Will County Gazette

State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) thought that something was finally being done about Illinois' many longstanding issues when he heard a constitutional amendment was in the works. 

On the House floor, Batinick said he was hoping to see an amendment finally imposing term limits on lawmakers to bring an end to the state's longtime battle with corruption, an amendment to fix the state's bloated property taxes or an amendment for fair maps. 

"I got pretty excited this week at the thought of a constitutional amendment," Batinick said. "I know we've been talking about something like this for quite a while I thought maybe we're finally going to get a constitutional amendment on term limits. Maybe a constitution amendment to address the ethic issues we have or we could do a recall and allow citizens to recall corrupt elected officials. Maybe even an ethics bill. Maybe constitutional amendment on property taxes that are driving people out of this state."

Instead, the amendment in question gives collective bargaining protections to Illinois' workforce, and would allow employees to collectively bargain for the negotiations of wages, hours and working conditions. 

This, Batinick said, is not the most pressing issue facing Illinois. 

"Over 1 million people [are] moving out of the state because we don't have a fair map, because we have ridiculously high property taxes, because we fail to address our ethics issues in this state," the representative said. "Folks, we are debating the wrong constitutional amendment. We are trying to cover up our issues. Vote no."

The Senate Joint Resolution for the amendment passed the Senate in late May, and the decision now lies in the hands of Illinois voters as the amendment proceeds to the next election ballot in November of 2022. 

State Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago) said that the amendment will prevent Right-to-Work policies in the future, according to the Chicago Star.