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February 23, 2018
This Week in Illinois
CHAMBER INITIATIVES RELEASED
To view the Chamber's 2018 legislative initiatives for our policy councils, please click
here!
THIS WEEK'S LEGISLATIVE SESSION RECAP
The Senate was the only chamber in town this week.
The bill filing deadline was Friday of last week. In other words the flood of bills has finally came to a screeching halt. To view the list of the Chamber team is tracking,
please click here
. You'll notice there are initials next to each bill. These indicate the lead chamber staff for that bill.
For questions, please reach out to the corresponding staff:
For a recap of this week's legislative action, see below for two bills that may be of interest to Chamber membership:
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SB 2604 (Althoff) passed out of Senate Revenue ths week. This is a Chamber initiative to amend the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act to automatically rescind underpayment penalties on taxpayers that are more than 95% compliant. The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
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HB 4905
(G. Harris) passed out of Senate Financial Institutions this week. This bill would prohibit a consumer reporting agency from imposing a charge on a consumer for placing a freeze or removing a freeze on his or her credit reports. The
Chamber had no position.
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SB 2275 (Cunningham) passed out of the Senate Executive Committee. This bill would create the Marijuana Legalization Referendum Act by submitting a statewide, non-binding referendum questions to voters in the 2018 general election asking whether individuals support the legalization of possession and use of marijuana by those 21 and older.
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SB 2436 (Nybo) passed out of the Senate Executive Committee unanimously. This bill would amend the Liquor Control Act to allow a local liquor control commissioner to get local approval of the sale of retail liquor within 100 feet of a church, school, and hospitals (rather than getting General Assembly approval). The Chamber supports.
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SB 2543 (T. Cullerton) passed out of the Senate Government Reform Committee. This bill amends the Mosquito Abatement District Act. Provides that upon a majority vote of the board of trustees of a mosquito abatement district in favor of a proposition to annex or consolidate with another mosquito abatement district, a municipality, or a county, and if the governing authorities of the governmental unit assuming the functions of the former district agree by resolution to accept the functions. The Chamber supports.
WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT WEEK
Next week, the House and Senate return to town. Committee action has begun to ramp up. However, it is still early to determine what will move and what has only been assigned to committee. Below is a list of committees posted that may be of interest to Chamber members.
House Consumer Protection (2/27)
- HB 4081 (Halpin) would require call centers in Illinois that plan to move out of the country OR out of state to notify the state Treasurer within 120 days. Those found non-compliant would be subjected to a civil penalty of up t $10,000 per day. Chamber is opposed and plans to testify.
House Insurance: Health/Life (2/27)
- HB 4116 (Welch) a health care facility or health care practitioner shall provide a patient's records without charge if the records are being requested by the patient for use in supporting an application, claim, or appeal relating to a government benefit or program. Chamber reviewing.
- HB 4516 (Fine) amends the Insurance Code require coverage for hearing instruments and related services for all individuals under the age of 18 when a hearing care professional prescribes a hearing instrument. Chamber opposed.
House Revenue & Finance (3/1)
- On Tuesday
- HB 4220 (Bourne) Amends Enterprise Zone Act. Adds 25 enterprise zones and modify scoring process on zoning applications.
- HB 4269 (Olsen) provides that a proof of purchase receipt issued by a retailer for motor fuel shall contain the pre-tax sale price of a gallon of motor fuel in addition to an itemized publication of any local, State, or federal tax imposed on the motor fuel.
- HB 4563 (Breen) This bill is designed to provide a way to work around the federal $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction.
- HB 4680 (Welch) The bill provides that beginning January 1, 2019, a municipality may impose a self-assessing purchaser tax rate of the lower of 2.4 cents per therm or 5% of the purchase price for the privilege of using in the municipality gas obtained in a purchase of out-of-state gas. Provides that, in the alternative, a purchaser may elect for a tax of 2.4 cents per therm that a delivering supplier maintaining a place of business in the State collects from the purchaser. Chamber opposed.
House Consumer Protection (2/27)
- HB 4275 (Andrade) Amends the Physical Fitness Services Act to increase the cap in which a fitness club may charge for a membership to $6,500 (from $2,500).
House Labor & Commerce (2/28)
- HB 4324 (Welch) Creates the Wage Lien Act to allow for the creation of a lien on an employer's property for the amount of unpaid wages owed to an employee. Chamber opposed.
- HB 4595 (Fine) creates a state -run workers' compensation company. Same bill as the Governor vetoed last year (HB 2525). Chamber opposed.
