SENIORS
House Republicans champion legislation to help seniors. Illinois House Republicans continue to step up to protect and support the senior community through a series of legislative efforts aimed at enhancing the lives of seniors across the state. Representatives Ryan Spain, Jeff Keicher, Kevin Schmidt and other House Republican legislators have introduced and championed bills that address key issues affecting older adults, from healthcare and housing to financial stability and driver safety.
Rep. Ryan Spain has long been a vocal advocate for seniors. He has championed property tax relief, increasing access to transportation, safeguarding retirement benefits and protecting against exploitation.
“Our seniors have given so much to our communities, and it’s our duty to ensure they’re protected and supported,” said Rep. Spain. “We’re committed to passing legislation that makes a real difference in their lives, from healthcare to financial security.”
Rep. Jeff Keicher has taken a stand on a critical issue affecting older drivers in Illinois.
“Seniors deserve to live with the respect and dignity they’ve earned,” Rep. Keicher said. “Our focus is on ensuring they have the resources and support they need to enjoy their golden years without unnecessary burdens.”
Rep. Kevin Schmidt has sponsored and co-sponsored several key pieces of legislation aimed at improving the financial and healthcare security of Illinois seniors, by reducing property taxes, lowering the cost of groceries, protecting retirement income and fighting financial exploitation.
“Supporting our seniors isn’t just about policy—it’s about recognizing their invaluable contributions and making sure they can live comfortably and securely,” Rep Schmidt said. “We’re here to stand with them, advocating for their well-being every step of the way.”
Reps. Keicher, Spain & Schmidt have also shown strong support for protecting seniors’ financial stability by advocating for HR 24, a resolution that opposes any taxation on retirement income. This resolution aligns with his commitment to easing the financial burdens on seniors, allowing them to enjoy their retirement without additional tax pressures.
Together, House Republicans are championing legislation that directly addresses the needs of Illinois seniors. Their collective efforts reflect a shared commitment to protecting the rights, health, and financial well-being of older adults, ensuring that they receive the respect and care they deserve in their golden years.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Rep. Spain bill to improve revitalization efforts of blighted communities signed into law. Legislation carried in the Illinois House of Representatives by Deputy House Minority Leader Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) has been signed into law by the Governor. The legislation, Senate Bill 2936, expands a property tax abatement process to improve investment opportunities.
“This legislation presents an opportunity to spur economic development and investment in our communities, particularly in older neighborhoods and areas that have experienced disinvestment,” said Spain. “I want to thank Peoria City Councilman John Kelly for his work over the past several years to make this legislation a reality. It would not have been possible without him.”
Under previous law, property located in an area categorized as experiencing urban decay may be granted a property tax abatement (reduction in taxes) by a municipality only for new construction of single-family or duplex units. While this has proved helpful to communities in need of new investment, it does not apply to efforts to remodel existing homes or duplexes. SB 2936 expands the law to include remodeling projects, as well as removing a limitation in the law that reduced the granted abatements in the final four years of the abatement period.
As Spain referenced, At-Large Peoria City Councilman John Kelly has been working on this issue for many years.
After SB 2936 passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly this spring, Councilman Kelly said, “This bill will increase the value of home ownership in some of our more challenged neighborhoods, as well as make investment in those neighborhoods more attractive. The incentives of this bill go directly to homeowners and will encourage the rehabilitation of many homes that are currently in need of improvements or updates. We are grateful to Peoria’s legislators Win Stoller, Dave Koehler, Ryan Spain, Travis Weaver, and Jehan Gordon-Booth for their diligence in finally bringing this bill across the finish line.”
Most of the legislation signed into law by the Governor this summer does not take full effect until the start of the new year on January 1, 2025, but SB 2936 had an “effective immediately” provision included in its language, and the law is now in full effect.
For more information about SB 2936, Click Here.
General Assembly makes a small, but potentially valuable, change to the job-threatening Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The BIPA law, enacted in 2008, purports to protect the privacy of an individual’s biometric information from misuse in Illinois. Biometrics are the biologically unique identifiers that differentiate each individual human being, including eye and fingerprint markings. Illinois Democrats have a long record of alliances with law firms that issue contingent lawsuits for big-money damages. Especially in years that followed 2008, the BIPA law was interpreted by the courts to grant ‘standing’ to file enormous lawsuits against any business firm in Illinois that had collected biometric information about its employees, such as using biometric locks or time clocks.
After some of these lawsuits began to move to trial and massive verdicts, the Illinois business community began to warn the General Assembly that BIPA was becoming a deadly threat to job creation and retention. House Republicans sponsored bills to reduce or eliminate the threats created by BIPA misuse. Many Democrats, faithful to their alliance with the trial bar, did not want to take action. Under pressure, the leadership of the House and Senate Democrats partially gave in. In the 2024 spring session, they allowed a bill to come to the floor of the House and Senate. As passed by both houses, SB 2979 allowed many of the job-threatening features of BIPA to remain untouched: trial lawyers will continue to be able to use BIPA to file big lawsuits. However, SB 2979 also says that if a firm collects biometric information two or more times from one individual without explicit permission – as, for example, if a security camera repeatedly takes a picture of an individual reporting to work, and the same picture is taken every day – then only one act of alleged damage has taken place. No plaintiff or law firm can claim that two or more pictures, or fingerprints, create two or more episodes of damage for which huge sums of money can be awarded.
