* Looks like we have an official Senate vehicle bill and a hearing target date for recreational cannabis…

There are no details filed yet for a bill to legalize recreational adult-use marijuana in Illinois, but that did not stop the state Senate Executive Committee from voting on the measure Wednesday.

As it stands now, Senate Bill 7 is what is referred to as a “shell bill,” which can be amended with substantial language in the future. The shell bill passed committee by a 12-4 vote, with all four Republicans present voting against.

“We’re going to be coming back to the committee with the full amendment,” said state Sen. Heather Steans, the bill’s sponsor. “Hopefully we’re going to file it by the end of April and we’re going to have plenty of time to hear it and debate it.”

The actual details of the bill are being negotiated privately by lawmakers, the governor’s office and cannabis industry advocates who say the existing medicinal growing market has the capacity to meet the initial demand of adult-use marijuana legalization.

* More…

Steans said she and other stakeholders are looking to allow people 21 and older to have a little more than an ounce at a time. They are also considering proposals to add three new licenses to the state’s existing medical marijuana program’s cultivation and dispensary licenses.

“So keeping the cultivation centers in place, but adding a craft grow license for a smaller footprint that could be loaded more flexible and have smaller capital entry requirements, a processing license, a transportation license and then the dispensary license,” Steans said. […]

Lawmakers have also talked about making sure there’s diversity among those who have legal pot industry licenses, including efforts to get communities and groups that have been most affected by the prohibition of the drug involved in the legal industry. […]

Lawmakers are still discussing whether the bill will allow adults to grow their own cannabis at home, Steans said. Law enforcement groups have raised concerns about a possible provision to allow five plants per household.

“There is discussion about maybe limiting that to just medical patients, which certainly may be an easier way of enforcing it,” Steans said.

* Maybe the Senate sponsor can give the mayor-elect a courtesy call before running this bill?…

Two days after Chicago elected a mayor who supports an elected school board, the Illinois House on Thursday approved a measure that would make that change.

By a vote of 110-2, the House passed a bill that would replace the current seven-member Chicago Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the mayor, with a 20-member board elected from districts across the city beginning with the 2023 election. The board would also have a president, elected citywide. The General Assembly would draw the initial district boundaries, and the setup would be phased out after the 2027 election unless lawmakers in Springfield vote to extend it. […]

Martwick, a Preckwinkle ally, publicly clashed with Lightfoot during the campaign when he crashed a news conference during which she criticized a bill that he filed that would change the Cook County assessor from an elected position to an appointed one. He later apologized, and he said Thursday that he’d “be happy to work with her” but hasn’t yet spoken to her about the issue.

“It hasn’t fallen on my radar because this is something I’ve been working on for four years, before she even mused about the idea of running for the mayor of the city of Chicago,” Martwick said.

* Moving along…

Illinois’ state treasurer could soon become the lien holder of your student loan debt.

An initiative of Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ office would allow him to refinance an Illinois resident’s college loans at low-interest rates in hopes that it will help them better afford their payments. The office could extend up to 5 percent of the $31 billion it manages to help with student loans. That’s about $620 million.

State Rep. Carol Ammons said the program would help reduce the number of local student loan defaults.

“The goal is to get the interest rate low enough so that people can really afford to make their payments,” she said.

Ammons said the interest rate would be set by the treasurer once the bill passes.

The treasurer’s office said there would be an upfront cost of $150,000, but the interest on payments from students should then cover the administrative costs thereafter.

State Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, told Ammons that while helping those with student loan debt is laudable, he said the state shouldn’t put taxpayer dollars at risk given the high rate of defaults on student loans.

The average student loan interest rate was 5.8 percent in 2017, which is almost a couple points higher than a 15-year mortgage, so it’s an issue. But the bigger problem here is the price of tuition, fees and books.

* More bills…

* Lawmakers Look To Keep 10-Year-Olds Out Of Jail: “There’s an implication here that these children are just horrible, horrible people and have done horrible crimes,” Gabel said. “But … in 2016, there were nine children who were detained based on probation violations. Those are not heinous crimes. There were no children detained based on charges of homicide.” That year, the majority of kids ages 10 to 13 were detained in four counties: Cook, Peoria, Sangamon and Winnebago.

* Illinois House votes to lower age of ‘Home Alone’ law: Under current state law, parents can be charged with neglect for leaving children younger than 14 unsupervised “for an unreasonable period of time.” Parents can be charged with child abandonment if they leave children under the age of 13 alone for 24 hours or more without supervision by someone over the age of 14. The bill that passed Wednesday by a vote of 111-1 would lower the threshold, applying to children younger than 12 The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Joe Sosnowski of Rockford, said lowering the age to 12 would correct the legislature’s “overreaction to a terrible situation that happened in which a couple left young children at home on their own for well over a week while they traveled out of the country.”

* Plan would allow shoplifters to pay rather than go to jail: State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, is pushing the idea to let some shoplifters and thieves pay their way out of jail. Plummer, a freshman lawmaker, got Senate President John Cullerton to co-sponsor the legislation. Plummer said he worked closely with the Democrat leader’s office to craft the bill. … “Essentially, what it would do is allow that person to avoid a misdemeanor or felony offense,” Plummer said. “If they go through the process with the state’s attorney, if they reimbursed the retailer, then their record would be wiped clean.” The legislation includes a number of other rules. For example, the program is only open to first-time offenders and only for retail theft. Anyone who pays back the store then would be on probation for three years.