* Politico…

We asked about a State Journal Register story that says there are nearly 1,700 bills being introduced from both chambers that apply to income tax credits for eligible taxpayers, state agencies and departments.

That’s not even close to what the story says…

As of Friday, there were 1,690 bills introduced from both chambers - 156 in the state Senate and 1,534 in the House. A common thread in the bills was income tax credits applying to a wide spectrum of eligible taxpayers, state agencies. and departments.

The SJ-R story looked at only a sampling of all the bills. Of those 1,690 bills, Speaker Welch has introduced 940 shells. Deputy Majority Leader Mary Flowers introduced another 76 bills, as did Rep. La Shawn Ford.

* Campaign press release, but it ain’t a bad idea…

Kam Buckner filed legislation to ensure that the head of CPS is a Superintendent and not a CEO, ensuring that schools prioritize students, are not run like businesses, and that there are strict education, certification, and work experience requirements for this role.

CPS had a superintendent until 1995 when the legislature changed Illinois’ law and appointed Paul Vallas to run Chicago’s school district. The change has allowed people like Paul Vallas to ignore the needs of children, their families, and communities and instead make decisions driven by financial outcomes and self interest.

“Our school district has been traumatized by school closures and poor decision making,” Buckner said. “By having a CEO lead our schools we have allowed people without the proper job qualifications to run our district as a business and see our children as data points and not the future of our great City. Legislation I have proposed will change that by reinstating the Superintendent role in CPS and eliminating the title of CEO.”

There have been ten CEOs of Chicago’s public schools since Paul Vallas first took office in 1995.

“As CEO Paul Vallas was driven to create a balanced budget for CPS and it resulted in neighborhood school closures for our children,” said Buckner. “He didn’t put our kids first then and he certainly won’t as Mayor of Chicago.”

Paul Vallas has been an opportunist collecting titles instead of prioritizing Chicago’s youth and education. Chicago State University’s board of Trustees created a job specifically for Vallas to help them turn things around but Vallas was terminated by the Trustees after they realized they had been a pawn in his attempt to advance his bonafides among black voters during his first Mayoral run.

“I sat on the board of Trustees that fired Vallas,” Buckner said. “It was clear then and it’s even clearer now that he puts himself first and it is that same self interested attitude that is allowing him to accept donations from people who used our schools to increase their personal profits. We simply cannot have people like this running our schools or our City.”

Paul Vallas has accepted campaign contributions from Deborah Quazzo, a former CPS employee who violated ethical school standards by pitching her businesses to school principals in an effort to secure CPS contracts and she benefitted from a kickback scheme under CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

As state Representative, Kam Buckner has sponsored 100s of bills to help improve public safety, education, housing, and transportation in Chicago including legislation on needs based school funding, which set a minimum teacher salary and an elected Chicago school board.

The bill is here.

* Meanwhile…

A proposed amendment to the Sports Wagering Act in Illinois filed by Rep. Robert Rita would introduce exchange trade wagering.

House Bill 1405 seeks to extend the current sports betting regulations in the Prairie State to include betting exchanges, defined in the bill as “the buying and selling of betting contracts at any time prior to the conclusion of an event based on a describable zero to 100 scale of probability”.

Under the bill’s terms, two betting exchange licenses would be up for grabs if it were to pass, with licensees liable to a $500,000 licensing fee. 

Any licensee would be allowed to offer betting exchange services for a period of four years initially and may renew for a $100,000 fee as long as the operator remains compliant with regulations. 

* This is a Republican-sponsored bill, so keep that in mind…

Illinois lawmakers on Monday introduced workers compensation bills that would affect compensability on cumulative trauma and work travel.

H.B. 1543 would determine that an injury arose out of and in the course of employment only if the accident “significantly caused or contributed to both the resulting condition and disability.”

The bill doesn’t define “significantly caused,” so it’s not clear how that would compare to other causation standards such as major contributing cause, proximate cause and predominant cause.

Case law says only that workers must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the work incident or duties were a causative factor in an injury. That bill would limit coverage for cumulative trauma, prohibiting coverage for “ordinary, gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration of the body caused by aging or normal activities of living.”

* Same sponsor for this one…

The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission would be required to establish a new medical fee schedule and implement a closed drug formulary, under legislation introduced Monday.

H.B. 1548 would render all current medical fee schedules inoperative after Aug. 31, 2024, and establish new reimbursement rates based on Medicare percentages. The bill would also require annual updates to the fee schedule starting Sept. 1, 2025, that would be equal to exactly half the increase in the Consumer Price Index.

H.B. 1546 would require the commission to adopt an evidence-based drug formulary by Sept. 1. The bill does not direct the commission toward any current formulary.

* Stand Up America…

State Legislatures are Back. Here’s How They Can Protect and Strengthen Democracy.

State legislatures are back and beginning to set priorities for the 2023 session. As lawmakers gather it’s critical that they prioritize protecting and strengthening democracy – especially with a divided Congress in Washington.

