* Many thanks to Dan’s dad for this idea…

Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Monday, sponsored by State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) and State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), giving motorists the option to register their vehicles for more than one year at a time.

House Bill 4259, which passed the House and Senate unanimously, allows motorists, beginning in 2021, to register their vehicles for one or two years. It also allows owners of trailers to register their trailer up to five years. The price per year would be the same, but motorists would be able to pay multiple years up front and would not have to change their sticker every year.

McConchie and Batinick say this legislation provides a convenience and saves the state money.

“About a year and a half ago, my dad came into the house frustrated after trying to put his renewal sticker on his license plate in the bitter cold saying, ‘I don’t know why we can’t renew our plates for more than one year at a time,’” McConchie recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘What a great idea!’ We could save the state money and provide greater convenience to taxpayers.

* Other bills…

* Illinois School Resource Officers to Undergo Training: Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill over the weekend that requires school resource officers, also known as SROs, to be better prepared to deal with the student population. The training will focus on de-escalation, crisis intervention and cyberbullying.

* Rauner: Won’t sign bill to ease voting by jail inmates without changes: Representative Juliana Stratton, who sponsored the bill, said she is “clearly disappointed” by the governor’s response. She said that that supporters of the bill had negotiated with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Illinois Sheriffs Association to decide on a procedure for delivering “know your rights” information to inmates exiting custody, and that it would simply involve adding information on voting rights to a packet of information that inmates already receive upon completing their sentences. “It’s lost on me why the governor would not be in support of this information being distributed,” Stratton said.

* Illinois Governor Blocks Bill To Tell People With Criminal Histories About Their Voting Rights: In his veto, Rauner didn’t object to helping people get access to ballots during pretrial detention, but specifically took issue with the requirement that officials provide voter registration forms to people leaving jail and voting rights information to those leaving prison. He said he’d support the bill if lawmakers eliminated those elements of it.

* More than 10,000 FOIDs yet to be renewed from June: Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a law Friday giving a 60-day grace period for gun owners to renew their state firearms identification cards and still own a firearm, but it won’t help the thousands of gun owners that have let theirs expire. The law allows for a Firearm Owner’s Identification, or FOID, card to remain valid for 60 days after the owner has sent in for renewal. This means a gun owner can submit their renewal for the card and still be a legal gun owner if it expires before the Illinois State Police processes it.

* Law allows Medicaid flexibility for ‘medically fragile’ kids: The law means that their expensive, highly technical care which is covered by Medicaid is exempt from managed-care organizations. The state has moved 80 percent of its Medicaid clients to managed-care organizations to cut costs.