City Manager Dan Langloss said if the city was already at 100% funding the cities pension payment would be at $500,000. The hard truth is the cities payment this year is $2.5 million and it is fast approaching $3 million. Langloss said the city, even with the economic growth, cannot afford to pay that much yearly.

House Bill 4316 will require superintendents to notify school boards and parents when there is a sexual misconduct allegation found to be supported. It will make schools do employee history reviews on new hires to be sure a teacher who was fired from a school for sexual misconduct isn’t trying to move to another district.

Among them, House Bill 4365 would allow school districts to provide funding for a student’s out-of-state placement, and HB 4677 allow the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Board of Commissioners the authority to consider approving issuance of Pension Obligation Bonds.

There is new legislation requiring water utilities to notify health-care and senior living facilities of water supply disruptions that could lead to water quality problems, such as legionella and other pathogens.

Jeffrey Mears was one of six members to leave the Prisoner Review Board in recent weeks after the appointment process came under scrutiny by Republican members of the Senate.

And while Medicaid bills are traditionally worked out in a bipartisan “working group,” this one drew strong opposition from Republicans because the language about noncitizens had never been discussed in any public hearing or working group meeting.

By county, the unemployment rate decreased in 101 counties and increased in one.

The jobless rate in the Springfield area last month was 4.5 percent… down from 4.8 in February, and nearly two full percentage points lower than the 6.4 percent rate in March of 2021.

“To be frank, it’s an election year when everybody’s up,” said Sen. Robert Peters. “I think for both sides, that meant there was a real picking and choosing about which ones were going to be the fights.”

“(F)igures tabulated by (Kent) Redfield from statewide political campaign records show that between 2013 and 2022, Pritzer and Griffin have contributed more than half a billion dollars to political campaigns and causes. Let that sink in. Two men spent half a billion bucks for political campaigns…That includes governors races and statewide constitutional offices in 2014 and 2018; Chicago’s mayoral races in 2015 and 2019; state legislative races in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020; the 2020 fair tax amendment fight; and the 2020 Thomas Kilbride Supreme Court retention race.”

A 2019 law championed by Gov. JB Pritzker seeks to combine more than 600 local public safety pension funds into two funds. However, his plans are being delayed by a pending circuit court lawsuit and mistrust about shifting local funds to a state entity, particularly among the police pension plans.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has approved a policy that will require faculty to contribute to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts to earn tenure or a promotion. For now, it’s optional. In a few years, it’s a requirement, according to a policy dated March 26. This effectively institutionalizes coerced speech.

Spokesperson Paul Wappel says the state spent $41 million last year to clean up all that trash that piled up on Illinois’ roads.

Chicago and Illinois have more lead line connections to homes than any other city or state and, though it’s been a known problem for years, replacement has been slow. Officials have said the costs are too high for state and local governments to complete so many replacements.

The one thing business owners believe could derail it all would be new COVID restrictions. But, while inflation will impact everyone traveling this summer, businesses hope the worst is behind them.