McHenry County Blog

A new law sponsored by State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Bull Valley) will take effect New Year’s Day.

But, hardly anyone will notice because most government offices are closed.

According to the Association Press to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Springfield correspondent Kevin McDermott, Franks sponsored

The new "Human Voice Contact Act" requires that in the case of Illinois state agencies, callers are given the option, early on, to circumvent that digitized obstacle course and speak directly to a person.

"We need the government to be serviceable to average citizens, and oftentimes, you get the voice mail from hell — you're in voice-mail purgatory, and you can't get out," said Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, a sponsor of the legislation. "Government has got to be reachable."

Republican State Rep. Ron Stephens of the metro-East area countered,

"If we passed a law for everything that frustrates us, we'd have 1,000 new laws (starting Jan. 1) instead of 100." Even the current list of new laws is "without question" too many, he said.