* From the synopsis of Senate Floor Amendment 2 to HB1568…
…a State policeman, investigator for the Secretary of State, conservation police officer, investigator for the Department of Revenue or the Illinois Gaming Board, investigator for the Office of the Attorney General, Illinois Commerce Commission police officer, or arson investigator under the Tier 2 provisions is entitled to an annuity calculated under the alternative retirement formula, in lieu of the regular or minimum retirement annuity, only if the person has withdrawn from service with not less than 20 years of eligible creditable service and has attained age 55 (instead of age 60), regardless of whether the attainment of age 55 (instead of age 60) occurs while the person is still in service
From today’s Senate floor debate…
Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro): I’m actually supportive of your bill here. But when pension changes were made a few years back, the [correctional] officers that fall under the same SERS issue now have to work until they’re 67 years old. 67 years old in a prison is extreme. Why did you not add those additional individuals to this bill?
Sen. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago): Thank you, Senator Bryant. And I think you make a valid point. I personally would agree with you. They weren’t added in this bill because this bill was designed for recruitment and retention of police officers that are addressing crime in our streets. And so that was the intention of it. I will tell you that I will give you my word, I will be happy to work with you on legislation in the future to bring correctional officers in. I think that they should be entitled to some sort of purchase credit and all that. It is not contained in this bill, but I will be happy to work with you on that in future legislation.
Sen. Bryant: Thank you. I appreciate that help. It’s extremely unfair to have correctional officers working until they’re 67 years old when we know that the life expectancy of a correctional officer is 59 and a half. So we basically set them up to not be able to draw their pension until far beyond their life expectancy. So I’ll take you at your word, I support you on this bill and would appreciate if you’d support me in the future on a bill.
The bill passed 42-2 (Republicans Syverson and Wilcox were the only opponents). It now goes to the House for concurrence.
…Adding… Cost…
* Press release…
A measure to help medical professionals get more tests into the hands of individuals who battle opioid addiction cleared the General Assembly thanks to State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago).
“This measure will help save lives,” Peters said. “We still have a long way to go, but removing these penalties is a responsible way to address the opioid crisis and to create real public safety for all instead of continuing the misguided policies of the past.”
House Bill 4556 is designed to expand on a 2019 law, the Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Act, which authorized government agencies and non-governmental organizations to create needle and hypodermic syringe exchange programs. This measure would increase the number of persons and professions in the medical community who would not be penalized for possessing a limited residual amount of a controlled substance as part of the drug testing process.
Additionally, the supplies would be required to be stored at a medical office with limited access and would be available to designated workers such as an advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant.
“We need to ensure that all communities in our state are protected and that they know what is going into their body,” Peters said, “I’m glad that the General Assembly is taking this important step to make sure that people will not be left to the wolves of the fentanyl overdose crisis.”
The measure passed the Senate on Thursday.
* Press release…
The Illinois chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, released the following statement after the Illinois Senate passed HB 4729, legislation that would require the Department of Public Health to develop and implement a comprehensive 2-year statewide secure gun storage public awareness campaign. The bill now moves to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk to be signed into law. State Representative Maura Hirschauer, a former Moms Demand Action volunteer, sponsored the legislation while it was in the House of Representatives.
“We’re proud that our lawmakers continue to prove their commitment to gun safety by prioritizing legislation, like this bill, and taking meaningful action to address our state’s gun violence crisis,” said Cameron Baltrum, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Illinois. “Secure storage education is a lifesaving measure that can reduce prevent gun violence by preventing youth access to firearms, which can address school shootings, unintentional shootings, and gun suicide, before it happens. It’s critical that all gun owners are informed about the importance of secure storage – Governor Pritzker should quickly sign this bill into law.”
Nationwide, an estimated 54 percent of gun owners don’t lock all of their guns securely and it’s estimated that 4.6 million children live in a home with at least one unlocked and loaded gun.. Gun owners can make their homes and communities safer by storing their guns securely — unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition.
According to Everytown’s new gun law rankings report, Illinois has the sixth strongest gun safety laws in the country and is a national leader in enacting gun violence prevention laws. Learn more about gun violence in Illinois here.
