Springfield News
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Credit rating agency Standard & Poors on Thursday said there is no longer an imminent threat of of Illinois’ credit rating falling below investment grade — and offered a glimmer of hope for a credit upgrade — if Illinois makes “sustainable progress” in improving its fiscal situation. Meanwhile, Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday visited the Quincy Veterans Home for the first time while in office, and indicated construction on a new facility will begin this year.
The Quincy Veterans Home. [State of Illinois]
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On the last day of the Fall Veto Session in 2016, lawmakers approved a controversial mashup of policies all thrown together in a bill dubbed the Future Energy Jobs Act.
The twin cooling towers of the Byron Generating Station. [Exelon]
While much of the attention at the time was focused on what some called a “bailout” of two nuclear power plants that energy giant Exelon had threatened to close, the law also required Illinois to buy increasing amounts of wind and solar power, while investing in energy efficient technologies.
In setting these benchmarks and promising more clean-energy jobs, dozens of groups jumped on board to support the bill, including utilities, labor, business and environmental groups.
But last summer, a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told Illinois — and the dozens of other states that have moved to set benchmarks to buy more clean energy — that imposing those goals interferes with the “proper operation of wholesale electricity markets.”
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Eleven years after the state banned smoking in all public places, a bill to outlaw the sale of tobacco to those younger than 21 is set to pass the Illinois Senate Thursday and make its way to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
While smoking rates had been on a downward trend for years, youth tobacco use is on the rise. [Flickr/Julie]
Pritzker has said he will sign the bill.
It’s the fourth try for a bill that has sputtered after getting halfway through the General Assembly, and last year died when former Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill and lawmakers couldn’t find enough votes in the House to override.
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In a version of Illinois government where progressive ideas are no longer a pipe dream, and the state’s own billionaire governor is the one leading the charge on measures like a $15 minimum wage and a graduated income tax, bills to lift Illinois’ ban on rent control may have a chance of getting all the way to a floor for a vote this spring.
Chicago is short nearly 120,000 affordable homes. [BRIAN KELLY / FLICKR]
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The Illinois Railsplitter Tobacco Settlement Authority, the entity created in 2010 in order to borrow against the payments made to Illinois from a historic 1998 settlement with tobacco companies, has seen major revenue growth in the last year, according to an audit sent to the General Assembly. While smoking rates had been on a downward trend for years, youth tobacco use is on the rise. [Flickr/Julie]
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State Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora) is Illinois’ newest lawmaker was sworn in last week after mentor State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) was appointed to head the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Meanwhile, Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday used a bill signing to promote his plan for a progressive tax.
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After eight weeks on the job, Gov. JB Pritzker has appointed 55 people to head up state agencies and serve on state boards and task forces.
Democrat JB Pritzker addresses the party faithful at the 2018 Illinois Democratic County Chairs' Association Breakfast. [Photo courtesy of Lee Milner]
As part of The Daily Line’s occasional series on the diversity of Pritzker’s picks for these positions, TDL found as of Friday, nearly half of these roles have been filled by women, while 38 percent of the governor’s appointees are people of color.
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Gov. JB Pritzker won progressive plaudits when he — a man worth an estimated $4 billion — backed a plan for a graduated income tax early on in his campaign for governor in 2017.
Gov. JB Pritzker proposes progressive income tax rates in his Capitol office Thursday. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
But as Pritzker claimed frontrunner status in a crowded Democratic field last year, and eventually became the party’s nominee to face off against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, everyone from journalists, Republican critics and even some within his own party began demanding that then-candidate Pritzker release a framework of progressive income tax rates.
But over and over, Pritzker refused, saying he would rather negotiate rates with the legislature than release his own rates. On Thursday, however, the wait finally ended, and the governor claimed his plan would give 97 percent of Illinois taxpayers a break.
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MAR 07, 2019
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Powerful lobbying group AARP Illinois on Wednesday unveiled a pair of bills that would provide a tax credit for family caregivers who pay out-of-pocket for home care expenses and would force nursing homes in Illinois to abide by the state’s minimum staffing requirements.
State Sen. Jacqueline Collins calls for crackdown on nursing home violations, safeguards for residents and their families. [Illinois Senate Democrats]
The measure would also curb the practice of giving nursing home patients psychotropic drugs without express permission.
