A state senator visiting the Village of Lake Barrington on Oct. 7 told trustees that Springfield passed what she described as the largest state budget in Illinois history and outlined several legislative priorities for suburban communities.

"I stepped into this role for public service because I believe that government should be about solving real problems and being able to help our communities thrive," the senator said, adding that the most recent state budget reached about $55,000,000,000 compared with roughly $39,000,000,000 earlier in the governor's term.

The senator told the board she is pressing for changes to the Regional Transportation Authority's governance to increase suburban representation and to prevent tax proposals she said could burden suburban residents and businesses. "There was not a lot of governance for the suburbs, so taxation without representation," she said, and added she will continue to "fight for all of us to make sure that we not only are having representation on the board." She said governance reforms were discussed separately from funding measures in Springfield.

She also described recent legislation she supported to lower prescription drug costs, saying reforms would require that 100% of certain drug rebates go back to patients and plan sponsors and would ban some pharmacy benefit manager practices.

On child-protection legislation, the senator described a bill she introduced, cited in the meeting as "23 81," that would treat people who secretly videotape children in private settings for illicit purposes as sex offenders who must register. She said the bill was prompted by a Chicago case in which prosecutors could not secure a child's testimony and the conduct was treated as a misdemeanor.

Trustees and the administrator discussed keeping a grants contact in the senator's office on the village's radar; the board asked to be connected with a staff member who handles grants so village staff can build a rapport. The senator agreed to share contact information for a staff member who handles grants.

The remarks were delivered during the trustees' meeting's early agenda and were for informational purposes; the board did not take formal action on the legislative items.