August 25, 2003

To the Honorable Members of the

Illinois House of Representatives

93rd General Assembly

Pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(b) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby veto House Bill 1179, entitled “AN ACT concerning personal care attendants.”   In March of this year, I signed Executive Order 8 granting collective bargaining rights to 20,000 personal care assistants in the Department of Human Services Home Services Program.  The state is currently involved in contract negotiations with their union, Service Employees International Union #880, over wages and conditions of employment of personal care assistants.    While I support increasing the wages of hard working personal care assistants, I believe this is best achieved through the collective bargaining process, not through legislation.

For this reason, I hereby veto and return House Bill 1179.

Sincerely,

ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH

Governor