Capitol News Illinois

ranzel@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois restaurants and bars can serve cocktails to go Tuesday after Gov. JB Pritzker signed an initiative designed by lawmakers to provide establishments with financial relief in the wake of COVID-19 challenges.

Those businesses are “some of the hardest hit” by the public health emergency, the governor said in a press release after signing the bill into law.

“This legislation will provide these businesses with a critical tool to bring in additional income until they can safely and fully reopen their doors once more,” he added.

Chicago Democratic Sen. Sara Feigenholtz sponsored the initiative in her chamber. She said Illinois is one of 34 other states to have such “a survival tool” on the books.

Alcoholic beverages are available for customers only in pick-up and delivery orders, and must be served in a sealed container with a tamper-proof lid, according to the law. Drivers delivering mixed drinks must store them in a trunk or other compartment inaccessible to them while operating the motor vehicle.

Those working for third-party delivery services, including DoorDash and GrubHub, cannot bring residents the cocktails to go.

The law, set to expire one year from Tuesday, additionally postpones late fees and liquor license fees for restaurants and bars. It also authorizes a license extension for any establishment that suffered business interruptions due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Cocktails to go is a small but important initiative designed to help our hospitality industry get back on its feet after COVID-19,” Democratic Rep. Michael Zalewski, from Riverside, said in a written statement.

House Bill 2682 was sent to the governor by the General Assembly on May 29 after passing both chambers on a bipartisan basis near-unanimously six days earlier.

It was introduced over a year ago as legislation creating three aviation-related government funds. The same day representatives and senators concluded their special session, Feigenholtz proposed an amendment gutting and replacing that original language with the bill that legalizes cocktails-to-go.

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By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD — A conference call between U.S. governors and Republican President Donald Trump led to the latest in a series of spats between Illinois’ governor and the president Monday.

“You have to dominate, if you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you. You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate,” Trump told the governors, according to CBS news, which obtained audio recordings of the call.

Trump reportedly admonished the governors for what he deemed a weak response to protests, which were sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Minneapolis man who died Monday, May 25, after being pinned to the ground for nearly nine minutes with a white police officer’s knee on his neck.

The president called violent and destructive protestors “terrorists,” according to audio of the phone call shared by the New York Times. He said the governors must arrest and charge those protestors with crimes and give them punishments lasting years.

“They’re anarchists, whether you like it or not,” Trump said in the call, according to the Times audio. “I know some of you guys have a different persuasion and that’s OK, I totally understand. I understand. I’m for everybody. I’m representing everybody. I’m not representing radical right, radical left. I’m representing everybody. But you have to know what you’re dealing with, and it’s happened before. It’s happened numerous times. And the only time it’s successful is when you’re weak.”

Last week, Trump posted to Facebook and Twitter that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He has not formally addressed the nation since Floyd was killed or since widespread protesting began.

“Someone throwing a rock is like shooting a gun,” Trump told the governors in the Monday phone call. “You have to do retribution.”

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told the president he took issue with his tone and lack of unifying response.

“I wanted to take this moment — and I can’t let it pass — to speak up and say that I’ve been extraordinarily concerned about the rhetoric that’s been used by you,” Pritzker said, according to a transcript. “It’s been inflammatory, and it’s not okay for that officer to choke George Floyd to death. But we have to call for calm. We have to have police reform called for. We’ve called out our national guard and our state police, but the rhetoric that’s coming out of the White House is making it worse. And I need to say that people are feeling real pain out there and we’ve got to have national leadership in calling for calm and making sure that we’re addressing the concerns of the legitimate peaceful protestors. That will help us to bring order.”

Pritzker, as recently as last week, called Trump a “xenophobe” and a “racist” in a public news conference. Since he ran for governor in 2018, Pritzker has frequently criticized the president, and the pair has sparred about the federal government’s novel coronavirus response.

“Okay well thank you very much JB,” Trump said in response to the governor. “I don’t like your rhetoric much either because I watched it with respect to the coronavirus, and I don’t like your rhetoric much either. I think you could’ve done a much better job, frankly. But that’s okay. And you know, we don’t agree with each other.”

With protests continuing in several Illinois cities Monday, Pritzker hosted a media availability from the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago and addressed the matter upon questioning.

“The truth is that the President has fanned the flames instead of bringing peace and calm,” he said. “It is usually the job of the president to stand up in these circumstances, and try to bring down the temperature, that’s not what this president does.”

