Kids no longer need permits to operate lemonade stands after Pritzker signs 50 bills into law

[July 10, 2021]  By Greg Bishop

(The Center Square) – Youth lemonade stands in Illinois will be free to operate without a permit, but not until after the new year.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed more than 50 bills Friday. He’s been working through more than 650 bills legislators passed both chambers in the spring legislative session. He’s already signed dozens he’s been sent. There’s still more than 500 bills he has to work through.

Pritzker held a signing ceremony Friday for the Teaching Equitable Asian American History, or TEAACH Act. House Bill 376 lays out that starting Jan. 1, 2022, Illinois will be the first state in the nation to require schools to teach about Asian American history.

His office later released a list of 53 other bills he approved Friday. Several of the measures impact education, others bring about various changes to certain pension provisions and policies impacting various state agencies. One will allow kids to test their entrepreneurial chops with unregulated lemonade stands, but not this summer.

Senate Bill 119 is effective Jan. 1, 2022. The measure passed unanimously and allows a lemonade stand to be operated by a person under 16 without regulation and without having to get a food permit from local public health officials.

Among other measures the governor signed, several impact schools. House Bill 120 allows student athletes to modify their uniforms in accordance with their religious or cultural preference, effective immediately.

House Bill 234 requires public high schools to have a media literacy course, effective immediately.

Hayli Martenez at her lemonade stand in Kankakee, Illinois. 

Austin Berg / The Center Square

House Bill 374 authorizes community colleges to develop affordable housing for their students, effective Jan. 1, 2022.

Effective immediately, any leftover food purchased with taxpayer funds can now be donated, under Senate Bill 189 approved Friday.

Children attending summer camp will be allowed to be administered medical cannabis infused products under House Bill 3139, effective immediately.

There were other measures approved that impact pensions like House Bill 381. Effective immediately an active downstate firefighter can transfer up to eight years of service credit from the Police Officers’ Pension Investment Fund if the member wasn’t subject to any discipline when they left the police force.

Senate Bill 167, effective immediately, gives firefighters in Tier 2 pension systems eligibility for reciprocity of creditable service in firefighter pensions.

Retired Chicago firefighters, effective immediately, can put their pensions on hold and claim occupational disability status for the purpose of care, if they meet certain requirements, under Senate Bill 307.

Senate Bill 460 requires all state and local retirement systems and pension funds to have competitive contracting for investment services, starting Jan. 1, 2022.