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* Press release…

The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) is backing legislation that would make permanent and modernize a tax credit that incentivizes manufacturers and other companies to invest in research and development projects in Illinois.

“Illinois manufacturers are constantly striving to bring new and better products to market. From innovative medical treatments to unique food products and advanced technology and machinery, manufacturers produce a variety of goods that we rely on,” said Mark Denzler, president & CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “By modernizing and making permanent the Research and Development Tax Credit, Illinois will be encouraging manufacturers who invest in our communities by launching product studies, researching new technologies and processes, and testing groundbreaking products right here at home. We look forward to working with lawmakers to pass this important measure.”

The legislation increases the Research and Development Tax Credit by providing that the increase in research and development activities shall be based on an increase over 50% of the average of the qualifying expenditures for each year in the base period. Currently, the credit is based on an increase over 100 percent of the average of the qualifying expenditures for each year in the base period. This change modernizes the bill to match changes to the Research and Development Tax Credit at the federal level. Additionally, the bill makes the credit permanent moving forward. The Senate version of the legislation, SB 3453, is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Revenue Committee this afternoon.

“Illinois has a strong manufacturing sector, and Senate Bill 3453 offers opportunities for these businesses to grow, thrive, and reach new heights” said State Senator Donald DeWitte (R-St. Charles). “By incentivizing our manufacturers to invest further in Illinois, we encourage our business leaders to create, invent and expand their businesses, which leads to more jobs. It also makes our manufacturers more competitive in an ever-changing global economy.”

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, manufacturers are the nation’s largest investors in research and development, making up roughly two-thirds of private-sector research and development spending in 2018. However, the U.S. global share of research and development spending dropped from 39.8% to 29.9% in the last two decades, while China’s share of global research and development spending rose from 4.9% to 23.9%. This disparity underlines the importance of supporting policies to invest in American manufacturing, particularly as the pandemic laid bare global supply chain issues that impact our state and nation’s ability to respond in times of crisis.

The governor likes to say that businesses want predictability. Well, the sunsets on the R&D tax credit do way more harm than good. It was one of those Madigan things that truly needs to end.

* WGN TV…

Illinois college students may have one less expense in their budgets later this year.

A bill making its way through the Senate would require public colleges in Illinois to rent books and course materials to in-state students at no cost.

Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) wants to encourage students to stay in Illinois not just for college, but to settle down in the state after graduation. Bennett chairs the Senate Higher Education committee. […]

The bill passed the committee 11-1 on Feb. 9th, with Sen. Omar Aquino (D-Chicago) being the lone no vote.

* Illinois Press Association…

Once again, the Illinois General Assembly is faced with legislation to eliminate public notices from newspapers. This time, however, the proposed legislation makes additional changes to the status quo.

The Illinois Press Association has prepared a position paper, which it will circulate to the members of the General Assembly. You can view the full position paper here or read the full text below.

This year’s effort seems to be generated by the Illinois Municipal League, given that this legislation requires posting of notices on a website under the control of Illinois municipalities (but excluding Chicago).

Why the Municipal League, which objects to every effort to impose “unfunded mandates” on local governments, would attempt to impose on its own members this unfunded mandate of the creation and maintenance of a public notice website, is not explained.

Even more curious is why the IML would support the creation of this new mandate on local governments, when the Illinois Press Association has successfully managed a public notice website, specifically at no additional cost to local governments, for more than a decade.

The legislation also eliminates the requirement that public notices from any other public body must be published on a website, eliminating that requirement for transparency that has been in place for a decade. Again, there is no explanation supporting the elimination of that requirement.

* Rep. Will Guzzardi writing in the Sun-Times…

In 2019, I passed a law capping copays for insulin at $100 a month. But state laws can only cover certain types of insurance, so it only affected around 15% of Illinoisans. And we know $100 a month is still too much.

It’s time to do better. We need to lower that copay, and we also need to provide alternatives for the 85% of people who aren’t covered by the cap.

That’s why I’ve introduced House Bill 5300, the Insulin for All Act. The bill will allow for any person with diabetes who’s running out of insulin to walk into a pharmacy and get an emergency 30-day supply at a minimal cost. It requires manufacturers to create patient assistance programs that offer low-cost insulin to eligible patients. It will leverage the state’s bargaining power to offer a negotiated price on insulin for any person with diabetes who can’t get it cheaper elsewhere. And it lowers that copay cap to $35 a month.

The past two years have been a vivid reminder that pharmaceutical research can produce incredible results, as with the COVID-19 vaccines. But no matter how great they are, drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.

…Adding… Press release…

Youth in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services are one step closer to receiving the financial resources they need to be ready for adulthood thanks to a measure championed by State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago).

“I’m pleased that we are one step closer to ensuring that the state will be proactive at helping youth in care build a strong future during their final years of care,” Peters said. “We need to do all we can to ensure that they have access to a financial head start before they have to live on their own.”

Senate Bill 3470 would require DCFS to save or invest a minimum percentage of a youth’s benefits once they reach the age of 14. This will ensure that when DCFS no longer serves as the financial representative of the youth, they will have some money to help them transition into a successful adult life.

The minimum percentages that DCFS will be required to invest are:

● 40% for youth between the ages of 14-15
● 80% for youth between the ages of 16-17
● 100% for youth between the ages of 18-20

Senate Bill 3470 would also require the DCFS to take defined actions when applying for and managing certain federal benefits that the department receives on behalf of any youth in care.