He said after about 40 minutes on the call with Trump using what Pritzker deemed to be “inflammatory rhetoric,” he spoke out.

“I wish that the President would hold his words,” Pritzker said. “I wish he would, if he can’t say something that is going to help us across the nation to bring the temperature down, then he shouldn’t say anything at all.”

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SPRINGFIELD – Lawmakers approved a state operating budget shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, but despite the passage of the document, nothing about the next fiscal year is black and white.

The state is depending on a broad package providing federal monetary aid to states passing through the U.S. Congress, or, failing that, borrowing up to $5 billion from the U.S. Federal Reserve at an interest rate of approximately 3.8 percent.

“Well there’s no doubt that we’re going to have to revisit the budget if the federal government doesn’t come through,” Gov. JB Pritzker said when asked if the state had a plan for a revenue stream to pay back the borrowing. “I think all 50 states are going to have to be revisiting their budgets if the federal government doesn’t come through.”

Pritzker took questions in his office at the Capitol on Sunday morning, about nine hours after the General Assembly adjourned on just its fourth day of legislative session since March 5.

The $42.8 billion budget keeps spending roughly flat from a year ago despite revenue for next year decreasing by an unknown number of billions and the potential of even further economic devastation should COVID-19 see a resurgence in the fall that coincides with a virulent flu season.

“The budget the General Assembly has sent to my desk acknowledges that massive economic disruption leads to difficult decisions,” Pritzker said.

Democrats, upon the bill’s passage, said in times of economic crisis, government needs to continue to spend instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the less fortunate.

Pritzker echoed the argument Sunday.

“There was a strong look at, you know, what could be cut,” Pritzker said. “Remember, though, this was all in the frame of a vastly increased need by families, workers, individuals all across the state.”

Republicans, however, called the budget balanced only on “a wing and a prayer.”

In House debate Saturday, Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, the GOP’s chief budget negotiator in the House, said there were billions of dollars, including some from the federal CARES Act, to be spent at Pritzker’s discretion with only limited guidance included in the budget.

“The ability for an administration to engage in emergency rulemaking and have control of more than $7 billion of state funds, with only broad strokes, broad umbrellas of programs and allocations for those dollars, I think should give members of this body pause,” Demmer said.

Rep. Gregory Harris, D-Chicago, said during debate the fact that the Legislature passed a full budget instead of a lump sum appropriation showed that it was exercising more oversight than other states were doing for their governors.

But Demmer said the governor’s emergency rulemaking track record – that he sought authority to implement misdemeanor fines for businesses disobeying his stay-at-home order – shows he didn’t earn the public’s trust when it comes to rulemaking.

“This talk about earning the authority, nobody knew a pandemic was coming,” Pritzker said when asked about Republican objections Sunday. “There’s just no way that anybody had any clue that we would be in this situation that we’re in right now.”

He said he would “do anything, give anything” to go back to a pre-COVID-19 level of normalcy.

“But here we are,” he said. “So, I think that there is a recognition anyway that we’re gonna have an unusual year here.”

Asked if he would be comfortable with the authority the Legislature has afforded him being wielded by his former Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, Pritzker said, “no, that’s why I ran against him and beat him.”

“I’m going to try very hard to operate, as I have by the way, with transparency, letting everybody know what we’re doing and also why we’re doing it. And the biggest thing is listening to the science and the data.”

In regard to transparency, Pritzker said the way this year’s budget was negotiated was not ideal. The measure and everything else passed in the four-day session was negotiated by working groups of lawmakers without official avenues for public input.

“I will say that although the public wasn’t able to come in to hearings that the Legislature had, their representatives from both sides of the aisle were in fact in the working groups, it wasn’t a one-sided set of working groups, there were bipartisan groups working on these things.”

Sometimes those groups sought executive branch input, sometimes they didn’t, he said.

While Republicans went into the special session calling for a vote on the governor’s Restore Illinois five-phased business reopening plan and some sort of check on his executive authority and ability to continuously extend disaster proclamations, no such vote occurred.

The closest thing to oversight was passed in a broad-ranging COVID-19 response bill that created a 14-member commission of eight Democrats and six Republicans that would work with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to discuss the reopening plan.

The commission would be scheduled to release its first report on the reopening plan on July 1, at which time the state could already be entering the fourth phase of the plan.

