Pritzker totals up his wins
Sunday, Jun 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the governor’s office…
Working with both Democrats and Republicans, Governor JB Pritzker and the General Assembly enacted Illinois’ most sweeping and consequential legislative agenda in a generation, ushering in a new era of fiscal responsibility and standing up for working families.
Fiscal Responsibility and Building a Sound Economy for All Illinoisans
✓ Passed a bipartisan balanced budget that begins to pay down debts from prior administration
✓ Advanced a fair income tax amendment for Illinois that will ensure wealthy pay more while 97 percent pay the same or less
✓ Launched the bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan – the largest infrastructure investment in Illinois history – to rebuild roads, bridges and communities and create hundreds of thousands of jobs
✓ Raised minimum wage for all Illinois workers to a living wage
✓ Committed highest annual per capita investment in the nation for 2020 census to bring federal dollars to Illinois
✓ Legalized adult-use cannabis with most equity-centric law in the nation for communities that bore the brunt of the war on drugs
✓ Met with bond rating agencies, the first time an Illinois governor has done so in nearly 20 years
Education – Cradle to Career
✓ Expanded child care assistance eligibility to 10,000 more children
✓ Strengthened early childhood education and child care with biggest investment ever in Illinois into early childhood programs and facilities
✓ Provided historic funding levels for K-12 students across the state
✓ Raised minimum wage for teachers
✓ Expanded skills development with first increase for career and technical education in a decade
✓ Increased college affordability by expanding in-state college scholarships to 15,000 more students
✓ 40% increase in merit scholarships for high achieving college-bound students
✓ Expanded access to federal tuition assistance to every Illinois student
✓ Focused on restoring and stabilizing higher education after years of neglect by increasing public university and community college funding by 5%
✓ Extended financial aid to undocumented students
Health Care – Quality and Affordability
✓ Expanded health care to 100,000 more Illinoisans with bipartisan reforms to eliminate the Medicaid backlog
✓ Implemented managed care organization assessment that will bring in $500 million federal dollars to Medicaid
✓ Improved quality of care for seniors through better funding for nursing home and in-home care
✓ Strengthened critical access hospitals in rural downstate communities
✓ Reformed medical cannabis program to cover chronic pain management
✓ Put in place Getting to Zero plan to end HIV in a decade
✓ Raised age to buy tobacco and nicotine products to 21
Business Investment and Job Creation
✓ Launched effort to bring high speed broadband internet to every corner of the state
✓ Elevated innovation economy with new business incubators and extension of the research and development tax credit for businesses
✓ Created a business apprenticeship tax credit, encouraging new job creation and workforce development
✓ Extended the film industry tax credit, creating and supporting thousands of entertainment industry jobs in Illinois
✓ Created a minority business loan fund
✓ Created new high paying tech jobs and construction jobs with a data center tax incentive program
✓ Brought relief for 300,000 small businesses through phase out of corporate franchise tax
✓ Created incentives for job creation on new construction and renovations in underserved communities
✓ Established annual reporting on corporate board diversity for public companies to encourage greater representation
✓ Refocused community college workforce development programs to concentrate on high growth industries
Serving and Protecting Illinois Families
✓ Enshrined reproductive rights into law
✓ Implemented gun dealer licensing to eliminate straw purchases and reduce gun trafficking
✓ Joined the US Climate Alliance and committed to reducing state’s carbon footprint
✓ Advanced equal pay for women by banning salary history inquiries
✓ Launched comprehensive overhaul of DCFS to protect vulnerable children and added 300 new frontline caseworkers
✓ Improved public safety by expanding recruitment of new Illinois State Police troopers
✓ Elevated and strengthened safety for first responders on state highways
✓ Strengthened the Illinois State Police Division of Forensics Services to address the forensics backlog and introduced rape evidence tracking tool
✓ Established a moratorium on for-profit immigrant detention centers
✓ Protected immigrant families by limiting coordination by local law enforcement with Donald Trump’s Immigration roundups
✓ Fully funded reconstruction of Quincy Veterans’ Home and restarted long-delayed 200-bed Chicago Veterans’ Home by spring of 2020
Government Reforms
✓ Built the most diverse executive branch cabinet in state history
✓ Built the most diverse governor’s office in state history
✓ Launched public safety pension consolidation task force and asset transfer task force
✓ Expanded state employee pension buyout program to reduce pension liabilities
As a commenter noted, he didn’t even mention gaming.
* The governor will hold a press conference about this today. Links to watch or listen…
Live video stream
Live video stream w/captioning
Live audio-only stream
End of session press releases will be posted to our live coverage post.
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* AP at 2:20 this afternoon…
Illinois lawmakers are in line for a pay raise after a paperwork mix-up that went uncorrected.
