Paul Arena, Winnebago County Board Member: “We have a limited supply of housing for our current residents. There is no readily available location to create migrant shelters and we can’t afford to absorb the long term costs associated with becoming a refuge location for migrants. Sure, the state is offering money to open doors, but when that money runs out, the taxpayers of Winnebago County would be footing the bill.”

“(Senate President Don) Harmon’s overall message in his speech, however, was aimed at the business community itself and boiled down to the old adage, ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.'”

Said state Sen. Andrew Chesney, “JB Pritzker and Mayor (Brandon) Johnson and others have essentially rolled out the red carpet for migrants and illegal immigrants who come to the state of Illinois, and we just can’t sustain it. And it’s siphoning off resources for those that have lived here legally and have for decades.”

If approved, the legislation would reform the current state tax for farm estates only, by changing the tax exclusion with only dollars over $6 million to be taxed under the exemption. The current threshold is $4 million.

“Private school students outperform their public-school counterparts. This is true across student populations and among low-income and minority students, both nationwide and in Illinois. … The data is even more compelling for school choice when considering the ways the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the vulnerabilities of the traditional public school system.”

Howard Tullman, former CEO of 1871 in Chicago and former executive director of the Kaplan Institute at Illinois Tech.: “[I]n our college students and, even more critically, in the waves of new employees joining our businesses, we are seeing the effects and debilitating symptoms of a generation raised and educated in a world where nearly every waking hour is spent glued to and interacting with their phones…. There are no easy answers. The success of your business and the futures of your kids could hang in the balance, and you’ve been warned.”

Much of Illinois’ business community, however, say the reform measures still leave Illinois employers and other drivers of the state’s economy too exposed to potentially massive class action lawsuits brought by trial lawyers who, to this point, have used the law to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, without ever having to demonstrate anyone has actually been harmed.

The number of measles cases reported in Illinois continues to rise. They include 61 cases in Chicago, two cases in Will County, and one each in Lake and suburban Cook counties.

Senate Bill 2606 would require all public colleges and universities in Illinois to implement a student mental wellness day policy that would allow students at least five mental health days per academic year. A few colleges have already passed their own resolutions to adopt mental wellness days.

As part of a clean-energy bill passed in 2021, the state is spending $70 million to increase the number of EV chargers available. The federal government also is funding chargers along interstate highways. The Illinois Department of Transportation is accepting applications for $50 million in funding for chargers.

Legislation could allow the Illinois State Board of Education to present competitive grants to school districts for annual stipends of at least $15,000 for social work interns. A separate plan could give licensed social workers the authority to possess and use opioid antagonists, such as Narcan.

Senate Bill 3203 would also prohibit health insurance companies from denying or limiting coverage for prescription inhalers starting January 1, 2026.

The Hemp Consumer Products Act, Senate Bill 3926, would create a regulatory framework for hemp consumer products, establishing standards for testing, licensing and labeling akin to cannabis.

The National Resources Defense Council puts the estimate for replacing every lead service line in Illinois at $2.2 billion, while the Illinois Environmental Council estimates it would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion. Even as some funding has become available through that law and the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the allocations are not nearly enough to replace every service line in the state, regardless of who is estimating the cost.

“From 2001 to 2016, the Chicago region and the state both lost about 30% percent of their manufacturing jobs, while service-based jobs in industries like health care, finance and business services expanded,” according to the Illinois Future of Work Task Force Report.

Employers in Illinois with at least 5 employees must soon comply with the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Program Act (Secure Choice) or offer employees an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

“We are a true outlier in this country,” said state Sen. John Curran. “This is not a law that other states are saying Illinois got it right and we are going to follow suit and model the Illinois law.”

The central question during the court’s arguments Monday will be whether the law used to prosecute state and local officials for bribery also criminalizes something called a “gratuity.” Unlike a hypothetical bag of cash that changes hands to explicitly pay for a public official’s vote, a gratuity is a reward given corruptly — but without a quid pro quo — for an official act that has usually already happened.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has been looking to gain access to documents from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow and the Federalist Society co-chairman Leo to aid its investigation into allegations of unethical financial gifts and potential conflicts of interest posed by personal ties between Supreme Court justices and billionaire donors and activists.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began here in early 2020, the Office of Executive Inspector General has found 277 cases of wrongdoing involving PPP loans, which were typically forgiven. Most of the confirmed fraud cases — 175 — involved Department of Human Services employees.

The fund that pays fire pensions to 95 families had been in jeopardy because so little money remained, but has accepted a deal from the city government to put $4.5 million into the pension fund by the end of May. The Police Pension Board has asked Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza to seize state money allocated to the city and use it to help pay for police pensions.