Republicans called the commission “window dressing.”

“Well, the Legislature has chosen not to be involved in many of the decisions that needed to be made by the executive branch,” Pritzker said when asked about the commission. “And I think, you know, when you think about it – That’s why you have an executive branch in an emergency, I can act quickly. The executive branch can act quickly.”

While he said the General Assembly could not have met quickly enough to have input on his decisions early in the emergency effort, Pritzker said he was hoping the General Assembly would have gathered “much earlier” than last week.

On one particular measure, he said he believed the Legislature fell short. He had asked lawmakers to approve a measure allowing for monetary fines of businesses defying his stay-at-home order.

“I am very disappointed, I think it was a complete abdication of responsibility on the part of the Legislature,” he said, noting the director of the Illinois State Police asked for a measure providing such authority.

“None of us want to exercise the ability to take away someone’s license that’s been given to them by the state to do business. Nobody wants to shut down a business. What we were looking for was a way to issue a citation,” he said.

He said the state would have to “look at other mechanisms” for such enforcement, but he did not say what they are.

The governor said he is also looking at ways to implement the next phases of the plan and is considering issuing a fourth consecutive 30-day disaster proclamation.

“We want to make sure we can implement the Restore Illinois plan, and that we’re taking care that the health and safety of the people of Illinois is paramount, so we’re looking at it,” he said.

The governor also announced the release of broad guidance for industries reopening under phase 3 of his plan. That is viewable here: https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/pages/restoreILP3.aspx.

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CARES Act funding

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Groggy workers and students on Monday in Illinois are left wondering if Senate Bill 533, the bill that would end the state’s biannual change of the clock known as daylight savings time, will ever pass and become law.

As of Nov. 19, 2019, the measure had passed in the Illinois Senate, but continues to sit for House approval. Even if the measure is signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, it could not take effect unless approved by the federal government.

Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands are the only states and territories that have chosen to be exempt from daylight saving time, opting instead to follow standard time year-round. Indiana did not switch to the daylight savings time schedule until 2006 when a business-backed effort was passed.

Washington, Florida, Arkansas, Nevada and Tennessee have passed laws to stay on daylight savings time year-round, but need congressional approval before the measure can be enacted.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Vermont, according to ABC News.

Maine and Oregon have passed measures only if nearby states, like California, Vermont and New Hampshire pass a similar law.

Daylight savings time was introduced by Benjamin Franklin and has been used in much of North America to make the most out of daylight hours since WWI.

According to AP-News (Oct. 2019), “The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 4 in 10 Americans would like to see their clocks stay on standard time year-round, while about 3 in 10 prefer to stay on daylight saving time.”

“About another 3 in 10 prefer what is the status quo in most of the United States, switching back and forth between daylight saving time in the summer and standard time in the winter.”

Democrat Andy Manar (48th District) is the sponsor of the Illinois bill.

Capitol News reports that in November, Manar explained, “This doesn’t seek [a waiver]. This just says one of two things should happen: There should be a national change or, if Congress were to begin to give states exemptions, that obviously would be a different conversation here on this floor.”

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The bills have been assigned to the Senate Subcommittee on Special Issues, which currently has no members.

Should the bills pass, Senate Bill 2564 would change the maximum speed limit outside of an urban district to 60 miles per hour, instead of 55 miles per hour, on specified highways, roads and streets. Senate Bill 2565 would change the maximum speed limit to 75 miles per hour (from 70 miles per hour) on any interstate highway outside of an urban area.

Oberweis filed similar legislation in 2017. The measure did not make it out of the Senate.

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Capitol News Illinois

jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – A local government advocacy group laid out its legislative agenda Monday and called on lawmakers to fully fund a program that shares state income tax revenue with local municipalities. 

The Illinois Municipal League’s “Moving Cities Forward” agenda also includes efforts to: protect local governments from lawsuits resulting from data breaches; give non-home rule communities greater authority to tax and greater access to financially-distressed cities assistance; and remove unfunded mandates on municipalities.

The organization’s top priority is for full funding of the Local Government Distributive Fund, or LGDF, which is funded below statutory levels, according to Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole.

“City leaders from throughout the state understand the need for shared sacrifice in addressing the state’s budget woes,” Cole said during a Capitol news conference. “However, municipal share of that sacrifice continues to grow and negatively impact the communities that provide for the health, safety and welfare of the residents.”