* Press release…
Crime survivors will soon have a new voice in public safety policy making thanks to the efforts of State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago).
“I fundamentally believe that public safety must belong to the people,” Peters said. “This measure will center crime survivors and put them at the center of the conversation without fear of repercussion.”
House Bill 4736, which would help invest in community-centered public safety by creating a Crime Reduction Task Force to develop and propose ways to reduce crime across the state. The Crime Reduction Task Force would be made up of a bipartisan group of senators and representatives, alongside law enforcement, advocates, legal and criminal justice professionals and survivors. The measure would also establish a co-responder pilot program.
The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority would also establish a grant program open to organizations and units of local government to assist in the creation of anonymous tip hotlines or other systems to crime victims and witnesses. Additionally, this measure makes improvements to the state’s existing witness protection, which requires the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to create a program to assist victims and witnesses who are actively aiding in the prosecution of perpetrators of certain crimes.
“Everyone in every zip code should feel comfortable being able to walk down the street,” Peters said. “No matter where you are, or who you are or where you live you should deserve to feel comfortable and safe. This measure does that by expanding witness protection and by incorporating the voices and needs of stakeholders and survivors.”
The measure passed the Senate on Thursday.
…Adding… Press release…
The Illinois Senate adopted a plan by State Senator Suzy Glowiak Hilton (D-Western Springs) to invest in child care services for workers with non-traditional schedules, such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and more.
“Finding reliable child care can be difficult for first responders and other third shift emergency workers,” Glowiak Hilton said. “By creating the Off-hours Child Care Program Fund, Illinois is working to increase accessibility for parents in public service who work non-traditional hours.”
Under Glowiak Hilton’s proposal, the Department of Human Services would be required to establish and administer an Off-Hours Child Care Program to assist first responders and other workers with access to off-hours, night, or sleep time child care. The program is subject to appropriation.
“Many state child care facilities don’t offer services outside of normal work hours,” Glowiak Hilton said. “This measure will help fund child care for hardworking individuals serving our communities.”
House Bill 1571 passed both chambers and moves for final consideration by the governor.
* Another release…
ELGIN – A new payment system will drive meaningful reform for safer nursing home care in Illinois under a measure introduced by State Rep. Anna Moeller now headed to the Governor.
Rep. Moeller, D-Elgin, led the effort in the Illinois House with a 113-0 vote Thursday night on House Bill 246, a negotiated reform package after years of concerns about unsafe, unhealthy conditions in Medicaid-funded nursing homes across the state.
Concerns from patient and worker advocates about low wages and staff shortages led to intensive legislative hearings and discussions over the past year, and ultimately this compromise package aimed at holding nursing homes accountable to provide safer living conditions for residents. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the problem, with the Illinois Department of Public Health estimating nearly 8,000 residents and 100 staff members died – accounting for nearly one-quarter of all COVID-19-related deaths to date.
The new package:
• Provides more than $700 million in increased funding, more than $500 million of which comes from federal matching dollars
• Shifts funding to ensure workers receive higher pay, and facilities receive more funding as they hire more staff and improve safety ratings
• Ties for the first-time nursing home funding to health equity, increased staffing levels and accountability
• Requires increased ownership disclosure of nursing home facilities and systems
Rep. Moeller noted in comments to her colleagues that all of the hours of negotiations among nursing home operators, patient and worker advocates, lawmakers and the Pritzker administration were made worth it after hearing a number of horror stories in hearings last year from patients and their families about deplorable, dangerous living conditions.
“This is the culmination of several years of hard work, negotiation and listening to families of residents in nursing homes to understand how the conditions are affecting the quality of life for the most vulnerable in our communities,” Moeller said. “I want to thank Governor Pritzker, Healthcare and Family Services Department Director Theresa Eagleson and her staff, Senator Ann Gillespie, Senate and House Staff, IHCA, Leading Age and AARP for their work in negotiating and advocating for these reforms. Because of resistance in the industry, these reforms took many years to introduce.”
