Kane County Reporter

Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) has renewed calls for several Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendments that have been filed by Republicans.

In a news conference Jan. 18, McConchie highlighted the amendments, stating Illinois residents have not had a voice in the state government or an active role in the democratic process in recent years. 

“It's time for us to do exactly what a vast majority of the public says they want,” McConchie said in the news conference. “They want a real functioning democracy here in Illinois and so that's one of the many reasons why I am renewing calls for the Senate Republican caucuses’ voter empowerment project.”

By reintroducing the constitutional amendments, McConchie said the goal is to put the people back in charge again. He said all of the amendments introduced will be important in providing the needed checks and balances for the Illinois government and empower voters across the state.

Among these, the first amendment, SJR CA 13, requires an independent redistricting commission.

“In this, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and then the ranking justice of the opposite party would jointly select 17 members to serve on an independent commission, seven that would represent the Democratic Party, seven that would represent the Republican Party and then three independent commissioners,” McConchie said. 

The second amendment, SJR 14, would allow for voter-initiated amendments to the state constitution.

“Right now it’s very constrained on what the voters can go to referendum to do,” McConchie said. “This would make us on par with many of our other peer states in allowing people to have a greater voice to be able to amend the Constitution on this kind of citizen-initiated amendments that people are saying that they want to be able to do.”

The passage of SJR 15 would subsequently allow the public to repeal unpopular laws that are passed in the state with a referendum. 

“Over the past year, we’ve seen the majority party use its supermajorities in the general assembly to not only push through controversial, extremely partisan legislation, but sometimes to do it with little or no notice in the middle of the night when nobody – including the members that are voting on it on the floor – have any idea what is actually in the legislation,” McConchie said, stating it can take days or even weeks to find out what is in the bills that have passed. 

The final proposal, SJR CA 16, pushes to allow voters to likewise recall elected officials including any executive branch officer as well as local government officials who they believe are corrupt or no longer doing their job sufficiently well enough. 

“Right now, as I mentioned, only the governor is subject to recall. So, this would empower citizens at all levels of government to hold elected officials accountable and help end corruption in our state,” McConchie said. 

The bills were reintroduced on Jan. 14 by McConchie and have all since been referred to the Senate Assignments Committee.

Several Senate Republicans are co-sponsors of the bills.