Sponsors said renters shouldn’t be surprised by charges included in their rent, such as fees for after-hours service requests, renewing a lease, or routine maintenance. The bill states that all non-optional fees should be explicitly disclosed on the first page of a lease agreement. Tenants would not be liable to pay fees if they are not shown on the first page of a lease.

State Sen. Elgie Sims Jr. said Illinois-based companies get work in Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and Georgia. “We are hearing it across the board, ‘I can get business elsewhere and I can’t get business from my own home state.’ That’s a problem,” Sims said.

“I ordered that audit. I reviewed that audit as a member of the audit commission. It’s one of the worst in the state history,” Rep. Charlie Meier said of the state’s Department of Human Services. “Faculty failures, personnel failures, lack of reporting, no oversight. You name it. It’s in there. Gov. Pritzker and his leadership at DHS has been a total failure.”

John VanVleet, 53, was the training coordinator at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg when he retired in January 2025 and took a partial buyout. “People always say, ‘Oh, the government can and can’t do this!’ he said. “I’d rather have a contingency; we see the government do all kinds of stuff they shouldn’t do.”