In two budget scenarios laid out by Gov. JB Pritzker last month, the LGDF fund would be funded at either 95 percent or 90 percent of statutory levels for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Which amount is allocated depends on the passage of a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to impose a graduated income tax rate structure.

That’s because Pritzker’s budget leaves $1.4 billion in state spending authority in reserve, including $79 million to the LGDF, if the graduated tax amendment does not gain approval from voters in November. Should it pass, an already-approved graduated rate structure would take effect and make the added spending authority possible, according to Pritzker’s budget team.

“Because this reserve is so large, it inevitably cuts into some of the things that we all hold most dear: increased funding for K-12 education, universities and community colleges, public safety and other key investments. But as important as these investments are, we cannot responsibly spend for these priorities until we know with certainty what the state’s revenue picture will be,” Pritzker said in his budget address last month.

If the amendment passes, the LGDF funding would remain flat from current-year levels at a 5 percent reduction from statutory levels. The budget proposal lays out only Pritzker’s budget priorities, however, and the General Assembly must approve any budget before it can become law.

Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder, who attended the news conference, said his city just passed a budget that included full LGDF funding.

“Anytime you put on hold funds that are due the municipalities, it creates an issue,” he said, adding the city “would have to prioritize” spending in the event of LGDF cuts, as every 5 percent decrease in funding would cost the city about $650,000.

The group is also backing legislation to reinstate the original statutory requirement of 10 percent of income tax contributions to LGDF. Municipalities receive a prorated portion of 5.8 percent of personal income tax revenues and 6.5 percent of corporate tax revenues, Cole said. 

Local Taxing Authority

The group also announced backing for measures to increase the ability of non-home rule municipalities to levy certain taxes.

Home rule is a status that state law confers to any municipality with more than 25,000 residents or other municipalities that choose to adopt it by referendum. Those municipalities have greater authority to control their own local affairs. According to IML, 217 of Illinois’ 1,298 incorporated municipalities have home rule powers.

They are backing House Bill 5070, which would allow municipalities to impose a local sales tax up to 1 percent via an ordinance, rather than requiring the municipality to put the issue before voters in the form of a referendum.

The group also supports Senate Bill 2978, which would allow non-home rule municipalities outside of Cook County to charge a local motor fuel tax of up to 3 cents per gallon.

House Bill 825 is also on the agenda. It allows non-home rule municipalities to levy storm water utility charges to “offset the cost of owning, maintaining, and improving local storm water infrastructure.”

“Providing public safety services, improving municipal infrastructure and attracting and retaining economic development are issues of importance to every municipality, home rule status aside,” Cole said. “Yet state law hampers the ability of non-home rule communities to address these important issues.”

Other Issues

IML members also stumped for the elimination of a fee charged for the state’s administration of locally-imposed sales taxes.  

“In Illinois, only the Department of Revenue is allowed to collect certain locally imposed sales taxes, and they then distribute them to the local government,” said Cathy Adduci, mayor of suburban River Forest and vice president of IML.

In fiscal year 2018, Adduci said, the state “arbitrarily” imposed a 2 percent fee for its collection and remittance efforts. In fiscal year 2019, it decreased that fee to 1.5 percent, which Adduci said shifted $45 million back to local governments.

Leon Rockingham Jr., mayor of suburban North Chicago and IML president, said another way to alleviate pressures on local governments is to get rid of “unfunded mandates,” including publishing requirements for a municipality’s annual report. 

“State mandates on municipalities are one of the largest drivers of property taxes. With mandate relief, the financial burden to comply with these mandates will lessen and taxpayers will benefit,” he said.

He, along with the group, also urged opening up of the state’s financially distressed cities law to non-home rule municipalities. That program makes cities in both the top 5 percent of aggregate property tax rate and bottom 5 percent in per capita tax yield eligible for state assistance.

Adduci also spoke in favor of a bill, supported by the IML, to remove the liability of municipalities if they fall victim to cyberattacks.

“Municipalities, despite their due diligence, are under threat of becoming the subject of financially unsustainable lawsuits if a cyberattack were to occur,” she said.

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Senate Bill 2762 could mandate “inclusive, medically accurate, and culturally appropriate comprehensive sex education” for students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade if it becomes law.