The House adjourned its spring session Saturday without taking action on a measure that would have frozen base legislative salaries at $67,836. That means that lawmakers would receive an estimated $1,600 annual pay increase if Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the budget.
It would be the first pay raise for legislators since 2008. But Senate Democrats conceded during debate on the budget Friday night that an agreed-to freeze on a cost-of-living increase was not in legislation authorizing the spending plan. So they amended another bill to prohibit the COLA and sent it to the House.
The House took no action. Democratic House Majority Leader Greg Harris of Chicago noted there were no questions about the COLA during debate on the budget.
Steve Brown is spokesman for Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. He says he’s not aware of a COLA but said there’s an increase for lawmakers’ office expenses.
The bill they amended was HB837. It passed the Senate 58-0 after Friday’s midnight deadline. Several Senators quickly jumped on as co-sponsors.
The original House sponsor was Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), but on Saturday Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) became the chief sponsor and quickly filed a motion to non-concur with the Senate amendment. The motion was never called for a vote.
* AP at 3:53 this afternoon…
The COLA issue arose Friday night as the Senate debated budget-implementation language. The sponsor, Chicago Democratic Sen. Heather Steans, was surprised to learn that an agreed-to freeze on COLAs was absent from the legislation. [Senate] Democrats remedied the omission by adding the prohibition to another bill they sent to the House, but the House took no action.
“You should go and ask the House why they didn’t pass the bill that we sent them,” Steans said. “Most folks get annual cost-of-living increases in their jobs, or are evaluated for them. It’s not an outrageous expectation that more than once in a 10-year period we’d get them.”
Steve Brown, spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, said he was unaware of a pay increase. He said the budget included an increase in reimbursement for legislators’ district office expenses. […]
“Illinois citizens are sick and tired of secret insider budget deals that enrich Springfield politicians at the expense of hardworking taxpayers who are getting hit with massive tax increases,” said [Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills], who voted “no” on the budget.
The salary freeze plan that the Senate sent to the House required only a vote to concur. Rep. Thaddeus Jones, a Calumet City Democrat, filed a motion to non-concur in the freeze. Calling the motion for a vote would have forced House members to vote in favor or against rejecting the freeze.
I don’t necessarily begrudge them the pay hikes. It’s been eleven years since the last one and they’ve done a whole lot this year, unlike past years. But I’m thinking there was no “paperwork mix-up.”
…Adding… The entire House GOP caucus plus Democratic Rep. Carol Ammons signed on to a bill introduced in February (HB2965) to prevent the pay raise.
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* LiveStream went down nationally at 2 o’clock this afternoon. BlueRoomStream uses the company to stream its live Statehouse broadcasts.
But, have no fear. Click here to see BlueRoomStream’s live Facebook streaming. If you’re a BRS subscriber and haven’t yet joined their private Facebook group, you’ll need to join.
*** UPDATE *** Tony at BlueRoomStream tells me you can still use your LiveStream smartphone app to watch their broadcasts.
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Budget, capital, gaming roundup
Sunday, Jun 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Senate will take up budget/capital/gaming/etc. concurrences today. It shouldn’t be a problem…
* House declares victory: A more than $40 billion budget – described as balanced – and a more than $40 billion capital construction program are the big pieces. The House also approved six new casinos (Chicago, Waukegan, southern Cook County, Rockford, Danville, and near Marion), sports betting, a doubling of the gas tax (to 38 cents) and adding a dollar per pack to the cigarette tax (to $2.98).
* Expanded gambling legislation advances to Senate: According to lawmakers, all revenues from the bill would go toward funding the vertical components of a new capital infrastructure plan, such as renovations to prisons or university buildings. Those revenues would come from a variety of license fees and taxes on new operators in the sports betting and expanded casino industries.
* House clears budget, gambling measure that includes adding Chicago casino: House lawmakers on Saturday also achieved what once seemed impossible: agreeing on a comprehensive gambling expansion and sports-betting bill that not only survived a feud between a billionaire casino owner and two fantasy sports-betting companies, but also added authorizing a long-talked about and controversial Chicago casino. Money the city would get from the casino would be earmarked to pay for police and fire pensions. It also would bring slot machines to three horse racing tracks. The measure also survived consternation from Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who late Friday said she couldn’t get on board with having slot machines at places like Soldier Field. By Saturday afternoon, after talks with Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Gov. J.B. Pritzker, she changed her tune.
