It’s the law
Wednesday, Jul 1, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Nineteen public acts take effect today. Most of which we’ve covered extensively over the past year…
* The FY27 budget also takes effect today. The Tribune…
Chief among them is the state’s new $55.9 billion spending plan, which covers the budget year running through June 30, 2027. While the new budget won’t raise the state’s sales or income tax rates, it relies on a series of new taxes and tweaks to be balanced, including a six-month pause on an inflation-based increase of a per-gallon gasoline tax that would otherwise jump by 1.3 cents, to 49.6 cents, on Wednesday.
The spending plan also shifts $12.5 million per month for one year from the state’s separate 6.25% sales tax on gasoline — money that normally funds public transit — to the state’s general operating budget. The $150 million windfall is the result of higher gas prices caused by President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
* WBEZ has a roundup of several other new laws…
Lawmakers also passed several bills in the spring aimed at protecting students. One bill expands the definition of cyberbullying to include artificially generated images.
House Bill 3851 adds posting unauthorized AI-generated images to the list of tools that are used for cyberbullying. […]
Another bill would keep a student’s record of receiving special education services confidential. Previously, a student’s private “permanent record” only included personal information like their name, age and birth date, guardian’s names and addresses, and attendance.
Senate Bill 408 adds a summary of a student’s performance that benefited from special education services to the list of private information kept on a student’s “permanent recor
* More from the Tribune…
2018 state law that prohibits the use of endangered elephants in traveling shows is being expanded to cover all elephant species, as well as big cats, primates and bears. Cat species that can no longer be used in traveling shows are cougars, jaguars, lions, tigers and leopards, excluding Amur leopards. The law exempts animal performances at permanent facilities licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Wild animals are not trick machines,” Democratic state Sen. Linda Holmes of Aurora, who sponsored the original law and the expansion, said in a statement. “Out-of-state exhibitors can’t profit in Illinois from abusing wild animals anymore. Families planning to enjoy county fair and festival season this summer won’t be confronted by these upsetting acts anymore.”
“Illinois now aligns with what society recognizes to be true: forcing big cats, bears and primates to perform through pain, fear and coercion is cruel and unacceptable,” Marc Ayers, Illinois state director for Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement when Pritzker signed the measure into law Friday.
* Capitol News Illinois…
As Illinois enters a new fiscal year Wednesday, a new state agency is officially taking charge of a wide range of programs for infants, toddlers and their families.
The Illinois Department of Early Childhood officially takes over Wednesday as the agency in charge of programs ranging from in-home visits for newborns and their mothers to licensing and regulating childcare facilities and funding preschools. […]
Gov. JB Pritzker called for creating the new agency in 2023 as a way of streamlining those programs and making it easier for families to find the services they need. At the time, programs were divided between the Department of Human Services, the Illinois State Board of Education and the Department of Children and Family Services. […]
Among the functions the new agency administers starting Wednesday are licensing and regulating childcare facilities as well as preschools and other early childhood education programs. The agency’s budget for the new fiscal year includes a $55 million increase for the Child Care Assistance Program which subsidizes the cost of childcare for low-income families.
* WCIA…
Under Senate Bill 1504, the the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) would be required to prepare youth, aged 15 years old and older, for their transition out of care and into independence.
The youth transition plan should address areas like post-high school goals, drivers education, employment, mental and physical health and well-being, physical documentation needed for adulthood and more. The law also places court oversight over DCFS’ efforts to ensure the youth are getting “age and developmentally appropriate life skills.”
State Senator Lakesia Collins said that by creating legislation which gives young people a “game plan” to figure out their options, the state is helping children in care plan for their futures. The bill was signed in August 2025 and takes effect on July 1, 2026.
* Capitol News Illinois…
In order to comply with that change in federal law, Illinois lawmakers included language in this year’s annual Medicaid omnibus bill, Senate Bill 3365, removing most groups of noncitizens from eligibility under state law.
They include, among others, immigrants who are honorably discharged U.S. veterans and their families, refugees and asylees, noncitizens identified as victims of trafficking, Amerasians from Vietnam, and American Indians born in Canada. […]
Although Illinois also provides health coverage outside the Medicaid system that is funded entirely with state dollars, the language in this year’s bill specifically states that it “shall not require any category of non-citizens or part thereof to be funded at state-only cost.”
For example, in 2020, Illinois launched a program to provide Medicaid-like coverage known as Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors for noncitizens age 65 and over, regardless of their immigration status. The following year, it expanded that program with Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, which covered adults age 42 to 64, regardless of immigration status.
But the latter program was closed in 2025 amid budget and political pressure and enrollment in the seniors program has been limited while many of its enrollees have been shifted to other subsidized coverage programs.
- Rahm's Parking Meter - Wednesday, Jul 1, 26 @ 11:49 am:
Okay, I had to laugh at the typo from the Secretary’s post.