You Tell Us: What Should Our State Legislators' Priorities Be In 2012?

[TimeStandsStill]

Sunday, Jan. 01, 2012
You tell us: What should our state legislators' priorities be in 2012?
Belleville News-Democrat   

The Illinois General Assembly returns to Springfield this month to begin its spring session, and the BND is seeking your help in shaping our coverage.

What should our local legislators' top priorities be in the new session? What questions would you like us to pose to your state senator or representative?

Please let us know via email to statehouse reporter Brian Brueggemann at bbrueggemann@bnd.com or via letter to Brian Brueggemann, Belleville News-Democrat, PO Box 427, Belleville, IL, 62222.

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2012/01/01/1999061/you-tell-us-what-should-our-state.html#storylink=cpy

[veracity]

Thank you for posting this link. The comments posted there are really good!

[chantygirl]

I tried to post a comment, but it wouldn't let me for some reason 
So, if anyone else on here feels the same way, and can post on there, feel free to use my words..

I think that the legislators need to focus more on saving money, instead of focusing on ways to spend it.  There are unnecessary laws in place at this very moment that really should be removed from the books.  Laws that do nothing to provide safety to the public, but instead instill fear.  Yes, I'm talking about all of the registries.  The sex offender registry, and NOW the murder registry that is about to be put into place.  There is no need for either of these things.  Take the money that is being spent on these two things, put it into schools, and teach our children how to spot dangerous people.  And reform the prison system.  Right now, the prisons are a drain on the economy.  Get some of those guys and gals out of there by reinstating MGT.  Let them become taxpayers that generate money for the state instead of being a drain that sucks down taxpayer dollars.  Bring back parole, a real parole system.  Then we can get the guys and gals out of prison who have served their time and reformed themselves.  Why are we warehousing prisoners?  By warehousing the states prisoners, and not allowing them something to work towards, they're not being reformed and are more likely to commit the same crimes AGAIN once they're released.  Just fixing the prison system would save billions, and it really wouldn't be that hard.