* In overtime, lllinois House OKs new taxes for public works program and a gambling expansion that includes a Chicago casino: The House “led the way” on the creation of a capital bill, Republican Rep. Margo McDermed of Mokena said. “Long-term, sustainable funding is the key, ladies and gentleman,” McDermed said. “This is a good way to move forward.” The list of public works projects moved to the Democratic governor’s desk while the tax-hike project funding still awaits Senate approval. But some Republicans took to the House floor to defend some of the tax increases included in the budget and capital plan. Republican Rep. Steve Reick of Woodstock, said he was supporting the gas tax increase to support infrastructure improvements, decrying the state of the roads in parts of McHenry County. The capital plan includes a major widening of Illinois Route 47 through Woodstock.
* Budget Done — Building And Gambling Plans To Go: The heart of budget calls for spending more than $40.6 billion on state operations — funding a year’s worth of everything from schools and universities to prisons and the state police. Elementary and high school districts would see an increase of $375 million, exceeding the $350 million annual minimum established in the 2017 education funding overhaul. State universities would see a 5 percent increase. Lawmakers avoided many of the new and higher taxes Pritzker proposed during his budget address, like a new tax on shopping bags. That’s largely because of the “April surprise” — $1.5 billion in unexpected tax collections. That windfall prompted the analysts at the legislature’s nonpartisan budget unit to increase next year’s income tax revenue forecast by $725 million. The budget does, however, impose a new tax on the insurance companies that participate in the state’s Medicaid program. It also counts on changes in the law around sales taxes for online purchases.
* Overtime session produces Illinois budget, construction, taxes: Democrats, who control every facet of state government, led the way with cooperation from minority Republicans, who acknowledged the budget is balanced, were gratified to get business-building and job-creation incentives and recognized the need to pay for fixing roads, schools, prisons and other public works ignored for years. “This state is uniquely situated in our country,” GOP Rep. Tim Butler of Springfield said during debate over doubling the gasoline tax to 38 cents a gallon. “We are a leader in transportation, but our infrastructure is crumbling. We have to reinvest, people.”
* Springfield loses out on casino, but gets full rail funding: In total, it appears the city has secured the full $122 million it requested for the rail project in the $40.6 billion capital bill that was filed.
* ‘We worked it out’: House wraps up work one day late with a bang as Chicago gets a casino — and sports betting: Over the course of negotiations, the length of the so-called “penalty box” has been cut in half twice, from six years earlier this month to three years, and most recently down to 18 months. FanDuel and DraftKings told The Daily Line last week the companies were prepared to sue the state if they were banned from operating in Illinois for a set period. In the final language of SB 690, FanDuel and DraftKings aren’t completely shut out of sports betting in Illinois, as the companies both have corporate partnerships with casino parent companies. FanDuel has an existing partnership with Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns the casino in East Peoria, and DraftKings has a partnership with Caesars’ Gaming, which also owns Harrah’s Joliet and Harrah’s Metropolis casinos. While the gaming expansion bill doesn’t allow FanDuel and DraftKings to use their own branding for 18 months, they will be able to operate sports books in partnership with those three casinos. Meanwhile, Bluhm’s Rush Street Gaming will likely make a play for its sports betting website PlaySugarHouse to enter into the market and buy one of the state’s three available $20 million online sports betting licenses.
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* Let me know in comments if there’s anything I’ve missed and I’ll add it…
* Substantive pending in Senate *
[Everything passed.]
* Budget/Capital/Gaming pending in Senate *
[Everything passed.]
* Stalled *
SB1966 — Fix the FOID [Passed House, stalled in Senate]
* Substantive passed both chambers before Sunday *
SB25 — Reproductive Health Act
HB1438 — Legalize cannabis
HB2078 — $40K teacher minimum wage
* Budget/Capital passed both chambers *
HB142 — Bond authorization
SB262 — FY20 operating appropriations/spending
HB62 — Construction appropriations/spending
*** UPDATE: Cleared Senate Sunday on final passage ***
* Budget/Capital/Gaming *
SB 689 — FY20 operating revenue with Leader Durkin’s pro-business requests. [Passed the House 107-9, passed the Senate 49-8-1]
SB690 — Revenue (gaming, cigarette tax hike, etc.) for vertical construction [Passed the House 87-27, passed the Senate 46-10-2 (Leader Brady voted “Present”)]
SB1814 — Budget Implementation Act (BIMP) [Passed the House 97-17-1, passed the Senate 52-6]
SB1939 — Capital taxes/fees, including doubling the Motor Fuel Tax. [Passed the House 83-29-1, passed the Senate 48-9-1]
SB 689 (HA3) — FY20 operating revenue with Leader Durkin’s pro-business requests. [Passed the House 107-9, passed the Senate 49-8]
* Substantive legislation *
SB2023 — Expand medical cannabis program. [Passed the House 98-3-1, passed the Senate 52-2.]
SB75 — Comprehensive anti-sexual harassment proposal [Passed the House 114-0, passed the Senate 59-0]
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