West Central Reporter

Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) did not waiver in her wage-equality argument or sway in her support of small wireless facilities while discussing two House bills.

During the Nov. 9 Senate veto session floor debate, Tracy stood firm in her rejection of HB2462, a wage-equality bill sponsored by Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), and her approval of SB145, small-wireless-facilities legislation proposed by Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Terry Link (D-Gurnee).

Tracy,  a Labor Committee member, first questioned what the repercussions in HB2462 would be if an employer asked workers about their salary history and if the penalty incurred included attorney's fees and injunctive relief. Biss explained the penalty could be up to $15,000 if a civil action suit was filed and won.

“Another question you stated in your opening remarks was most business people are not bad, they are just trying to run a business with employees, but by bringing this bill you are presuming that all Illinois employers have bad motives in that they would ask about work history with an alternative motive to do harm to their employee,” Tracy said.

“No not at all,” Biss countered, adding the purpose of the bill is to educate well-intentioned employers who do ask this question and should not. “I think we can have a reasonable discussion about what an appropriate level of incentive is to make sure the issue is taken seriously.”

After her questions were answered, Tracy asked Biss if it occurred to him the bill would be violating an employer’s freedom of speech.

“I think that is very much the purview of state government to regulate the nature of contractual negotiations,” Biss said.

Tracy wanted “empirical, factual basis” of the bill's success in other states, to which Biss could not bring into the discussion. She suggested that while she and Labor Committee members try to make sure all Illinois employers treat workers fairly, the Senate has failed to do the same.

“The biggest problem we have in this state right now is no revenue," Tracy said. "We have lost revenue and that’s because we have lost employers that have taken employees with them.”

The Senate voted 29-17 on HB2462 but failed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of the measure.

Tracy was more approving of HB1451. She said initially there were a large number of concerns about public liability from the municipalities regarding the small-wireless-facilities bill, but with assurances from Link, she felt confident the bill would be a huge bonus for development, workers and consumers in Illinois.

“We have had assurances form the sponsor and the carriers that are involved that if there is a glitch or we are missing something and we find that it should be fixed, even if it occurs inside the three-year sunset, we are going to be back here to fix it,” Tracy said. “We are growing, we are learning and we want to do this right."