June 13, 2025 State Capitol Report

The Final Week of Session

What a final week! As expected, the final days of this year’s session were full of last-minute twists and turns – ending in a grueling final day. Illinois REALTORS® state legislative team addressed numerous last minute legislative amendments and proposals, all while continuing their work to advance the Illinois REALTORS® Housing Stability and Affordability package proposals.

Bills of Interest

The following “Bills of Interest” saw legislative action this week.

HB 3564 – Senate Amendment 4 (SA4) to HB 3564 (Syed) was stalled in the Senate early in the final week due to our work to stop it, however, it was unfortunately revived by another building owners group with last-minute amendments. The bill’s original aim was to target “junk” rental fees, which was poorly defined and overly broad. The last-minute amendment didn’t improve the bill dramatically and after several more days of negotiations, it was clear a compromise could not be reached. REALTORS® had earlier proposed a sound, workable, and balanced amendment that was fair to housing providers, however, the bill’s sponsors were intent on continuing to lump good and bad landlords together. While the bill eventually made it through the Senate Executive Committee late on the last night, the state legislative team was able to stop HB 3564 from advancing any further. We want to thank all the Illinois REALTOR® members, SLCs and staff who responded consistently to our Call for Action against this legislation.

House Floor Amendment 1 amends the Illinois Municipal Code to include provisions that would allow public schools to assess exorbitant impact fees on proposed residential developments. In particular, the bill would allow schools to charge developers for the entire cost of new schools in the district that bear some connection to the new residents coming from the development. Drafted to address a specific proposed development in Mundelein, the proponents sought to quickly advance legislation that would affect every development in every school district in the state. Illinois REALTORS® strongly opposed the bill and worked diligently with the sponsors to take more time to study the issue of school impact fees and develop comprehensive, fair legislation for the entire state. But in the end, the sponsors insisted the bill move forward and received final approval in the Senate. However, in response to our intensive lobbying efforts, including the hundreds of calls and emails from our SLCs and members, we were able to secure an agreement from the Chief House sponsor to hold the bill back from going to the Governor for signature. We will now continue our conversations with the sponsor and work on a more reasonable path forward.

Budget

The General Assembly passed a FY2026 budget (SB 2510) that spends $55.1 billion. Last year’s budget, as originally passed, spent $53.1 billion. The budget process is not completely finished as several issues were left open and the legislature will have to return to finalize things.

Mass Transit

Another major initiative that arrived in the final days of session was HB 3438, the mass transit reform bill. While much of the debate centered around the governance changes for the Chicago CTA, more concerning provisions in the bill were the significant tax changes it proposed. Among the more damaging proposals, were:

  • A 600% increase in real estate transfer taxes in suburban Cook County and all the surrounding collar counties.
  • A $1.50 retail delivery tax (the “Amazon Tax”) for every delivery of tangible personal property subject to the Retailers’ Occupation Tax (ROT), excluding groceries and medications.
  • A new statewide electric vehicle charging tax equal to $0.03 per kilowatt hour for public charging stations.

The mass transit reform proposals proved to be too complicated and too big of an ask for most legislators to vote on at the last minute and the legislation stalled.

Illinois REALTORS® STRONGLY OPPOSED the revenue proposals and will continue to urge legislators to seek alternative revenue sources that will not harm one of the state’s largest economic drivers.

Thank you to all REALTOR® members that responded to our Call for Action regarding the transit bill and urge you to continue the conversation with your legislators. Tell them to NOT impose another transfer tax. You can expect to hear more from us on this issue over the summer.

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