About 50 members of the League of Women Voters of Evanston gathered Monday to hear from their elected representatives in the Illinois General Assembly about the key accomplishments of past legislative sessions and the challenges ahead.

State Representative and Majority Leader Robyn Gabel (18th District), State Senators Ram Villivalam (8th District) and Laura Fine (9th District), and State Representative Kevin Olickal (16th District) joined for a panel discussion at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to answer questions from LWVE President Michelle Jordan.

Jordan told the RoundTable that the event was created so voters could “interact with their elected representatives in a casual way” while LWVE members ate lunch and chatted with other members and representatives.

“We are a group of educated, non-partisan voters,” Jordan said. “We are concerned with making sure that people can get to the polls and that there are no barriers to voting.”

Previous successes

During the panel, lawmakers were asked to reflect on what their greatest accomplishments have been and what’s next on the legislative agenda. Gabel proudly announced that Illinois signed its fourth balanced budget this year to pay off $4.1 billion in debt.

Fine spoke about her role as chair of the behavioral and mental health and insurance committees and the progress being made to improve accessibility and affordability on both fronts. Fine said the 988 helpline, which connects people in mental health crises with social workers, is being funded by the state as federal funding dries up.

She turned to Gabel, who, as majority leader on budget issues, jokingly replied, “I’ll just go to the money tree.”

Villivalam also raised major budget concerns as chairman of the Department of Transportation, with Chicago facing a $1 billion-plus deficit in CTA ridership following the lockdown. His biggest challenge in the coming months will be figuring out how to handle such a massive loss.