Metro East Sun

State Rep. C.D Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) is worried about the repercussions he sees coming the state’s way stemming from Democratic lawmakers' decision not to use federal COVID dollars to pay back the nearly $5 billion now owed to the federal unemployment trust fund.

“Illinois received around $8 billion from the federal government,” Davidsmeyer posted on Facebook. “We currently owe $4.5 billion to the federal unemployment trust fund. Because the Democrat majority refused to use a portion of the $8 billion in federal funds to pay off that debt, we now owe an additional $11.25 million in interest, which continues to grow. The Democrats want to keep federal COVID dollars for their own slush fund instead of just paying off that debt.”

Davidsmeyer argues that decision comes at a cost to the state that goes far beyond just dollars and sense.

“That’s $11.25 million that can’t go to schools, can’t go to the developmentally disabled, can’t go to help seniors stay in their homes, and can’t pay down out-of-control pension debt,” he said. “Not paying that debt owed to the unemployment trust fund will eventually mean two things: businesses will pay significantly higher unemployment rates and the unemployed will receive significantly less dollars to survive their temporary unemployment.”

Back in June, the Metro East Sun reported Davidsmeyer also raised concern about what he derided as Democratic lawmakers' lack of transparency on the state budget bill and the problems he saw in the way it was crafted, presented, and voted on.

“We've been notified about the other problems within the budget,” he told the Metro East Sun. “You know, as my colleague said, the working groups work behind the scenes and they make up random cuts to the budget, they'll say, 'well let’s cut 5% across the board' and they do that because they know that the speaker is not going to actually use those numbers. They are crafting behind the scenes and I will say the reason why they don't want transparency in this process is not because they're worried about the minority party supporting, they're worried about their own members coming up with reasons not to support bad budgets.”

Davidsmeyer said his Taxpayers’ Fiscal Charter, also known as House Bill 2441, would be a step toward change by requiring transparency on all budget proposals.

“This reiterates the need, and I've been filing a bill for about 5 or 6 years now that requires the budget to be posted online for at least 72 hours prior to any vote,” he added. “When I was on the Jacksonville City Council, we always had two votes on our budget. We had a vote and then two weeks later at our normal meeting we would have another vote. That allowed the general public to come in and view the budget.”

With the time for processing requests for Firearm Owners Identification Cards (FOID) now taking an average of four months, Davidsmeyer is also going on the offensive on that front.

“They’ve been going on for a long time; they got incredibly worse during COVID-19,” Davidsmeyer said during a recent news conference on the issue. “I Googled the other day ‘how long does it take to get a FOID card’ and it came up 127 days.”

Davidsmeyer said he regularly hears from frustrated citizens who can’t get any answers about their applications for legal gun ownership.

“I have constituents that I've helped get a FOID card that have been waiting for 13 months,” he said. “It is absolutely crazy. Here is the crazy part: My wife's from Ohio; she moved to Illinois when we got married. She pays taxes here, she works here, and she does all the things she's asked to do. She does not have a FOID card and if I say ‘hey can you run and pick me up some ammo,’ shotgun shells, whatever if I'm shooting sporting clays or something of that sort, she cannot do it, but if my mother-in-law from Ohio comes to visit she can go do it.”

Davidsmeyer said he stands with state Sen. Neil Anderson (R-Moline) who has proposed has Senate Bill 1754 as the solution. The measure seeks to eliminate the need to possess an FOID card in order to be a legal gun owner.