Presented by sponsors Senator Ram Villivalam (Democrat District 8) and Representative Kathleen Willis (Democrat District 77), the bill would require the curriculum to:

• Promote awareness and healthy attitudes about growth and development, body image, gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, sexual health, sexual orientation, consent, dating, relationships and families;

• Be designed to promote positive behaviors and reduce health-related risk behaviors;

• Be available to students in kindergarten through 12th grade and provide students with the information, skills, and support needed to acquire accurate information to make healthy decisions throughout their lives.

Everything from consent to child sexual abuse to gender identity, and more, would be required teachings in the sex education course.

Sen. Villivalam and Rep. Willis said that students want such materials, especially those from districts that do not include lessons on sexual education or diverse sexualities and genders.

According to the bill, comprehensive sex education for students in grades kindergarten through second grade would include:

• Human anatomy;

• Gender roles;

• Varying family structures;

• Healthy relationships, including friendships;

• Personal bodily autonomy;

• How to promote personal safety, including reliance on and communication with parents and trusted adults;

• Bullying.

Not permitted under the REACH Act — Responsible Education for Adolescent and Children’s Health — is the promotion of “any religious doctrine” or exclusion of the “health needs of individuals who are intersex or individuals of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions,” according to the bill.

Abstinence is permitted in an array of information and skills taught to students, Leahy said.

Villivalam said he acknowledges the initiative’s detractors may argue “this bill goes too far and that it shouldn’t be required,” Brigid Leahy, Planned Parenthood of Illinois’ senior director of policy, said.

Districts would be required to inform parents about the planned classes at the beginning of each school year.

The bill states that: “A parent or guardian of a student has the right to excuse his or her child from all or part of comprehensive sex education and assessments related to that education through a passive consent process. A school district may not require active parental consent for comprehensive sex education.”

School districts would also be required to post the information about the curricula on their websites, including who will be presenting the information, the duration of instruction, how many students they are presenting to and the number of students opted out.

According to the legislation, “schools have a responsibility to address child abuse, harassment, bullying, interpersonal violence, and personal safety issues,” all of which can impact a student’s health and progress in school.

“It is recognized in the legislation as one of the things that helps young people stay safe and healthy, and that is and should be part of the instruction,” Leahy said. “But we want to make sure that youth get all the information that they need. We want to recognize that there may be, in classes, students that have been or currently are or will be sexually active and they need to be prepared for that.”

If passed, the sex education curriculum would begin no later than July 1, 2021.

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By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Revenue reported Monday that the first month of legalized adult-use cannabis sales in the state generated $7.3 million in cannabis tax revenue for the state, plus another $3.1 million in retail sales taxes that are shared between the state and local governments.

“Today marks another milestone in the successful launch of Illinois’ legal cannabis industry,” Toi Hutchinson, a senior advisor on cannabis policy to Gov. JB Pritzker, said in a statement.

Last year, at Pritzker’s urging, lawmakers passed a bill legalizing the production and sale of adult-use recreational marijuana. The law took effect Jan. 1.

Under that law, marijuana cultivators pay a 7-percent privilege tax on their sales to dispensaries. Retail sales, in turn, are subject to retail sales taxes as well as a special cannabis tax that ranges from 10 to 25 percent, depending on the type of product being sold and its THC content.

Those taxes are in addition to the retail sales taxes levied by the state and the local governments where the sales occur, but they do not apply to products that are taxed under the state’s medical marijuana program.

Pritzker’s budget office had estimated that marijuana sales would generate $28 million in the final half of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The Department of Revenue said Monday’s report showed the state is on pace to surpass that estimate.

The state’s share of the revenue is divided among several funds:

• 35 percent goes to the state general fund.
• 25 percent goes into a special fund for community development projects in areas with high arrest and poverty rates that were disproportionately affected by the “war on drugs.”
• 20 percent goes to the Department of Human Services for substance abuse and prevention programs and mental health.
• 10 percent is put into the Budget Stabilization Fund to pay down the state’s backlog of unpaid bills.
• 8 percent goes to local governments to support crime prevention, training and interdiction efforts.
• And 2 percent is used to fund public education campaigns and to support data collection and analysis of the public health impacts of legalizing recreational marijuana.

“Our goal has been to build the nation’s most socially equitable program that includes new opportunities for the communities most harmed by the failed war on drugs,” Hutchinson said in her statement. “Revenue raised in this first month will soon begin flowing back into those communities to begin repairing the damage done by the failed policies of the past and creating new opportunities for those who have been left behind for far too long.”

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