Springfield News
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The Illinois Senate Democrats and Illinois House Republicans on Tuesday each named two members to serve on a commission charged with studying the ways in which Illinois can strengthen its ethics laws for both legislators and lobbyists created by a resolution passed during the waning hours of the legislature’s fall Veto Session last week.
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State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago)
In the waning hours of the legislature’s fall Veto Session Thursday evening, lawmakers voted on a gaming bill — but not the one requested by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot that would have lowered the effective tax rate on a future Chicago casino.
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The Department of Children and Family Services will develop new guidelines for the use of “soft restraints” while contractors shuttle youth in care from one location to another, after media reports earlier this month revealed some foster children had been shackled and handcuffed on long drives.
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Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) will retire from the Senate in January after four decades in the General Assembly, the Democrat announced Thursday evening, telling members of the Senate Democratic caucus after the chamber adjourned the last day of the legislature’s fall Veto Session.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) fields questions from reporters. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
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Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday heralded the passage of a bill that would partially consolidate the state’s 649 downstate and suburban police and firefighter pension funds into two statewide funds with a goal of increasing investment returns on pooled assets. Meanwhile, a bill the governor had came out in strong support of during the first week of fall Veto Session failed to advance in the Senate.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s full-court press to pass a bill designed to make a Chicago casino financially feasible failed to get any sort of vote Thursday, complicating the city’s financial future.
Lightfoot said in a statement that she was “disappointed” that the bill never came together, and vowed to try again in January — warning lawmakers that the state’s capital bill relies on revenue from a Chicago casino.
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Any ethics measures the General Assembly might pass to police lawmakers’ and lobbyists’ activities in the midst of an ever-growing federal corruption probe touching Chicago, Springfield and beyond have been pushed off until Thursday — the last day legislators are scheduled to be in session for the rest of 2019. Meanwhile, a bill to fix the way in which sales tax is collected from online retailers is on its way to full passage, and a ban on flavored e-cigarettes passed a Senate committee Wednesday, but won’t make it through the full General Assembly before the end of session.
