IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 07/26/2023
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
PENSION PLAN?
Illinois Democrats have made it a point to emphasize several positive steps which they’ve taken to stabilize and improve the state’s fiscal situation, including paying down overdue bills, funding the rainy-day fund, and putting more than statutorily required into the underfunded pension systems. These steps have earned credit ratings upgrades from Wall Street, for example.
Pensions are still consuming a big percentage of the budget and legislators are at least talking about solutions – holding a hearing last week during the summer recess which could tee up legislation for this fall or the 2024 session:
State Rep. Steven Reick told The Center Square that this is the first time since he’s been in office that a plan for addressing pensions has been formed. “We’re starting, and that is something that hasn’t been done since I’ve been in the General Assembly,” Reick said. “We’ve actually taken the bull by the horns and have started to actually make plans for how we are going to fix this thing.”
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability told the Illinois House Personnel & Pensions Committee Wednesday that the legacy of the 1995 pension ramp is a very “backloaded approach” to handling the state’s debt service. “We have a fiscal system that really can’t put the money into funding this ramp without either a tax increase, a relatively significant one, and or cutting spending on services, neither or which are sort of the best outcomes for taxpayers,” said Ralph Martire, the CTBA’s executive director.
STATE AGREES TO NEW UNION CONTRACT
The four-year contract between the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 and Pritzker’s administration is expected to cost taxpayers about $625 million, an increase of about $200 million from the previous contract, according to Pritzker spokesman Alex Gough.
ILLINOIS DELEGATION TO LONDON AND BACK
Governor JB Pritzker hosted a delegation of business and university leaders to discuss the state’s interest in electric vehicle production and other areas of mutual interest. As you might expect, all smiles from the trip and hopes for business development as a result. Immediately upon his return the Governor and other elected officials participated in a ceremony at the Lion Electric plant in Will County. Lion is producing electric school buses.
The event came on the heels of a weeklong trade mission that Pritzker led to the United Kingdom, where he and 41 other state government and business officials spent much of their time promoting Illinois’ electric vehicle industry and its clean energy initiatives.
Among the events they attended in the U.K. was the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an annual motorsports festival in southeast England, where Pritzker said the delegation met with officials from many auto manufacturing companies, including some in the EV industry.