Illinois General Assembly Session Continues into November

As the Veto Session ended, the Illinois General Assembly passed new legislation important to the Jewish Federation and the residents of Illinois. In late October, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation:

• Implementing a higher public school aid formula, which was already appropriated and promised last spring.
• Addressing geriatric nursing home rates, which were restructured requiring higher state reimbursement, although without accompanying appropriations increases.
• Authorizing parochial schools to begin seeking compensation under the School Safety Block Grant program for security and other administrative and secular expenses not related to classroom instruction.
• Starting a new autism awareness and family services program from FY’08 funding already appropriated by the legislature.
• Hiring new prison guard positions that have been funded for the past two years but not spent by the Blagojevich Administration.

As the General Assembly session comes to a close, unrelated major issues are being combined to finalize the legislative business. Downstate legislators are not anxious to vote on a Chicago Metro Area imposed sales tax increase unless downstate road projects are proposed. The funding device for these projects may be gaming revenues. Two or three new or re-activated casino licenses may be authorized in addition to the expansion of slot machines in racetracks and gaming spaces at existing casinos. Funding from gaming expansion is limited by the City of Chicago itself being one of the recipients of a new license with the $800 million licensure fee being waived to help cover the cost of facility construction.

Less gaming revenues may limit the bond program that would fund the downstate road projects and some school construction proposals, leaving less for other non-profit organizational needs include some projects requested by the Jewish Federation.

It is unclear if all of these bills will come together by the end of the legislative session. Final decisions should be made by the middle to end of November, however legislators may block legislative passage even if additional funding to public schools and mass transit are negotiated. To learn more about our state government affairs program, please contact Len Lieberman at 217-753-1010.