Ill. gov. uses veto to remove fee increase from 911 funding bill

Gov. Bruce Rauner said lawmwakers waited until the last minute to bring the bill to his desk; he strongly opposed the fee increase

June 30, 2017 05:46 PM

Joseph Bustos
Belleville News-Democrat

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Bruce Rauner issued an amendatory veto on the 911 reauthorization legislation and took out the telephone bill surcharge increases.

The Emergency Telephone Act is set to expire on Saturday.

The House voted 81-27 and the Senate voted 53-3, both in favor of the bill, and included an increase to the monthly surcharge that each phone-owner pays from 87 cents to $1.50. The Chicago surcharge was proposed to increase from $3.90 to $5. The surcharge keeps 911 centers running, as they don’t receive any funding from the state.

“The majority in the General Assembly waited until the last moment to send this 911 service reauthorization bill to my desk. Unfortunately, those lawmakers also inserted a major tax hike into this bill, a tax that’s both excessive and unwarranted, and that I strongly oppose,” Rauner said in a news release. “This extreme increase is unfair and indefensible. But the majority in the General Assembly is using the threat of cancellation of 9-1-1 services on Saturday as leverage to force this tax hike through over my opposition.”

With the amendatory veto, the General Assembly can either do nothing, and let the legislation die; it can override the veto with a three-fifths majority in each chamber; or it can agree to the changes with a simple majority in both chambers.

In Rauner’s action, the governor also removed the sunsets on the Emergency Telephone System Act and the sections regarding telecommunications and cable and video in the Public Utilities Act. These changes mean 911 service would continue in Illinois without the General Assembly having to pass legislation to renew the service, the governor’s office said.

“This mean-spirited strategy has been employed by the majority repeatedly over the years, most prominently in the current budget impasse: holding innocent people, our most vulnerable residents and essential services hostage as leverage to force excessive, unwarranted tax hikes onto the people of Illinois,” Rauner said. “This practice must stop.”