IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 07/31/2024
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
STATE FAIR AND DNC
Illinois Democrats are gearing up for a few days of festivities at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield in mid-August, with a quick pivot to the DNC coming to Chicago a few days later. The City of Chicago and State of Illinois have held briefings recently to address the security and transportation highlights and have asserted they are ready for the protests and for the influx of visitors to Chicago. The Illinois General Assembly has been in recess since late May and is not scheduled to return to the Illinois Capitol until Veto Session in November.
ILLINOIS HITS BIG ON QUANTUM
The U.S. Steel South Works complex has stood for decades as a reminder of what was and what could be in the eyes of many Chicago residents and Illinois policy makers. A massive tract of land on the lake with a meaningful past – what would be the next iteration for South Works? Residences, mixed use light industrial, many different proposals have been floated without ever setting sail. It appears now the answer is the site will be home to a quantum computing campus which the state and Illinois university partners believe will put Illinois at the forefront of the industry:
BEARS NOT SO MUCH?
At the same time Governor Pritzker recently punted the ball back to the Bears and pinned them deep in their own territory with a statement which seemed to leave very little room for the football team to advance its goal of a new stadium built with state support:
* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker says it would be ‘near impossible’ to get Bears stadium deal done this fall: “I made it clear to the Bears leadership that it would be near impossible to get anything done — if there was a proposal put on the table that could get done, you couldn’t actually get it done, probably, during the veto session and would have to wait until next spring,” Pritzker said, referring to the year’s final legislative session in November, during an unrelated news conference in Chicago. “But in reality, there isn’t a proposal on the table right now that would be acceptable to anyone that I know in the legislature,” he continued.
ALL EYES ON MADIGAN TRIAL
Illinois’ political and policy establishment will be consumed by the trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, if, and when, it happens. The federal government has charged the former speaker and several associates with public corruption charges which have been cast in doubt by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The government replied to the ruling and to defense counsel arguments recently to say the trial must go on:
Sun-Times | Feds swat argument that Supreme Court saves Madigan: ‘This dog will not hunt’: Prosecutors wrote that “Madigan accepted a stream of more than $700,000 in benefits from ComEd over the course of eight years, knowing the payments were made to influence and reward Madigan’s official action with regard to legislation that impacted ComEd’s financial interests.” They wrote that the Supreme Court’s Snyder decision “did not discuss, and certainly does not disturb, the continued viability of bribery prosecutions that target ‘schemes that involve a stream of benefits over time, not just singly negotiated deals,’ where the government can establish an intent to engage in a quid pro quo.”
ILLINOIS BUDGET DETAIL
Where is the state spending its billions? Explained in detail here: