McLean County Times

State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is getting a sense of deja vu as the veto session in Springfield approaches.

“It’s feeling like last January’s lame duck session or maybe at the end of May, where the majority party waited until the final day to push through major pieces of legislation in a short amount of time with little notice or input from the public,” Rezin said during an Oct. 26 news conference.

As is its custom, the Illinois General Assembly is soon to meet for its annual 14-day “veto session” where lawmakers reconsider bills previously rejected by the governor with other initiatives often thrown into the mix that are also discussed and voted on during the session.

This year holds no shortage of critical issues, chief among them unpaid debt and public pension reform, gaming expansion and abolishing legislative scholarships.

Whatever issues come to the floor, Rezin argues there needs to be a better system put in place for evaluating them.

“Waiting until the last minute to pass legislation that could greatly impact the people of Illinois is a bad habit that our Democrat colleagues have seemed to more and more often let happen and I'm here to say that it's time that this needs to stop,” she said. “Waiting to pass important legislation until the final hour is not a good functioning government and it's not how a good functioning government is supposed to work. Important legislation should be vetted and given proper time and the opportunity for the public to weigh in.”

Last year’s fall veto session was canceled due to a surge of COVID-19 cases across the state.