IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 10/18/2023
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
LEGISLATIVE LEADERS KEEP LID ON BUDGET
Illinois lawmakers return to Springfield next week for the first of two weeks of Veto Session. Despite appeals from the Mayor of Chicago and elsewhere, legislative and the governor have decided against advancing a supplemental budget to address the crisis of migrant and refugee families coming to Chicago.
“We are providing services and dollars on top of what cities do, and in the city of Chicago, as you may know, we’ve already spent more than $300 million to support asylum seeker shelters,” Pritzker said. Just last week, the governor said he would not have any extra funds for Chicago.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, said lawmakers are talking with Chicago officials, but do not to expect supplemental spending to be approved during veto session. “I made it clear we were not expecting to do a supplemental appropriation during veto session,” Welch said Thursday.
MIGRANT POLICY / MIDDLE EAST WAR IMPACTS ILLINOIS POLITICS
One voice in Illinois politics which everyone IN politics listens to is the publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter, Rich Miller, a keen observer who also spends a lot of time in the Capitol building and out in the field at events etc., making his observations are more informed than some who haven’t seen a legislative session up close in a long time. Miller remarked recently:
WE ARE SPIRALING Deep rifts have developed in the governing Democratic Party here during the past few months the likes of which I do not think I have ever seen before. (Miller, Capitol Fax, October 16)
“The last week+ has left me in a deep deep mourning,” Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago) posted on one of his social media accounts yesterday. The progressive champion Peters is both Black and Jewish. He’s found himself caught in the middle of the rancorous and divisive arguments ever since Israel was invaded and began counter-attacking. Peters signed the Illinois Legislative Jewish Caucus letter vowing support for Israel, then signed the progressive letter which proclaimed, “We will not be able to achieve peace when millions of Palestinians are denied basic human rights,” and then issued his own statement condemning Hamas’ brutality while calling for an end to Palestinian oppression. (Capitol Fax, October 16)
Rep. Bob Morgan of Highland Park writes this morning in the Chicago Tribune:
Israelis are experiencing unimaginable and inhumane attacks. There is only one appropriate response: unequivocal and universal condemnation of these acts of terrorism by Hamas. There is no room for whataboutism or any sentiment of “both sides” when it comes to terrorism. And yet, too many leaders in our state and country have failed to meet this moment. Even worse, some have gathered to celebrate the killings and cheer on Hamas in the false narrative of liberation or human rights.
GOVERNOR VOWS VETO ON TRANSACTION TAX
Proposals to apply a tax to transactions at the Chicago trading platforms have been around for a decade or more, never very seriously making headway in the General Assembly. Whenever legislation is introduced or when the trial-balloon is floated, the CME and BOT leaders suggest it could drive them from the City and State of Illinois. In legislative reality, there has never been much support for passing such a measure. Any legislator can introduce a bill on any topic. That’s a far cry from getting the bill assigned to committee, passed through the process, and sent to the Governor’s desk.Governor Pritzker recently popped the latest trial balloon:
ILLINOIS POPULATION TREND
A healthy debate rages over whether state policy on taxes or other issues is driving people to move away from Illinois or keeping them from coming into the state. A recent study offered some insight:
Illinois is becoming less rural, more educated, more foreign-born, and higher-paid, according to a new analysis of migration patterns.