Eye On Illinois: Holiday weekend midnight budget sessions just how Democrats work here

This column launched in late May 2020. The third-ever Eye On Illinois opened with this sentence:

“The General Assembly crammed nearly an entire session worth of work into just a few days, including votes covering billions in appropriations well past sundown on a holiday weekend Saturday.

The next added context – “The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has made things difficult the last few months,” – setting up an immutable truth learned over decades: “Illinois lawmakers don’t need a pandemic to fritter away working days.”

The 103rd General Assembly didn’t consume as much overtime as earlier iterations, especially since the Democrats in charge gave themselves an earlier-than-required adjournment deadline, but it apparently is just standard procedure for Memorial Day weekend to be given over to midnight machinations.

That May 26, 2020, column, concluded thusly: “It’s difficult to envision a scenario in which lawmakers rewrite rules to avoid these bill-passing blitzes, but that’s precisely the kind of structural improvement needed to lay the groundwork for an actual reform movement in a badly broken state.

June 2, 2021: “Ultimately, the weekend bill bonanza underscores a point our lawmakers – to be fair, the Democrats who control both legislative chambers – seem to drive home annually: even when they say they’re working to improve the lives of Illinoisans, the way they go about doing so indicates they don’t especially feel obligated to undergo any meaningful public scrutiny.”

In 2022, lawmakers wanted a budget in early April. They still were voting at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday. I wrote: “These pre-dawn sessions aren’t new in 2022 or unique to Illinois. There are ages of established precedents on Capitol Hill. Show me a Statehouse reporter and I’ll show you someone who’s tried to work coherently on sleep patterns that would shame your average college sophomore.

“So no one can act surprised. But neither can we waste much energy complaining about the when, as the what, how and who are more significant. While it’s hard to imagine any collection of state lawmakers voting to subject themselves to their own Open Meetings Act, it’s downright laughable to think being forced to take these votes under different circumstances would change the power dynamics.”

May 27, 2023: “Watching Statehouse Democrats lurch toward the session finish line this week raises the question: in Springfield, is outcome the only worthwhile metric?”

This is the government we’ve elected, and given the November electoral map, the one we’ll have going forward. Republicans have valid criticisms of both process and results, but Democrats keep delivering for their constituents and comfortably retain power.

Obviously, many voters are angry and working for change. But many more are satisfied, getting the state they want and support. Expect more of the same in 2025.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.