* Looks like the House Democrats have this newbie on the program…

House Bill 2428 would stop state lawmakers from joining the [pension] system. State Rep. Dave Vella, D-Rockford, introduced the bill as one of his first after winning a close race against former state Rep. John Cabello.

Vella also refused to enroll in the retirement system.

“We need to make sure we are not wasting resources to fund unnecessary perks for politicians,” Vella said. “As our state continues to face financial problems, we should not be adding new financial burdens by promising to pay for the retirements of career politicians.”

* Rep. Moylan was a solid “No” on cannabis legalization and was also totally on the opposite side of Rep. Cassidy’s battles to oust Speaker Madigan, so no surprise here…

State Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines) has now introduced legislation that would strengthen conflict of interest provisions in the legalization law that aim to prevent lawmakers, regulators and their families from profiting off the industry.

“For far too long in Illinois we have seen public officials abuse the public trust for their own benefit. It is time we enact much stronger ethics laws, especially concerning the growing cannabis industry where a lot of money is now flowing,” Moylan, a staunch critic of the legalization effort, said in a statement announcing the bill last month. […]

Moylan’s bill appears to target Candace Gingrich, the spouse of state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who led the effort to legalize recreational marijuana.

Just a month after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed that law, Gingrich was announced as the vice president of business development for Revolution Florida, a “sister company” to the Streeterville-based pot firm Revolution Global. Because Revolution already earned a license to grow recreational pot in Illinois, Moylan believes Gingrich should be barred from working for its Florida subsidiary.

Interesting that his bill only applies specifically to the cannabis industry.

* Ben Szalinski with the State Journal-Register…

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, proposed legislation to make it easier for someone who has charges against them dropped or is acquitted in court to have the charges erased from their record immediately. Under House bill 434, a person can immediately petition the judge to expunge their record of the charges that did not result in a conviction, but the prosecution can also object to the possible expungement. […]

“As a society, what we have to start doing is looking at the unintended consequences of not (expunging records). We have so many unintended consequences of not doing the right thing,” Ford said, adding this legislation is about addressing mistakes the criminal justice system has made and not the mistakes of individuals. […]

Ford also brought forward legislation in House bill 350 to make it easier for a convicted defendant to pay fines assessed in the conviction. The bill would allow judges to make determinations on a defendant’s ability to pay the fines and fees before the judge assesses them.

* WTTW…

Opponents of the payday lending industry say they’re worried about a series of bills circulating in the General Assembly right now that they say would gut some of the protections that are in the bill awaiting the governor’s signature.

Sponsors of two such bills in the House and Senate declined to be interviewed for this story.

The two camera-shy sponsors are Democratic Rep. Jonathan Carroll and Republican Sen. Sue Rezin.

* Press release…

A coalition of consumer, environmental, and community advocates along with legislative champions announced legislation today to end a gas utility surcharge contributing to higher heating bills across the state.

The coalition pointed to numerous examples of rapidly rising bills from one end of the state to the other: Peoples Gas customers are paying more than 10 times the amount legislators were told the surcharge would cost, and a staggering 29 percent are behind on their bills. The surcharge, similar to the rubber-stamped “formula” rate hikes ComEd won through a corrupt scheme, has significantly contributed to a recent $76 million Ameren Illinois gas increase and a record-breaking $293 million Nicor Gas rate-hike request.

The legislation (HB3941, state Rep. Joyce Mason, SB570, state Sen. Ram Villivalam) would phase out the surcharge, called the “Qualified Infrastructure Plant” (QIP) charge, at the end of 2021 instead of at the end of 2023 and restore traditional regulatory oversight over gas utility spending. Gov. J.B. Pritzker endorsed the policy in his August energy principles, and Mayor Lightfoot and the Chicago City Council called for similar action last spring.

“This year has made clear that we need to restore utility oversight in Illinois,” Rep. Mason said. “As families are tightening their belts, we can no longer allow unaccountable utility spending to raise heating bills unchecked.”

In announcing the legislation, the coalition also released new data from reports the utilities file with state regulators showing that Peoples Gas customers were collectively about $147 million behind on their gas bills as of January 2021. That is $26 million more than ComEd customers, even though ComEd has about 3 million more residential customers. A staggering 29 percent of Peoples Gas customers–nearly a third of the utility’s customer base–were behind on their bills as of January.

“I think it’s important to remove this charge. The utilities know we need these services and it’s not fair that they keep hiking up bills, knowing that we can barely pay it as it is,” said Donna Carpenter, a West Englewood resident and parent leader with COFI POWER-PAC IL. “It would be a big help, not just to me but to others in the community as well. We’re in a situation where we can’t go in person to get help and a lot of people don’t know how to apply for help on the computer, and all of these bills adding up–it’s affecting us.”

The surcharge has not only contributed to higher utility bills, it has also limited state oversight. Despite well documented mismanagement and affordability problems with the Peoples Gas pipe replacement program, the Illinois Commerce Commission concluded in 2018 that it could not regulate the program, saying that the surcharge law “tied its hands.” Critics have argued that the pipe-replacement program fails to prioritize addressing safety risks in the Peoples Gas system.

Last week almost 1,300 Peoples Gas customers in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood lost service for at least one day. Peoples Gas has yet to explain the cause of the outage. Logan Square ranks 10th out of all neighborhoods for the number of gas main breaks or cracks from 1981 through 2018. The neighborhood is also 19th in the city for its average pipe segment risk ranking, under the company’s pipe segment risk index. Despite these indications of relatively high risk, Peoples Gas is not planning to conduct its pipe-replacement program in the neighborhood until 2032-2036.

The coalition supporting the legislation is led by AARP Illinois, COFI - POWER PAC, CUB Illinois, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Illinois PIRG. More than 30 organizations have endorsed the legislation.

* Related…

* House lawmakers pass bill placing restrictions on Illinois pet owners