Lawmakers passed more than 200 bills this week ahead of their scheduled May 24 adjournment. Many of the measures will soon head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including a bill that changes how damages accrue under Illinois’ first-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law.
J.B. Pritzker
Other measures regulate garbage truck littering, allow yoga in schools
In the middle of Mental Health Awareness Month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton hosted a panel in Springfield at which he pledged to expand the state’s behavioral health services.
“Illinois cannot simply hope that its remaining fiscal challenges will disappear on their own,” the Civic Federation says in a new report. “They will not until they are addressed head on.”
The juxtaposition of a popular program with how to pay for it highlights the tensions Illinois lawmakers face with weeks left before the end-of-month deadline to pass a new state budget.
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress enacted changes to Medicaid requiring states to keep patients continuously enrolled through the public health crisis, even if they might have become ineligible due to changes in their income or family circumstances. That continuous enrollment program expired in March 2023.
Top officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections testified in front of a key panel of state lawmakers. Gov. J.B. Pritzker previously announced a plan to close Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill and Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Illinois is preparing to dedicate an entire state agency to matters affecting children in their earliest years. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in October his intent to move disparate services under the umbrella of a new state agency: the Department of Early Childhood.
In meetings with state lawmakers and the governor, Mayor Brandon Johnson made his case for additional support for the city, including about $1.1 billion more in funding for Chicago Public Schools.
A new study found that Black Americans are four times more likely to experience homelessness than their White counterparts. But in Illinois the situation is even worse, researchers found, with Black residents eight times more likely to become homeless at some point in their lives.
The Bears would pitch in $2 billion, plus use a $300 million loan from the NFL; billions more in taxpayer money would be used to finance the other half of the stadium as well as to make infrastructure improvements and add park and public space to the area.
Banks, credit unions and mortgage companies will soon have to report to state regulators about how many loans they make in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods. That's the result of a state law passed in 2021 as part of the Legislative Black Caucus' social and economic reform agenda.
State legislators would need to vote by May 5 to place a question on the November ballot, and key players indicate there’s no effort to do so despite earlier talk at state government’s highest levels after Roe v. Wade was dismantled by the U.S. Supreme Court almost two years ago.
Immigrant rights advocates on Friday continued to push for one of their top budget priorities: full funding for state-run health care programs that benefit noncitizens, regardless of their immigration status.
“Our approach understands that homelessness is not an issue of personal failing, but of historical discrimination and structural barriers that have driven inequality for Black families across the nation, and of course, right here in Illinois,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday.
Mayor Brandon Johnson enthusiastically endorsed the plans for a new stadium, calling the renderings of the futuristic oval-shaped stadium with a translucent roof “miraculous.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s initiative targets many of the “utilization management” practices insurance companies use to hold down costs by either denying claims or steering patients toward lower-cost options.
