Illinois House overrides heroin bill veto

Posted on September 3, 2015

State Rep. Lou Lang sponsored a heroin treatment bill which Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed. (Photo courtesy www.ilga.gov)

By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – What was touted as landmark, comprehensive legislation to attack Illinois’ heroin problem has survived a governor’s veto, so far.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, while praising the idea of trying to turn addicts into recovering addicts and not prison inmates, used his amendatory veto power to cut $15 million of a Medicaid-funded component out of the bill.

State Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove) said if you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money. That argument, he says, “is not an unreasonable thing, given where we are today without a budget.”

The sponsor, State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), responded that the veto was “penny wise and pound foolish.” Lang compares the $35,000 annual cost to prosecute and incarcerate someone to the $1,000 to treat that person, “and much of that is federally matchable.”

HB 1 has passed the House, via veto override, 105-5, and goes to the Senate.

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