May 26, 2023 State Capitol Report

Almost End of Session?

After moving past their self-imposed deadline of May 19, the legislature met again this week and well into the early hours of each day. As this report is being written, it appears the Illinois General Assembly is halfway to approving a budget thereby concluding its Spring Session.

Late Thursday night, the Senate approved Senate Bill 250 (Sen. Sims, D-17, Chicago and Rep. Gordon-Booth, D- 92, Peoria) and sent it over to the House for approval by tomorrow hopefully. Due to constitutional restraints, the House cannot vote on the budget bill until Saturday, so everyone is hoping the House votes on the bill tonight at 12:01 a.m. There are a few rumblings that the House Progressive Caucus may attempt to change the budget, but that is only speculation.

There is always much drama and anguish over state budgets. The Budget impacts the quality of life of every person in this state and ultimately decides the fate of our schools, roads, health care, air and water quality, and much more. Every year legislators make critical choices on how to provide services and how to ensure the state will generate the revenue to fund crucial programs. The spending plan crafted for Fiscal Year 2024, which begins on July 1, 2023, totals $50.6 Billion. This amount is slightly down from FY23’s budget. Below are just a few highlights from the budget:

  • Funding the state’s Rainy Day Fund
  • Funding to eliminate overdue bill backlog
  • $200 million to pension payment

  • $200 million for the Home Illinois Program to target the prevention of homelessness, provide crisis response, expand housing support, and increase staff focused on assisting the homeless.

  • $250 million to fund the first year an new early childhood plan
  • Funding for a pilot program to fill teacher vacancies, expand access to computer science coursework
  • Funding for Higher Education and to allow everyone at or below the median income can go to community college for free
  • $85 million increase, bringing state funding to over $350 million, to support homelessness prevention, affordable housing, outreach

  • $18 million increase for reproductive health programs

  • Increased funding for mental health programs and for implementing the new Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative

  • $20 million investment in a new Illinois Grocery Initiative to expand grocery access

  • $24 million for elderly programs including rate increase for home workers who assist the elderly
  • $250 million to the Reimagine Public Safety Act for prevention of gun violence and expansion of youth employment
  • $53.5 million to overhaul IDPH disease monitoring IT and prepare for future public health emergencies
  • $400 million for Governor to close major economic development deals and attract businesses and jobs to the state
  • Funding for workforce development programs to build a pipeline in the industries like data center, EV, and clean energy
  • $20 million to Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Program
  • $40 million for forgivable loans to launch additional social equity cannabis businesses
  • $10 million to fund an entrepreneurship “one-stop business portal”

NOTE: As this report is being sent, the House is scheduled to come back into session this evening.

Bills of Interest

Click the bill number to view additional information

Final Action on bills we have been following:

This bill prohibits landlords from requiring tenants to use electronic payments for rent.  Illinois REALTORS® monitored this bill which passed both houses.

This bill provides that licensees may allow mortgage loan originators to work from a remote location if specified conditions are met. Provides that “full service office” does not include a remote location. Defines “remote location”. This bill passed both houses and will be sent to the Governor for consideration.

After the adoption of Amendment 1, the bill provides that a property owner may not be required to utilize specific technology, including, but not limited to solar shingles rather than traditional solar panels. HOAs may impose reasonable conditions so long as such conditions are not more onerous than the association’s analogous conditions for non-solar projects. The Illinois REALTORS® Legislative Team monitored this legislation that was passed by both chambers.

This bill provides that property that is used as a qualified residence by a veteran who was a member of the US Armed Forces during World War II, and their surviving spouse, is exempt from paying property taxes regardless of their level of disability, nor do they need to reapply each to participate in the program. This bill did generate debate on the House floor, but it passed both houses.

This bill municipalities to make information regarding service lines containing lead. HB 2776 was introduced it would have amended the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act and requires the seller to disclose on the real estate disclosure form any discovered concentration of or unsafe conditions relating to lead paint, lead water pipes, lead plumbing pipes or lead in the soil on the premises (rather than unsafe concentrations of or unsafe conditions relating to lead paint, lead water pipes, lead plumbing pipes or lead in the soil on the premises). The Illinois REALTORS® Legislative team worked with the sponsor to amend the bill to remove all language regarding the real estate disclosure form. House Amendment 1 was adopted at the suggestion of Illinois REALTORS® to contain no language pertaining to the disclosure form. With the amendment, the Illinois REALTORS® moved from Oppose to Neutral and the bill passed both houses.

Next Week and Beyond

All remain hopeful that the House will conclude its business by tomorrow and everyone can go home to celebrate the beginning of summer and most importantly take time to reflect on loved ones no longer with us and be thankful for all who have served our country to keep us safe and able to enjoy freedom and democracy.

The legislature has not yet released the fall veto calendar so stay tuned for those dates but expect them to include a few days in October. This summer, look for the Illinois REALTORS® Scorecard prepared by your Governmental Affairs team highlighting this year’s legislative achievements.

We hope everyone can start to begin to enjoy their summers and we will be keeping a watchful eye just in case, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, or the Governor call the legislature back into session, so for now and always…Stay Tuned!

Thank you for reading the May 26, 2023 State Capitol Report. Click here to read previous reports.