IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 01/31/2024
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
LEGISLATURE MEETS NEXT WEEK
Hundreds of bills are being filed in the Illinois General Assembly in advance of the Friday, February 9 deadline for filling new legislation. Many of them are quite frankly “message” bills or measures which are intended to create conversation, discussion, though perhaps not actual policy. Others resolve relatively minor, local issues or modernize some portion of a longstanding stature. Some will be morphed into omnibus measures dealing with specific topics, such as Medicaid, insurance coverage, or other broad topics. The legislature has established a mid-May deadline for completing its work with a few days at the end of the month for cushion if need be.
As 2024 is an election year, the pace of the legislature will be slower until after the March primary elections, and after the governor delivers his budget/state of the state message February 21. Policy makers are evaluating a host of topics, including whether to assist the Chicago Bears and/or the Chicago White Sox with new stadiums.
Policy makers will also keep a close eye on the revenue picture for the state as the inevitable tug of war takes places between legislators and advocates who want more, or new money spent on specific challenges and the reality of a potential budget deficit, combined with the necessity of making pension payments and other obligations which account for a significant portion of the budget from the very start.
MIGRANT CRISIS ACCELERATES
The responsibility of caring for people being sent to Illinois from Texas and in other circumstances creates a human crisis which must be acknowledged and addressed. It is also source of tension in policy circles, between City Hall, the Governor, and the Illinois legislature.
CITY / STATE STRUGGLE ON MIGRANT RESPONSE
“(Migrants) expect to be arriving not in Elmhurst, not in the suburbs, but in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event. “We’re providing resources to other jurisdictions … but the majority part of what’s necessary needs to be in the city.” But the governor downplayed any tensions between the city and state over the migrant crisis, saying senior staffers from his office and from Johnson’s administration, as well as from Cook County, are working together and meet “every day.” “We’re getting a lot done,” Pritzker said. “There are disagreements, and sometimes those leak into the public. But the reality is, we all understand our responsibilities here, and it is to have a humanitarian response to a humanitarian crisis.”
“After saying for generations that we don’t have enough money to deal with real and similar issues affecting people here in the state, there’s no way we could advance an appropriation bill that dealt only with the newly arrived migrants,” said Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, echoing concerns that have been raised by some members of the legislature’s Black Caucus.
Republican Senate legislative Leader Senator John Curran wrote an op-ed taking the governor among others to task for how the situation has unfolded:
MIGRANT CRISIS SELF-CREATED: SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER
This isn’t an argument about the value of immigration and the role it has played in building the United States of America. It’s a question of reality, of management and of what our already overtaxed residents can afford. The people of Illinois cannot afford the misplaced priorities, radical policies and grandiose promises of a governor seeking attention on the national stage.
FEDERAL PROSECUTORS SEEK HARD TIME FOR FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF
In a sentencing memo filed Monday, the government asked a federal judge to sentence Mapes to between 51 and 63 months in prison following his conviction last August on charges of making false declarations and attempted obstruction of justice.
ILLINOIS VOTERS HAVE THEIR CHOICE
TRUMP-BIDEN ON ILLINOIS BALLOT
The election board’s decision followed the recommendation of a hearing officer, former Republican Kankakee County Circuit Judge Clark Erickson, who said that while he agreed with objectors that Trump had engaged in “insurrection,” the board could not use constitutional analysis to make a ruling on the former president’s access to the ballot.