* Crain’s…

Since Pritzker announced the Building Up Illinois Developments, or BUILD, initiative in his State of the State address in February, the leaders of some municipalities have been vocally objecting, saying the proposed rewrite of zoning at the state level will usurp traditional local control over such things as zoning for single-family homes and parking requirements. […]

“It mandates density, not affordability,” says Scott Wehrli, mayor of Naperville, third-largest city in Illinois, in a Facebook video. “It forces our city to allow six- and eight-unit buildings on lots zoned for single family homes.”

An average residential lot in his city of 153,000 is about a quarter of an acre, Wejrli says in the video, “and if this bill passes, the next time a home sells on your street, a developer can tear it down and replace it with eight market-rate units by right,” or without any request for a variance. […]

Timothy Baldermann, mayor of south suburban New Lenox, says in a Facebook reel taken from a village board meeting that Pritzker’s office sent him a communication enlisting his help in promoting BUILD. Instead, he spoke against the initiative because of “the damage this would do to the character of every community, how it would tie our hands.”

* Mayors from Sesser, Des Plaines, Lexington and Oak Park in the Tribune…

We are very different mayors from very different towns and from very different parts of Illinois — but we were all elected by our neighbors to ensure our communities can thrive and be where families put down roots. We take that responsibility seriously.

Over the years, we have watched the housing shortage deepen, home prices rise and more families get priced out of the communities they call home. The reality is simple: Too few homes are being built. Constrained by a patchwork of outdated zoning rules and overly complex approval processes, our current system limits supply and drives up costs. That is why we support Gov. JB Pritzker’s Building Up Illinois Developments, or BUILD, plan. It is designed to cut through these barriers and make it possible to build more homes in more places for more people — and our communities will be better off for it. […]

BUILD would mean more townhomes, two-flats, duplexes, cottages, bungalows — just regular types of houses that have historically formed the backbone of neighborhoods, made housing affordable and showcased the uniqueness of Illinois’ architecture. They are the homes that allowed working families, young people and seniors to live in communities they could afford. Somewhere along the way, these types of houses stopped being built. Regular, affordable houses have since become so rare that people think the only options are unattainable mega-mansions or luxury high-rise developments. It does not have to be this way.

BUILD would restore balance and establish a clear, statewide baseline that makes it possible to build regular types of housing in the first place. BUILD would establish minimum expectations and set a baseline to meet every locality’s housing needs, while preserving and enhancing the character of what makes each of our towns so unique. From there, we would retain control over how that housing fits in our communities through design standards, form and local context. We would still shape where housing goes, how buildings look and how development fits in our communities.

* WMBD….

With the legislative session ending May 31, Central Illinois State Senate Republicans are trying to find ways to give out some property tax relief.

Both of them aim to tackle Illinois high property taxes, which are considered the second highest in the nation according to Rocket Mortgage.

The challenge for some of these lawmakers is to give property tax relief while not cutting funds for public schools, fire protection districts, public libraries and more.

That’s where state Sen. Sally Turner’s bill comes in. Her proposal would increase the property value assessment for solar and wind farms. The Beason Republican said these properties paid low property tax rates in the early 2000’s because the business model hadn’t developed.

But in 2026, Turner said these businesses are well established and can afford to pay a higher property tax rate. She said if these properties were charged more, local governments would receive more money, giving them fewer reasons to raise property tax rates.

* WGLT…

Republican state Sen. Chris Balkema, representing a large rural area between Bloomington-Normal and Interstate 80, introduced a bill allowing access to online property tax assessment rolls.

“Currently, there’s a requirement that all of the property tax assessment rolls get published in newspapers. No option to do online,“ Balkema said.

He said this would not be an unfunded mandate because it just gives the option to a local government to decide if they want to publish assessments online.

Balkema also introduced a bill making it easier for seniors to access homestead exemptions that lower their tax burden.

“A person who hits the age of 65 to qualify for the senior citizens homestead exemption act to not have to go back to the courthouse or to the assessor, wherever the assessor is, and prove that they didn’t get younger every year,” Balkema said.

* Center Square…

Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Collinsville, is the sponsor of House Bill 4767, which would create new requirements for banks and credit unions to report potential financial exploitation of elderly and disabled adults.

Reports under the legislation would be sent to the Illinois Department on Aging, the agency behind the bill. […]

Stuart said after a long negotiation process, she was able to add language to the bill that accounted for their concerns about who on staff would be responsible for reporting potential fraud.

Despite the negotiations, bank and credit union groups still oppose the bill over the new requirements that would be imposed on their operations.

* Tribune…

Senate Democrats on Wednesday outlined a range of proposals, including for education, consumer protection and data privacy, that could serve as guardrails to the technology. Republican lawmakers, as they have during previous AI debates in the Democratic-controlled legislature, cautioned that such measures could hinder innovation. […]

One bill from state Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, a Democrat from Grayslake, would require AI developers such as ChatGPT to file “an independent third-party” annual report with the state detailing how they would mitigate “catastrophic risks, provide transparency reports and report critical safety incidents,” she said. Companies would have 72 hours to report such incidents after learning of them or 24 hours if the incident poses “an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm,” she said.