Even after passage of SB 2979 and its enactment into law, the Biometric Information Privacy Act continues to be highly hostile to job creation and retention in Illinois. Employers and job creators do not face similar lawsuits in any of the other states that compete with Illinois for jobs. Firms that use facial recognition, fingerprint-scans, or any of the other identification methods pinpointed by BIPA continue to be potentially liable for lawsuits and damages. House Republicans would have preferred a much more equitable biometric privacy law that would have balanced the interests of business and labor. Two House Republican bills, HB 2335 (Keicher) and HB 5635 (Keicher) are good examples of what an equitable BIPA bill looks like. Many House Republicans voted against the 2024 law because it fell far short of true BIPA reform.
However, the 2024 law is better than nothing and marks a rare partial defeat for the trial bar in Illinois. The SB 2979 biometric law modification statute was signed into law in August 2024.
ENERGY
Proposed wind energy high-voltage line, which would pass through Central Illinois, faces uncertain future. The proposed “Grain Belt Express” transmission line would be an electricity trunk line similar to the lines already familiar to Illinoisans that radiate outward from nuclear, gas-fired, and coal-fired power plants. It has been mapped out to be 800 miles long, carrying electricity generated by windmills from the Kansas Great Plains to the eastern Midwest, terminating in Indiana. Its proposed route includes many miles of high-tension line in Central Illinois. As with other high-tension lines, the belt and towers would be built on private property throughout almost all its length.
Many Illinoisans do not want new high-tension “green energy” electricity lines built on or near their properties. Various stories and questions have been reported and asked about what these lines may do as they run and operate. Furthermore, an entirely separate question set has been asked about the financing package behind “Grain Belt Express,” and whether its developers have lined up the financing needed to construct the line. Under Illinois law, developers of a high-tension line that will cross private properties have to prove up their financing and provide detailed data about their customer base, prior to construction. Among other reasons, this is so that property owners are not potentially encumbered with an unfinished construction project on their properties.
The 5th District Illinois appellate court issued a unanimous decision last week in the case entitled “Concerned Citizens & Property Owners v. Illinois Commerce Commission,” stating that the proposed “Grain Belt Express” has not yet, as of August 2024, proved up its financing or future customer base at the level required to gain the right to build out over private Illinois properties. Unless this decision is reversed on appeal, this decision could halt further planning and construction of the line. Nothing in the appellate decision touched directly on the question of the consumer safety of high-tension lines, or the desirability of “green energy”; the decision concentrated on the financing elements of Illinois electricity construction law.
The Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) was one of the plaintiffs in the so-far successful “Grain Belt Express” lawsuit. The appellate decision was published on Friday, August 16.
ENVIRONMENT
Rep. Schweizer and bipartisan group of legislators work to protect safe drinking water. State Representative Brandun Schweizer has filed HB 5870 to ban any carbon sequestration activity in and around federally designated Sole Source Aquifers, including the Mahomet Aquifer. The legislation also prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing permits to any applicant that is knowingly intending to conduct any carbon sequestration activity over any sole source aquifer.
The legislation comes after Governor Pritzker signed SB 1289 late last month. The newly signed law introduces a three-step process to capture, transport, and sequester carbon. The carbon is captured from high carbon emitting areas and transported to central and southern parts of the state to be sequestered and stored in pore storage sites under the rock shale formations. The legislation fails to address drinking water protections, allowing piping and drilling in and around water sources, like the Mahomet Aquifer.
“My biggest concern with the newly signed legislation is the possible drilling in and around the Mahomet Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to my entire district and much of east-central Illinois,” said Rep. Schweizer. “I cannot be supportive of legislation that allows a region to be put at risk with possible water contamination and sequestration function failures. That is why I filed legislation in support of safe drinking water, a measure that should have been taken before the legislation was signed into law.”
Following the passage of SB 1289, Rep. Schweizer was one of twelve bipartisan, bicameral legislators that signed a letter that was sent to Gov. Pritzker. The letter emphasized the risks that carbon sequestration poses to drinking water and asked that injecting carbon waste through and under the Mahomet Aquifer be banned. Although no response came from the Governor’s office regarding the bipartisan plea, Rep. Schweizer remains dedicated to working across the aisle and fighting for stronger water protections.
EDUCATION
Some school districts adopt new policies on student cellphone use on school properties, especially within classrooms. The student cellphone policies, which will be in place for school year 2024-2025 within the districts that have adopted them, are aimed at reducing and, where possible, eliminating distracted-student behavior among learners. Many educators believe that cellphones have become impediments to learning progress, especially among students with attention-span diagnoses. The attention-span condition ADHD is a fast-growing diagnostic category among Illinois students.
For the Illinois school districts that have adopted restrictions on student cellphone use, these are policies that the districts have adopted on their own, although usually with guidance from school leadership groups. Illinois has not joined the 10 states, including Indiana, that have enacted statewide legislation to ban or restrict student cellphones on school properties. Policies regarding student cellphone use and misuse continue to be the subject of intense debate among teachers, parents, and educational professionals.