“This is a bill that we can all be very proud to vote for tonight. It’s one step in a long process to ensure that the most vulnerable in our state receive the best quality care and the safest facilities in our nursing homes.”
* Another…
The Southland Reactivation Act, championed by State Representative Anthony DeLuca (D-Chicago Heights) and State Senator Patrick Joyce (D-Essex), passed the Illinois Senate on Friday.
“This will help bring new business to the Southland by incentivizing the revitalization of commonly overlooked properties,” Joyce said. “This legislation is a major victory for our Southland community.”
The act would create a tax abatement incentive to property developers who purchase commercial and industrial property in the Southland. The bill targets commercial and industrial properties that have shown a clear pattern of economic stagnation or decline of real estate taxes as a result of depressed conditions. The property must be located in Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Rich, Thornton or Worth Townships in Cook County.
“The Southland Reactivation Act is an exciting economic tool we can use to attract investment to our community,” DeLuca said. “By encouraging businesses to move into the area and create jobs, we’ll create an environment that expands the local tax base and drives down property tax costs on homeowners.”
Identified properties that meet qualifying criteria would be assessed at 50% of the last known equalized assessed value. For the first year a property is certified as a southland reactivation property, the aggregate tax bill liability for the property cannot exceed $100,000. Discounts on the liability would decrease gradually, but continue for a total of 12 years.
“South suburban municipalities are thrilled with the passage of the Southland Reactivation Act and look forward to having a new economic development tool in our toolkit to get tax exempt and long vacant commercial and industrial property back on the tax rolls”, said Kristi DeLaurentiis, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Executive Director. “This innovative law will allow communities to address blight and bring in new investment, new jobs, economic recovery and tax base growth benefitting everyone.”
The Southland Reactivation Act is contained in Senate Bill 3189. The legislation passed the Illinois Senate and now heads to the governor for further action.
* Another…
To make housing more accessible to families with nonwage income, State Representative LaShawn Ford and State Senator Ram Villivalam passed legislation to prevent housing providers from discriminating against a prospective applicant’s source of income.
“Source of income fair housing protections will have a major positive impact on ensuring a more just and equitable housing market across our state, as well as addressing systemic racial and economic segregation,” Ford said.
House Bill 2775 adds “source of income” to the Illinois Human Rights Act’s protections against discrimination in real estate transactions, making it a civil rights violation to refuse to consider an individual for housing solely based on their source of income. Over half of Illinois households have been susceptible to source of income discrimination because they earn non-wage income, such as social security, retirement income and public assistance. In addition, about 99,000 households who use Housing Choice Vouchers to pay their rent often experience source of income discrimination.
“No one should be denied housing when they have the means to make the rent,” Villivalam said. “Too often, individuals on government assistance, single mothers receiving child support or seniors on fixed incomes are turned away solely based on where they receive their income each month.”
Sharon Norwood helped advocate for the legislation based on her own past struggles to rent a home using a Housing Choice Voucher.
“Having statewide source of income protections will help people avoid what happened to me. I had to give up my voucher, because I could not find a landlord to rent to me in the community I wanted my family to live in,” Norwood said. “Once I gave up my voucher, I did find a landlord who rented to me, but I was paying a lot more rent than I could afford because of it.”
The legislation was advocated for by the Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing, which has more than 130 organizational members, including Access Living, Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Housing Action Illinois, HOPE Fair Housing Center, Housing Choice Partners, Illinois Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC-IL), Northside Community Resources, Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Working Family Solidarity. Background information and a list of all coalition members are available at https://www.housingchoicepartners.org/soi-campaign.
“For far too long our neighbors utilizing Housing Choice Vouchers to help pay for their rent had to endure the disrespect caused by source of income discrimination and the resulting exclusion from the communities that were always theirs. Today the State of Illinois said ‘no more’,” said Michael Chavarria, Executive Director of the HOPE Fair Housing Center.
Passage of HB 2775 brings Illinois in line with the 19 other states across the country that have similar laws. In Illinois, Chicago, Cook County, Naperville and Urbana already have source of income fair housing ordinances.
The coalition that advocated for passage of the bill urges Governor Pritzker to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.