“This is not about stopping innovation, but rather about balancing the great promise of AI with its potential harms. This bill would simply require large AI developers to provide transparency and undergo independent third-party audits to honor whistleblower protections,” Edly-Allen said. “Sounds like common sense to me.”

OpenAI expressed support for the bill in a prepared statement, saying, “as AI systems become more powerful, clear rules around safety, transparency, incident reporting, and accountability are increasingly important.” The company said while the U.S. should ultimately adopt national standards, “state efforts like this one in Illinois — alongside legislation already in place in California and New York — are helping to create a de facto nationwide approach.”

* Subscribers know more. Center Square…

The Illinois Senate has approved legislation to regulate auto insurance rates, but a former Illinois Department of Insurance director says the proposal will result in higher premiums.

After adding a second amendment to Senate Bill 714 on Wednesday, state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, said his legislation prohibits auto insurance rates from being excessive or discriminatory.

The Illinois Secretary of State’s office expressed support for the bill at a Senate Insurance Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Amy Williams, senior legal advisor at the secretary’s office, said more than 630,000 Illinoisans per year are driving without auto insurance required by law.

* Jim Dey…

Calling it “wrong” to re-name Memorial Stadium after a generous donor, a state legislator from Woodstock has filed a resolution in the Illinois House seeking to drop Larry Gies’ last name from the 100-plus-year-old landmark.

“There are other more appropriate ways for the university to acknowledge such a generous gift and still keep what Memorial Stadium was originally built to stand for,” said Republican state Rep. Steve Reick.

Reick’s resolution — HR 0895 — was introduced Wednesday and, so far, has attracted 11 co-sponsors. He characterized the measure as a “request” to University of Illinois President Tim Killeen, UI trustees, athletic director Josh Whitman and the Gies family. […]

Reick said he would have preferred not to draw public attention to the issue. But he said he spoke to Killeen and UI trustees earlier this year and found they had “no appetite to make a change.”

* More…

* WAND | IL Senate passes homeowner insurance reform, sends bill to House: The proposal could ban insurance companies from increasing homeowner insurance premiums by more than 10% without notifying consumers 60 days prior. Sponsors said this change could allow customers to look for cheaper options with another provider. This plan also prohibits homeowner insurance premiums from being excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory. House Bill 4273 bans insurance companies from shifting the cost of losses or high claim payouts in other states to Illinois homeowners as well.

* Capitol City Now | Proposals could bring AI out of ‘the wild, wild West’: An emailed statement, attributed to OpenAI vice president of global policy Ann O’Leary, says “OpenAI supports the Illinois legislature’s efforts to advance frontier AI safety through SB 315. As AI systems become more powerful, clear rules around safety, transparency, incident reporting, and accountability are increasingly important. We believe the U.S. should ultimately have national standards for frontier AI safety, but in the absence of federal action, state efforts like this one in Illinois — alongside legislation already in place in California and New York — are helping to create a de facto nationwide approach.”

* Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter | Bears-related megaprojects bill is worse than Richard M. Daley’s parking meter deal: Instead of learning from that lesson, Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing to repeat it. Imagine taking the rotten parking meter deal statewide. What’s been presented to all of us as a last-ditch effort to keep the McCaskeys, majority owners of the Bears, from moving the team across the state line is actually a tax rewrite that would include any major development in the state over $100 million. That includes rail lines in Granite City, new warehouses built by Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, a stadium for the Red Stars or another team, and any new corporate headquarters, whether in Chicago or a suburb.

* Press release | Villanueva leads measure to strengthen identity protections for youth in state’s care: House Bill 4966, also known as the SECURE Act, would enshrine enforceable standards of conduct for DCFS staff and caregivers of youth in care and ensure children, especially LGBTQ+ youth, receive the same services if placed out of state as they would in Illinois. Under Villanueva’s proposal, the department would be required to protect youth in care from unnecessary and unapproved disclosure of their sensitive identity information, including personal data that is linked or reasonably linkable to a child and identifies the child’s sexual orientation. It would also create a process for DCFS to abide by if it discloses sensitive identity information and would require the department to provide notice to the youth.

* Press release | Stadelman leads legislation that protects ticket buyers: Senate Bill 318 would create the Prohibition on Bots Purchasing Tickets Act to prohibit the use of bots, multiple accounts or email addresses to circumvent posted ticket purchasing limits during online ticket sales. The legislation would also prohibit ticket resellers from falsely representing that they are affiliated with an artist, team, venue or event organizer in a way that could mislead consumers. […] Senate Bill 318 – which is part of the Senate’s AI protection package – passed the Senate Executive Committee Wednesday.

For more press releases on legislation and other matters, click here.