IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 09/06/2023
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
ILLINOIS TREASURER LAUNCHES INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
IVCA members familiar with the Technology Development Account/Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund will recognize many of the features of the Illinois FIRST Fund:
“The FIRST Fund is a first-of-its kind, $1.5 billion impact investment fund dedicated to building and strengthening Illinois’ infrastructure and real estate. For every $1 the FIRST Fund invests in a fund, the investment fund is required by law to invest $2 in Illinois projects. Additionally, FIRST Fund also should attract additional investors to bridge the gap between infrastructure demand and capital investment to repair crumbling bridges and streets across Illinois.
“Treasurer Frerichs proposed the Infrastructure Development Act that created the FIRST Fund and worked with state lawmakers to pass it in 2021. The law allows the State Treasurer to allocate up to 5% of the state portfolio to invest in, create, and maintain infrastructure and real estate assets within the state through Illinois infrastructure development firms.”
(Treasurer Press Release)
The FIRST Fund is being advised by Rock Creek Group.
CHICAGO TREASURER HIT WITH COMPLAINT
The Chicago Tribune finally succeeded in gaining access to a whistleblower letter asserting irregularities in the office of City Treasurer Conyers Ervin:
“One example was the Treasurer’s attempts to force BMO Harris, one of the City’s depository institutions and securities brokers, to give a mortgage to a third party on a building in which her husband maintains his aldermanic office,” the letter stated. “To use the Treasurer’s words, the instruction was to ‘leverage’ the City’s banking relationship (meaning the fact that the City maintains hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits) to get a mortgage on the building.”
A spokesman from BMO Harris declined to comment last week. Ald. Jason Ervin also declined to comment through a spokesman.
ILLINOIS COMMITTEE CONTINUES PENSION WORK
This morning an Illinois House Committee on Personnel and Pensions
continued hearing proposals to address the unfunded pension liability and legislative changes already made by the state which may have unintended consequences. Next edition we will include more details on what was proposed and discussed.
The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Civic Committee of the Commercial Club has advice for the committee:
We agree this issue needs to be addressed. But in doing so, we urge the General Assembly to stick with the simplest, most cost-effective fix for the safe harbor compliance issue: changing the Tier 2 pensionable salary cap to match the pay cap used to determine Social Security benefits, known as the Social Security Wage Base (SSWB). Making this one change would ensure Tier 2 is permanently compliant with federal regulations without substantially adding to pension costs because not all employees will retire with a pensionable salary at or above the SSWB. The model of this approach was taken by Cook County in HB 2352, which was recently signed into law.
Here’s the roster of the committee:
HOUSE LEADERS IN MIDDLE EAST
The political calendar does indeed pick up after Labor Day, and soon state officials who want to be on the ballot again in March will be out with petition sheets gathering enough signatures to qualify for a spot on the primary ballot.
A group of Illinois House leaders led by Speaker Chris Welch have been in Israel and Palestine. Among the attendees are IVCA supporters Majority Leader Robyn Gabel and State Rep. Bob Morgan.
DEMMER WON’T RUN AGAIN
State Senator Will Stoller announced recently he won’t run for re-election, leading to speculation that former State Rep. Tom Demmer, who was a candidate for Treasurer in November of 2022, might jump into the race. Demmer today said he’s staying in the private sector at least for now.