* SB 1232 now has a March 24 deadline. WICS…

State Senator Neil Anderson (R-Andalusia) filed Senate Bill 1232 which would allow outdoorsmen and women the ability to renew their hunting and fishing licenses every three years instead of every year.

Additionally, the legislation provides the ability to obtain one combined license for the two. […]

Currently, a person can only buy a one-year or lifetime license with no option in between.

The bill would also allow Gold Star Families the ability to obtain a free hunting or fishing license.

* Dave Dahl…

Illinois might go for “ranked choice voting” in the next presidential primaries – in which you can name follow-up choices if your favorite candidate drops out.

The Illinois House Ethics and Elections Committee brought in Fair Vote’s Terrance Carroll, who says this promotes issues, as candidates “tend to be more positive and tend to focus more on issues, because they know they want someone else to mark them as their second or third choice. It also helps promote more viable candidates, so it tends to mitigate against the most extreme candidates in both parties.” […]

An opponent’s argument was 180 degrees from McReynolds and Carroll’s.

“Ranked choice voting is a scheme to disconnect elections from issues and allows candidates with marginal support to win,” said Andy Bakker of the Illinois Opportunity Project.

The committee chair, State Rep. Maurice West (D-Rockford), is sponsoring a bill for ranked choice voting in the 2024 Illinois presidential primary but said after the hearing he wants to learn more about it before deciding how hard to push it.

* HB2221 was re-referred to Rules. Here’s WCIA…

A bill being pushed by the National Fire Sprinkler Association would let homeowners who add a fire sprinkler to their house be reimbursed half of the cost of the system on their state income taxes, up to $10,000. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) and Sen. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago).

NSFA officials estimate the median cost for a home sprinkler system is $7,200, which would leave the state responsible for $3,600 per unit under the proposed bill.

Officials from the organization argue the fire sprinklers save lives. Since 2007, no one in the U.S. has died from a residential fire in a building with a sprinkler system, compared to 967 fatalities in homes without fire sprinklers. […]

According to Erik Hoffer, executive director of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board, 110 municipalities in northern Illinois are required to include fire sprinklers in all new homes.

* Waste Dive…

The legislation, HB 1616, would allow a pyrolysis or gasification facility “pilot project” to begin construction by June 2027 in in either Will County or Grundy County. It updates a previous bill, passed in 2019, that required the project to begin by June 2025. […]

The Illinois Environmental Council, the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Ocean Conservancy spoke against the bill during a press call on Wednesday. The groups generally oppose the reclassification of chemical recycling as manufacturing, saying it’s a way for facilities to skirt certain environmental permitting requirements. They see the deadline extension as setting a bad precedent for companies if they are not able to meet existing requirements and timelines. Others opposing the bill include the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Law and Policy Center and various environmental groups. […]

Yet Biel said in an email that environmental groups want to take advantage of the facility’s business delays to “reverse the intent of Illinois’ elected officials” who voted for the 2019 bill. The project is an important way to “keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment,” he said. Other supporters include the Recyclers Coalition of Illinois, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and several unions.

The bill has passed through relevant House committees and is expected to come up for a full House vote soon. All House bills must meet a third reading deadline of March 24 to move forward.

* HB3098 was re-referred to Rules Committee. Dan Savickas from the Taxpayers Protection Alliance…

The Illinois Legislature is planning movement on legislation that would address the supposed monopoly power of app store giants Apple and Google. The legislation — HB 3098 — would nominally limit these companies’ ability to require use of their own payment processing systems. What it would actually do is inhibit Apple, Google and other software store providers from honoring commitments to customers and safeguarding digital financial transactions. It is based on flawed assumptions and would have consequences for the state’s economy.

HB 3098 — as well as similar bills at the state and federal level — rests on the assumption that app developers are unfairly disadvantaged because they do not have sufficient options beyond the big two app store providers. However, this entirely misunderstands the space. Politicians at all levels of government have been defining the market to include only mobile, hand-held devices like smartphones. […]

HB 3098 would weaken this trust unnecessarily. Currently, consumers on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store do not have to worry about whether or not their purchase is protected. These businesses have created a carefully curated system to market third-party software to its users and have become a trusted source for said purchases. Creating a digital Wild West of payment systems would erode trust and damage the profitability of so many third-party app developers in the process.

Weakening these safeguards would lead to a host of other issues that are already on the minds of many users. For example, the Federal Trade Commission is looking into certain app developers and the prevalence of accidental and reckless purchases by children. There have been over 1 million complaints to Visa and Mastercard about such purchases.

* Brenden Moore…

Hundreds of bills sailed out of committee last week. Here’s a small sampling of some interesting, important and silly bills working their way through the Illinois General Assembly: […]

- Senate Bill 1470, filed by state Sen. Tom Bennett, R-Gibson City, would allow a school district to use remote learning days instead of emergency days for up to five days per school year. It would also allow schools to utilize remote learning if selected as a polling place. It passed unanimously. […]

- Senate Bill 1907, sponsored by state Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, would require all public colleges, universities and community colleges to offer emergency contraceptives at a reduced price via at least one vending machine-type kiosk on campus. It passed committee 9-3. […]

- House Bill 2840, sponsored by state Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, would designate the black walnut as the official state nut of Illinois.

- House Bill 3817, filed by state Rep. Matt Hanson, D-Aurora, would designate the soybean as the official state bean of Illinois.

* CBS Chicago…

The legislation, House Bill 3768, passed the State Government Administration Committee. It will go to the House floor for a vote, and then the Senate for a final vote.

If passed into law, the bill would add a category called Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) to the Uniform Racial Classification Act. Whenever a state agency is required by law to compile or report statistical data using racial or ethnic classification, the amended law says they must use MENA in addition to white, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. […]

There are 243 proponents of the bill, which include community organizations and coalitions. No one opposed it. The legislation moved on to the next step with a unanimous 9-0 vote.