WSIL TV -- The first week of the Illinois general assembly's veto session is over bringing good and bad news for southern Illinois. A bipartisan commission recommended keeping two state facilities open in our region, but lawmakers failed to restore the salaries of regional school superintendents.

It's been two weeks since hundreds of people turned out to try to convince a bipartisan committee to keep open two local facilities, the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro and the Chester Mental Health Facility.

"The votes weren't on a partisan line; there was bipartisan support in both cases," says Dan Long, the executive director of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

The commission voted unanimously to keep the Chester facility open and voted 7 to 4 for the IYC in Murphysboro. A few members questioned the reasoning behind which facilities Governor Pat Quinn chose to close.

"It does seem to be a feeling that the governor did this for political reasons, because he wanted something else in the budget, more money, whatever. And we need to find out what it is that he wants," explains Senator Dave Luechtefeld.

The commission's decision is only a recommendation, the governor does not have to follow it.

Meanwhile, on the House floor, legislators attempted to immediately restore the salaries for regional school superintendents, who have been working without pay for nearly four months. The measure was a few votes shy of passing, but because of the close margin, there's the chance of another vote later on.

"So we'll see how this plays out over the next thirty days, whether it's in the veto session or after, but I expect this problem to be resolved and our regional superintendents will be there to continue doing their job," Gery Chico recently explained. He's the chairperson of the Illinois Board of Education.

With the first half of the veto session complete, lawmakers will take the next week to make serious negotiations before the final week of the session.

"I also think the governor is going to have another bad week. I think a lot of his vetoes are going to get overridden," says democrat Representative Brandon Phelps.

"Vetoes of the governor's budget, those are the tough ones that are coming up yet, because he's going to want his vetoes to stand and I don't think they're going to," explains republican representative Mike Bost.

Along with another vote on superintendent salaries, the general assembly has other big issues to tackle when lawmakers return to Springfield. That includes gambling expansion, transportation funding, and other budget issues. The session resumes November 8th.