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 2019 was a busy year for the Illinois General Assembly. Between
regular session and veto session, the General Assembly passed a total of 637
bills. The governor signed all but nine of them.
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Day, Illinoisans will have to
adhere to more than 250 new laws resulting from those bills. Some of the new
laws taking effect in 2020 are beneficial for taxpayers. Some are not. Here is a
recap of the Illinois General Assembly’s good and bad bill behavior during 2019.
The good
Cook County Expungement Fee Waiver Pilot Program
Senate Bill 482, now Public Act 101-0306, creates the Cook County Expungement
Fee Waiver Pilot Program, which waives fees for expunging and sealing records
for those in Cook County who have been acquitted of a crime, had their
convictions reversed or whose charges have been dropped or dismissed.
Open Illinois Checkbook Act
House Bill 313, now Public Act 101-0212, creates the Open Illinois Checkbook,
which requires the state comptroller’s office to maintain a publicly accessible
online ledger that documents all state expenditures. The new law also requires
additional information to be published, such as salaries of employees and
graphical data.
TIF transparency
House Bill 2209, now Public Act 101-0134, requires each property tax bill to
have a list of each tax increment financing (TIF) district that property resides
in. This new law will give taxpayers more information about which TIF districts
they pay taxes to, and how much.
Local pension consolidation
Illinois has more than 640 local police and fire pension systems, which were
consolidated into two investment pools when the governor signed Senate Bill
1300, now Public Act 101-0610. While the bill could lighten the tax burden of
the many funds by boosting investment returns, the local pension systems
represent only 5.5% of the state’s public pension debt and enhancements for
newer employees were approved without knowing the costs.
The bad
Progressive tax
Though not technically a new law, this list includes state leaders’ decision to
ask voters to give them greater taxing power. They are asking voters to scrap
the state’s constitutional flat tax protection and pass a progressive income tax
amendment. Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 1 was passed by the
General Assembly during the last few days of the spring legislative session and
will be on ballots Nov. 3, 2020. If voters approve, the amendment would give
lawmakers power to divide and conquer taxpayers rather than suffering the
political fallout from raising everyone’s income taxes at once.
Lawmakers could have given voters a say in matters critical to fixing state
finances, such as desperately needed pension reform or enacting a true balanced
budget amendment. Instead, voters were only offered a $3.4 billion tax hike.
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Gas tax hike
On July 1 Illinoisans began paying 38 cents per gallon of gas,
double what the state tax was and an extra annual cost averaging
$100 per driver. Gov. J.B. Pritzker also signed Senate Bill 1939,
charging each Illinois passenger vehicle owner an extra $50 per year
for their license plate sticker.
Additionally, under Senate Bill 690, now Public Act
101-0031, Illinoisans on Jan. 1 will start paying a vehicle trade-in
sales tax on the value above $10,000. Car dealers decry the change
as double taxation, because car owners already paid sales taxes on
their vehicles when they were purchased new.
These tax and fee hikes were among 20 passed to fund Pritzker’s
record $40 billion state budget and $45 billion infrastructure plan,
both of which were in lawmakers’ hands for 12 hours before they
passed. The spending plan is at least $1.3 billion in the red and
infrastructure plan was passed without scoring the projects’ need
and with at least $1.4 billion in waste such as pickleball courts,
dog parks and renovations to a privately owned theater.
Two lawmakers who were key to moving the infrastructure bill through
the House and Senate are currently the subjects of federal
corruption investigations. State Sen. Martin Sandoval has resigned
effective Jan. 1 after already resigning chairmanship of the Senate
Transportation Committee, a position he used to get relatives jobs.
Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo resigned from the House after he was
charged with bribery.
Restricting union worker rights
Senate Bill 1784, a bill to limit public employees’ free speech
rights, was signed into law Dec. 20 by Pritzker. The law gives
unions the ability to restrict when a person may opt out of a union
and also gives unions the authority to process those requests. It
gives unions an hour with new employees but stops employers from
providing information about unions. Additionally, this law requires
employers to hand over personal information about employees to the
unions, such as email addresses and cell phone numbers.
All of these provisions create hurdles to public employees
exercising the freedoms guaranteed in June 2018 by the Janus v.
AFSCME decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. About 20,000 workers
exercised those freedoms within months to distance themselves from
public employee unions and union politics.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, lawmakers have an opportunity to make 2020 a good
year for state government reform and transparency that could save
Illinois at least $550 million a year lost to dishonesty and insider
deals.
It could also be the year Illinois voters reject the progressive
income tax scheme and lawmakers stop trying to raise more revenue
and start controlling spending. That new path for a new decade is
possible if lawmakers act to implement a constitutional amendment
that protects earned pension benefits while allowing for changes in
the growth of future, unearned benefits.
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