Chambana Sun

Despite promises to get along better, Democrats in the Illinois State House are behaving no better now than when former Speaker Michael Madigan was in power, Republicans said last week.

Democrats have refused to work with Republicans, Rep. Thomas Bennett (R-Watseka) said in comments posted to YouTube on Friday, April 16.

Rep. Thomas Bennett (R-Watseka) | repbennett.com/

"Nearly 700 bills passed House committees this spring, but many good ideas were left behind, including bills dealing with ethics reform, property tax relief and pension reform," Bennett said. "Democrats promised to work together with Republicans in this session but of the bills that were allowed out of committee, only 18% of them were sponsored by Republicans. Thus far, the pledge to work together has proved to ring hollow."

Bennett referred to previous comments by House Republicans about the failure of the House "to pass bills dealing with our state's problems."

"It's a real disappointment to have reached this point and to have seen no substantive action on easing the state's tax burdens or fixing the corruption plaguing state government," he said.

Bennett's observations came a day after House Republicans made similar observations during a news conference posted to the Illinois House Republicans' Facebook page.

Rep. Amy Elik (R-Fosterburg), among those Republicans speaking at the news conference, referred to the irony of the continuation of one-man rule.

"In January, the Democrats demanded new leadership," Elik said, holding up a copy of the new House rules. "They were tired of the status quo of one man controlling the chamber with his House rules. They demanded new House rules and committed to a new way of governing the chamber. Yet we saw those House rules barely change in ink. The fundamental principles of full control to one person continued."

Democrats promised the new rules weren't final but they were "final" enough to be rapidly ready for distribution earlier last week.

"So much for those changes," Elik said. "House Democrats broke their promise of working together and went back to their old ways of doing business by voting to suspend their own rules in order to adopt nearly 300 bills on the consent calendar, of which 73% of the bills approved on the consent calendar were bills sponsored by Democrats," she said.

All the "more astonishing" was that of 697 bills passed out of committee, 82% were sponsored by Democrats, Elik said.

"It doesn't appear that the House Democratic leadership wants to, quote, work together to solve the very serious issues in this state," she said.