East Central Reporter

Veteran state Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) is vowing to continue his push to bring what he views as real reform to Springfield.

“We need real reform in this state and everybody knows it,” Halbrook posted to Facebook. “As your state representative, I will continue to call out scams and have the courage to vote against groupthink and meaningless legislation.”

Halbrook’s renewed push comes after the House recently failed to amass enough votes to accept Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s amendatory veto to Senate Bill 539 after it sailed through the chamber earlier this year.

In issuing the amendatory veto, Pritzker stressed he supported the measure, but felt the bill needed a minor change in the language dealing with the office of executive inspector general.

With that and despite the Senate still overwhelmingly approving the change, numerous House members withdrew their support for the bill and not enough Democrats remained in the chamber late into the night to reach the three-fifths vote needed for it to pass.

Among other tweaks, the bill would have prohibited legislators and constitutional officers from engaging in “compensated lobbying” of a municipality, county or township. In addition, the bill would have made several changes to financial disclosure guidelines along with limiting the ability of lawmakers to leave office and immediately work as lobbyists.

Talk of the need for reform in Springfield has reached a crescendo ever since Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope abruptly tendered her resignation, assailing the job as a “paper tiger” and arguing that “true ethics reform is not a priority” for the General Assembly.

In particular, Pope pointed to a provision in the ethics legislation limiting her ability to investigate non-governmental ethics violations, as well as the fact that a complaint would be required before an investigation could commence.

Following her departure, Republican lawmakers called on the governor to use his amendatory veto power to send the bill back for revisions “striking the provisions that would disempower the legislative inspector general.”

More recently, state Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield) has been among the loudest voices insisting that the governor failed to seriously consider any of the proposals put forth by GOP lawmakers.

“Choosing to vote to uphold this weak amendatory veto is doubling down on the fact that the ethics reform that you passed takes away the ability to have a true and independent watchdog over this body,” she said. “Choosing to side with this weak amendatory veto is choosing to give cover to politicians, rather than having an opportunity for the public to have faith in our government.”