SPRINGFIELD – A bill that would have abolished the 50 percent tuition waivers that go to the children of public university employees is on hold after opponents included what the sponsor called "a poison pill."

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, decided to avoid a full Senate Executive Committee vote on the legislation (SB 1318) Wednesday evening after committee members voted down an amendment that would have allowed current employees to continue to enjoy the benefit.

But the committee then voted to adopt a second Radogno-requested amendment to ban the long-controversial General Assembly scholarships.

The result left Radogno with a bill guaranteed to get plenty of "no" votes; she opted not to call it for a vote in committee.

"The way they would not allow the amendment on the bill that would make it prospective, I don't think it's fair to pull the rug out from people who were counting on it," she said after the committee meeting. "But as a policy, going forward, these (employee tuition) waivers don't make sense. Wisconsin doesn't offer them. Iowa doesn't offer them. Only four states even offer them in statute."

She called the employees' waivers "a huge cost shift on which everyone else is paying."

Radogno said she may try to amend her preferred version of the legislation onto another bill later in the session.

"I have a feeling I'm going to need to keep talking about it for a while," she said. "We've talked a lot about General Assembly scholarships. So I think this issue hasn't been raised, but it's an issue that ought to be raised."

Although there were plenty of groups registered in opposition to the tuition waiver repeal – many labor union lobbyists and universities, including the University of Illinois, were listed as opponents – there was little debate in the committee.

Only Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, addressed the issue in the vote on the first amendment.

"I think this is a disincentive to attracting faculty to come here as opposed to somewhere else," he said. "I think you just cut off the ability to go get talented people from other institutions because you may not be able to offer them as much if not more money."

But Radogno said the employee tuition waivers impose a cost burden on families that don't get them.

"I know it's been discussed that they're an incentive to get people here because we can't pay them enough," she said. "Number one, I disagree with the notion that we're underpaying public employees. I haven't seen anything that indicates that."

She noted that a nurse at the University of Illinois Hospital could get the tuition waiver while a nurse at another public hospital wouldn't. "It's just fundamentally unfair to do that," she said.

And if university employee pay is too low, Radogno said, "that's probably an issue we should address head-on as opposed to giving a perk based on someone's family situation. We would never think of giving someone a raise just because you have a child in a particular age group, which is essentially what this does."

Meanwhile, the abolition of the General Assembly scholarships is certain to come up again.

Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, has a bill (SB 2233) to ban them, as does Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo (HB 227). Both bills could be heard in committees as soon as Thursday but may not be successful.

"There was a time for a hearing today, and I've been told that we will get a hearing in the future," Frerichs said. "I think we've made good progress in the last year, but I don't know that we've got enough people on board to get it passed."

Likewise, Franks encountered opposition in an informal discussion of the bill in a committee Wednesday morning.

"My priority is for every child to get a very good education. If you want to prioritize something, why don't you take a look at some of the salaries that some of these presidents make, instead of taking away from the kids," said Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago. "I think that's more important than taking away these scholarships."