One of the most contentious issues was the $1.1 billion estimate for health care for illegal aliens," Halbrook said.

However, McClure noted that the health care program has been rolled back.

"I think even the governor sort of acknowledges that it's a bad idea because he walked back a lot of this program with his recent updates to the way the program is going to work from here on out as far as shutting off the period in which a person can enroll, age limits, that sort of thing," McClure said. "It's too little, too late."

McClure argued that the burden of these costs fall on Illinois residents.

"How can you tell the average person who's paying way too much money for everything that you've also gotta pay for the health care of someone who's not even a citizen of our country?" he said.

Halbrook also criticized the funding of health care for non-citizens and called into question the priorities of legislators who supported this aspect of the bill while not including funding for the Invest in Kids scholarship program.

"It's due to sunset the end of December," Halbrook said. "The priorities of this majority party was to fund this health care for folks that aren't here legally rather than taking care of kids in some really tough areas when it comes to their education."

McClure noted that groups of students in the program have come to Springfield to advocate for its continuation.

"We really did try our sincere best, and we just didn't reach an agreement, unfortunately," McClure said.

Also during the town hall, McClure and Halbrook discussed recently implemented environmental regulations which Halbrook claimed is going to "strip out local control."

The state of Illinois passed House Bill 4412 earlier this year which includes new standards and regulations for wind and solar energy projects facilities in the state.

"This would basically strip out counties' ability to zone themselves for wind and solar," Halbrook said.

They were also critical of another piece of environmental legislation, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which was implemented in the fall of 2021 with the aim of spurring the state's shift to renewable energy.

McClure claimed that these regulations are "destroying that cheap energy," and Halbrook said this could lead to the possible premature shutdown of power plants in places like Sparta.

"This state is setting environmental policies that are unattainable," McClure said. "The technology doesn't exist for these deadlines to be met that are set forth in state law. We're all seeing that reflected in our energy bills lately."

However, Halbrook and McClure both touted the recent passing of a bill, Senate Bill 76, lifting the state's ban on the construction of nuclear energy facilities which began in 1987, calling it a "big Republican win."

"This was Sen. Sue Rezin's bill to allow for nuclear power to exist in our state again because we have had a real issue with generating enough power," McClure said. "This is a clean way to do that with nuclear energy."

"This is a victory," Halbrook said.

McClure clarified said that although the bill allows for the construction of small module nuclear reactors, it doesn't mean the aim is to create more large nuclear facilities.

"As far as building a brand new one, I'm not sure about that," McClure said.

McClure discussed another bill, Senate Bill 188, he's sponsoring and he said the bill is in part a response to what he called a "war on parental rights" in Illinois.

If passed, the bill would make it easier for parents of children with special needs who are 12 years or more old but younger than 18 to access their child's medical records in order to make informed decisions about their care.

"If that passes, parents that have special needs kids are gonna be able to access their records again without having to court," McClure said.

He claimed that the process parents have to go through to access their child's records also needlessly clogs up the court system.

McClure said the bill is currently awaiting the governor's signature.

Another recent piece of legislation McClure strongly advocated for is House Bill 2077 which requires dental offices in the state of Illinois to notify patients 30 days prior to closing their offices.

"We had an issue during COVID, lots of dental offices closed without any notification to the patient," McClure said. "They have to tell their patients how they can obtain their dental records."

McClure also discussed a recent piece of legislation, Senate Bill 333, that he said he helped kill before it made it to the governor's desk for approval.

"Essentially, in the state of Illinois, right now, if a rape victim goes to a hospital, that hospital has to call the police and notify law enforcement," McClure said.

The bill would have required hospitals to receive permission from victims of sexual assault who are 13 years of age or older before contacting law enforcement.

If permission is denied, hospitals would have to wait until after the victim is discharged before notifying authorities.

He argued that the abuser or suspect could be the same person who brought them to the hospital, their parents, or another guardian which could impact a victim's decision to speak to authorities.

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.