House State Government (2/28)
- HB 4363 (Jimenez) amends the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. Provides that any contractor awarded a contract under the Act shall be required to make periodic reports to the contracting State agency on all expenditures made to achieve compliance with the Act. Chamber opposed.
- HB 4574 and HB 4575 (Hoffman) amend the Procurement of Domestic Products Act. The package legislation would allow U.S. and Illinois products to cost up to 12 percent more. Design and final assembly would be in the state or the nation, and components would have to be at least 50 percent American. Pharmaceuticals would be excluded. Low-quality domestic products could be excluded. The Chamber opposes both.
House Environment (2/27)
- HB 4569 (Parkhurst) Amends the Gasoline Storage Act. Provides that each facility used for: (i) agricultural purposes at an agriculture site; (ii) refueling construction equipment at a construction site; or (iii) parking, operating, or maintaining a commercial vehicle fleet may store up to 12,000 gallons of any single type of fuel for dispensing in aboveground storage tanks that are constructed of steel, made vapor tight, and outside of buildings. Chamber reviewing.
House Executive (2/28)
- HB 5498 (Feigenholtz) Amends the Illinois Human Rights Act. Provides that within 300 calendar days (instead of 180 days) after the date that a civil rights violation, other than a violation concerning a real estate transaction, allegedly has been committed, a charge in writing under oath or affirmation may be filed with the Department of Human Rights by an aggrieved party or issued by the Department itself under the signature of the Director of Human Rights. Chamber has concerns, looking to work with sponsor.
Senate Judiciary (2/27)
- SB 3007 (Raoul) amends the state's data breach notification statute to require a data collector to report data breaches of more than 100 Illinois residents to the Attorney General within 14 days. The AG must then report annually to the General Assembly of specified information concerning data breaches on an annual basis. The Chamber is opposed to the bill as is but has indicated to the sponsor a willingness to work on an amendment.
Senate Labor (2/28)
- SB 2480 (Hastings) will have the effect of requiring all construction and maintenance work at privately owned petroleum refineries and petrochemical facilities within the state to be exclusively performed by members of certain trade unions. It requires a certain percentage of all workers to have successfully completed apprenticeship training. It requires advanced safety training regulated by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Chamber opposed.
- SB 2999 (Van Pelt) Amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act to require an employer to reimburse an employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee directly related to services performed for the employer.
Senate State Government (2/28)
- SB 2279 (Murphy) Amends the Illinois Procurement Code. Provides that neither the State of Illinois nor an agency thereof shall enter into a contract, nor shall a contract be awarded, if there is not, prior to entering into such contract, an appropriation enacted for the funding of that contract. Chamber opposes.
Senate Public Heath
- SB 2334 (Murphy) would require that every hospital in the state to maintain a metal detector at every point of entry into a hospital (excluding emergency entry). Chamber opposes. We believe we have this bill defeated.
Senate Transportation (2/27)
- SB 2568 (McGuire) Allows for a waste hauler providing disaster assistance in the State to be relieved of the compliance concerning hours of service during a 14-day period after the governor declares a disaster. Chamber supports.
- SB 2641 (Munoz) provides that a rental car company may void a damage waiver if damage or loss occurs to the rental vehicle when the rental vehicle is stolen and the renter fails to: (i) return the rental vehicle's ignition key and key tag identifying the rental vehicle to the rental company; (ii) file a police report within the 24-hour period after discovery of the rental vehicle theft; and (iii) fully cooperate with the rental company, law enforcement agency, or any other authority in all matters connected to the investigation of the stolen rental vehicle. Chamber supports.
Senate Revenue (2/28)
- SB 2577 (Castro) Amends the Use Tax Act and the Service Use Tax Act. Provides that, if a retailer or serviceman makes a sale to purchaser in Illinois from outside of Illinois, then that retailer or serviceman is considered to be "maintaining a place of business in this State" if (1) the cumulative gross receipts from sales of service to purchasers in Illinois are $150,000 or more; or (2) the retailer or serviceman enters into 200 or more separate transactions for sales of service to purchasers in Illinois.
Senate Telecommunications (3/1)
- SB 3053 (Cunningham) is an initiative of the Illinois Chamber. This bill would exempt employers from the state's biometric statute for internal employment purposes if they are not using that information for commercial purposes.
SAVE THE DATE: CHAMBER DAY 2018
Primary and gubernatorial politics are shaping the policy debate in Springfield and will have lasting implications on the business community. On April 11th, join us in our first ever Chamber Day - an advocacy effort to let lawmakers know we must be heard in any major policy decision impacting Illinois employers. This new event will combine our local chamber summit and the Chamber's traditional lobby day to better show our strength in numbers.
If you are ready, you can register TODAY by clicking here.
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