“State services should help empower youth and give them strong support to enter our society,” Peters said. “We should not be sending young people out into the world without the resources they need to live independently, and we must ensure that they are able to make the transition into adult life.”

The measure passed the Senate on Wednesday.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:29 pm

Comments

===A bill making its way through the Senate would require public colleges in Illinois to rent books and course materials to in-state students at no cost.

Bennett’s idea isn’t bad here, but he might want to look at encouraging adoption of open educational resources–which can be used free. They aren’t perfect, but there has been a lot of positive developments in producing quality resources. That would be more affordable for students and the institutions.

Comment by ArchPundit Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:42 pm
Public notices are increasingly the only local content to be found in Illinois Press Association member publications.

Comment by Nefarious Veneer Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:49 pm
==he might want to look at encouraging adoption of open educational resources–which can be used free.==

Maybe it can be an either or. Require Adoption of open educational resources or free rental books for in-state students.

Comment by sladay Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:50 pm
A couple of things should be made clear. First, virtually every municipality already has a website with locally produced documents. Tere would be virtually no cost to posting the usual things like , (bid notices, treasures reports, meeting notices…) that now require publication. The municipalities create these docs, all they need to do is convert them to a PDF and post them.

Secondly as for the IPA having access to a free public notice website. The part they don’t mention is that those notices first must be published in a newspaper, the longer notices can cost up to a hundred dollars or more and there are dozens of these notices each year. So hardy fee

Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:52 pm
Most publishers have already worked around these kinds of actions by requiring access codes for the digital content. With so many classes either being online, or having some of the work done online, students have to buy access to the publisher’s content online to take quizzes or do homework assignments. This access usually includes a digital copy of the book. Renting out hard copies of books is meaningless in these cases. Also, is the state going to give schools more money to buy the books that they will rent out?

Comment by Grimlock Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 2:58 pm
=Illinois college students may have one less expense=

Given that most publishers of higher education materials are moving away from traditional texts, and toward purchasing online access, it is hard to see how this will work. You cannot rent an access code. You have to buy them, for each assigned text, each semester.

On the other hand, the two key players in this market, Pearson, and Cengage, do offer package deals where if you books exceed a certain cost each semester, you can have access to their entire libraries. In this context, Universities would not be renting hardcopy texts, so much as providing book access for free. That’s a different model, but it may work in the long run. Unfortunately, I would guess most universities will simply increase student fees in order to provide free access.

Comment by H-W Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:02 pm
==A bill making its way through the Senate would require public colleges in Illinois to rent books and course materials to in-state students at no cost.==
What is old, is new again.
SIU had rental textbooks 40+ years ago. And dropped them shortly after.

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:03 pm
As a college student senator Bennett’s bill sounds great.

Comment by Lake Villa Township Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:07 pm
Two points. First, has anyone actually found something useful or meaningful posted in the “legal notices” section of a newspaper? I can’t think of a less efficient method of giving someone notice of a proceeding or meeting than requiring publication in the boilerplate section of the newspaper.

Second, is there a public entity that doesn’t have a website these days? Understanding that there are some costs associated with running a basic website, are those costs not less than what a public entity spends on posting in a newspaper?

In my opinions, notice by publication has evolved from a meaningful tool of transparency to a useless sinecure to pad publisher’s bottom line. Its continued existence underscores the inherent inertia in governmental adaptation to a changing environment and the effective lobbying by the press association. Had dirigible manufacturers and buggy whip factories hired such excellent representation, we would not doubt be publishing notices by blimp advertisement and pony express.

Comment by Just Another Anon Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:23 pm
EIU rented books 40 years ago and still does today. It’s a great system. I bet SIU-E could frigure out how to make it work. (yes, I’m stirring the pot)

Comment by bookworm Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:28 pm
=EIU rented books 40 years ago and still does today. It’s a great system.=

Well, that depends on who you ask. I had a class there during Obama’s first term that used a rented textbook that referred to changes “currently” happening in the new Clinton administration. Some books age well, some don’t. Yes, it beats paying hundreds of dollars for science books that barely change year to year, but the system is not without its drawbacks.

Comment by MSIX Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 3:54 pm
Definitely in favor of Sen. Bennett’s bill. We need to be keeping young people here in Illinois and a big part of that is reducing the cost of a quality education when possible.

Comment by Shibboleth Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 4:09 pm
==as for the IPA having access to a free public notice website.==

They didn’t say it was free–they said it was “at no additional cost to local governments,” which I read as “no additional cost above and beyond what you’re already paying to print it.”

Comment by Tim Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 4:43 pm
We had the rental book system at Southern Miss when I was an undergrad and it worked well, certainly preferable to a couple of texts I paid just under $1,000 each for in my doctoral program in the late 1980s. At ISU, I purposefully chose books a couple of editions old which saved the students significant cost.

A major role of the prof is relating relevant current information to the students and not leaning too heavily on the text.

Comment by former southerner Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 4:51 pm
I’ve read the IPA’s fact sheet and I’ve read the text of sb3620. The two don’t seem to match up. The legislation allows a municipality to post notices on its website instead of posting in the paper. There is no requirement that it do so. The unfunded mandated that the IPA warns against simply does not exist. The unfunded mandate that does exist is the requirement that the taxpayers must buy advertisements in the newspaper that nobody will read.

Comment by duck duck goose Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 5:14 pm
As a lifelong, insulin dependant (type 1) diabetic, I appreciate Rep Guzzardi‘s efforts to keep insulin affordable. His bill should pass unanimously.

Comment by Matt Wos Wednesday, Feb 16, 22 @ 6:11 pm