Legislators and voters in New York and Michigan are coming off of big wins in 2022 – having passed sweeping democracy legislation and ballot initiatives – that will now need to be implemented. Meanwhile, the Illinois and New Mexico legislatures will take up fights that fell short last year like voting rights restoration and a democracy package to create a permanent absentee voter list, restore voting rights, implement automatic voter registration, and more.

Here are a few ways states are prioritizing protecting democracy in 2023:

• Minnesota: Minnesota lawmakers recently introduced a comprehensive pro-democracy package – the “Democracy for The People Act” – that includes automatic voter registration, restoring the right to vote for Minnesotans on probation or parole, and modernizing the state’s campaign finance system. Legislators also launched a democracy caucus in the Minnesota state house. Recently, lawmakers and voting rights advocates from We Choose Us MN held a press conference to announce a legislative agenda to make the North Star State a national leader in democracy.

• New Mexico: Last session, New Mexico voting rights advocates nearly passed a sweeping legislative package to strengthen democracy and secure citizens’ access to the ballot. Last week, legislators introduced a revamped version in the statehouse. The bill includes a permanent absentee voter list, rights restoration for people on parole/probation, automatic voter registration, an Election Day holiday, and more. New Mexico lawmakers and advocates hosted a press conference on their plans for the session.

• Oregon: For the past few years, Oregon advocates have worked diligently to pass legislation to allow currently incarcerated citizens in the state the opportunity to vote to support their communities and families. Last year, the legislation was held up in the Joint Committee on Ways & Means, but with Sen. Elizabeth Steiner and Rep. Tawna Sanchez at the helm of the committee this year, hopes of passage are much greater. A coalition, led by formerly incarcerated individuals, continues to fight to pass the legislation, SB 579, this session.

• Illinois: Illinois voting rights advocates have been working to pass voting rights restoration for people with felony convictions for years. Last year, SB 828, legislation to restore voting rights for currently incarcerated Illinoisans, came just a few votes shy of passing the House on the final day of session. This session, advocates are bringing back the bill, HB 989, and making sure it is prioritized by lawmakers.

Stand Up America’s members are not new to fighting for legislation to shore up democracy at the state level. In fact, last year, Stand Up America’s members drove more than 1,800 calls and 15,000 emails to legislators and sent over 650,000 texts in support of state-level measures that would strengthen democracy in Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, Illinois, Oregon, New York, and beyond. This year, they will again work in their state houses to pass legislation to state level protections for their democracy.

* And…

My tweets about newly introduced Illinois bills usually don't get much play on here but I'll bet a pound of catnip this one does…

Rep Barbara Hernandez has introduced HB1533 which would ban the declawing of cats in Illinois. 😹🐈‍⬛🐱😼https://t.co/zxn1LWoifb

— Chicago Bars (@chicagobars) January 31, 2023

I wonder if the upholstered furniture lobby has a position on that one. /s

…Adding… Press release…

Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) introduced a package of legislation to increase the size of the House and Senate, as well as restore the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to better align with Article III of the US Constitution.

The package, named “A Common Sense Vision for American Democracy” would:
Establish 12 at-large senators to be elected through a nationwide system of ranked choice voting
Add approximately 138 additional Members of the House (if it had been implemented after the 2020 census)
Change the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and create a 13-judge multi-circuit panel to hear cases where the United States or a federal agency is a party

This is the first attempt by a sitting Member of Congress to enact this type of reform. There have been no attempts in Congress to expand the Senate or reinstate the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The last time the House was expanded was in 1911. After an inability to settle disputes over reapportionment after the 1920 Census, the size of the House was arbitrarily locked in place at 435 in 1929.

An overview of A Common Sense Vision for American Democracy can found below, including bill text and section-by-sections of the legislation.

“The fundamental promise of our democracy is to fulfill the will of the people,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “In recent years, we have failed to meet that promise. There is a growing list of issues – from climate action to gun control to healthcare to voting rights – where the federal government has consistently ignored the priorities of the majority of Americans. This failure not only breeds cynicism but ultimately risks the very survival of our government. We must act against the counter-majoritarian institutions of our political system and seek to reestablish the government as a stalwart for the people.

“The Equal Voices Act will increase the size of the House to be in line with the growing population of the United States. Not only will this bill create smaller districts to allow Members to be more responsive to the needs of their constituents, it will also rebalance inflated representation between districts, and allow for greater diversity that is more representative of our great nation. On top of that, it will grow and equalize the Electoral College, better aligning outcomes with the national popular vote.

“The Senate was purposefully constructed to not reflect the will of the majority. However, a government that doesn’t represent the people cannot sustain the support of the people. This amendment establishes 12 at-large senators to be elected through a nationwide system of ranked choice voting. By creating this bloc of senators, comprising roughly 10% of the body, who are directly responsible to public will, the Senate will be forced to move their agenda towards the will of the majority.

“There are currently incentives to control the composition of the Supreme Court to affect the resolution of disputes in a way that furthers specific policy objectives and politics. These incentives have distorted the actual and perceived fairness and independence of the Court, and this must be remedied. The Constitution gives Congress the power to address the structural concerns of the Supreme Court, and we must do so. It’s time for Congress to restore the Court’s jurisdiction to align with Article III of the Constitution and eliminate the current elements that allow the Court to be gamed for political advantages”