* And…
To help ensure construction workers are properly compensated, State Senator Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) spearheaded a measure to allow construction workers employed by a subcontractor who fails to pay them to seek remedy from the primary contractor.
“Construction sites can involve a complicated network of multiple subcontractors and dozens of workers,” Castro said. “When subcontractors fail to pay their workers, we have a duty to ensure there is a mechanism in place for workers to receive their hard-earned wages.”
In a typical construction project, commercial property owners or developers will hire a primary, also called a general, contractor to oversee a project. The general contractor will hire and coordinate with subcontractors, such as ones specializing in painting, window installation, electrical and more. Subcontractors employ their own workers to carry out their part of the project.
Under House Bill 5412, if a subcontractor fails to pay an employee, goes bankrupt or cannot pay their employee for any other reason, that employee can file a legal claim with the general contractor for any unpaid wages and benefits. Additionally, it requires the subcontractor to compensate the general contractor if this happens.
“Unfortunately, people experience the very real burdens of wage theft when companies cheat their way out of paying out a paycheck,” Castro said. “This measure will not only ensure hardworking men and women are paid for their labor but also incentivize general contractors to be better business partners with their subcontractors and have a vested interest in their success.”
The legislation includes exemptions for residential rehab and small commercial projects and does not include projects where a homeowner acts as their own general contractor. Additionally, it adds a statute of limitations for when complaints can be filed and creates a task force to consider innovative ways to bring bond reform to the construction industry.
HB 5412 passed the Senate Friday.
- Chicago Blue - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 3:45 pm:
I’m all for funding pensions and letting workers retire earlier but the study that shows correctional officers life expectancy only being 59 dates from 1982. Let’s get some updated data before we start carving them out and letting other public employees fall behind.
- Bruce( no not him) - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 3:47 pm:
=== the life expectancy of a correctional officer is 59 and a half.===
Wow. But full retirement is 67?
That’s one way to reduce the payout on the pensions.
- H-W - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 3:50 pm:
With regard to retirement age bill:
Yeah, I have struggled with this issue. I know I am in the minority, and accept that most disagree with me, but here goes.
I believe retirement is a concept that transcends years of service, and is premised more upon the concept of leaving the labor market, than it is upon age and years of service. I believe we should not be entitled to draw retirement income, until we are ready to retire. Retirement income should not become a second income (in my opinion). To do so creates the fiscal conditions that cause enormous fiscal stresses upon retirement funds. Thus, I believe people should not have access to their retirement funds, until they are either of a significant retirement age (akin to the federal Social Security system), or become disabled and incapable of working full time.
There. I said it. But as a state employee, I have witnessed countless colleagues retire at the ripe age of 50 with 20 years service, who then draw retirement income from the funds. It is inconceivable that these people will not draw more than their fair share from the funds themselves over the next 30 years of their lives.
Call me old school, I guess, but I am a fairly conservative Democrat. I believe social security should privilege the elderly, not those who can work the system.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 3:53 pm:
===we know that the life expectancy of a correctional officer is 59 and a half===
It is fascinating to see someone reference this to argue in favor of giving correctional workers a better pension benefit but also continue on ignoring the many different factors that cause that number to be so low. A lot of those factors come from the work they’re asked to perform, how they’re asked to perform it, and the conditions in which they perform it combined with not having enough support to address the physical, mental, and emotional trauma they can experience due to the work they perform.
Acknowledging that a prison is a tough place to work and causes people to work there to be more likely to die younger in order to improve their pension benefits is nice, but there’s a real red flag if the legislature or the Governor’s office doesn’t want to actually fix the root of the problem which is the work environment they’ve created.
- 20 foot Commuter - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 4:02 pm:
H-W, I would also add that retirement ages were set when many many people were dropping dead in their 60’s. People are living longer on retirement than they did on the job.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 4:28 pm:
Talk about turnaround agendas.
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans demanded an end to public sector pensions and their criticism of Tier 2 was that it didn’t go far enough.
- DuPage - Friday, Apr 8, 22 @ 4:54 pm:
Add teachers to the better pension benefits and the teacher shortage would be significantly reduced.