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Committee OKs bill expanding use of campaign funds for child,
elder care
Danielle D'Alessandro, executive director at Illinois Craft
Brewers Guild, testified before the Senate Executive Committee
on Wednesday in support of a bill that would allow brewers to
sell and distribute mead. (Credit: Blueroomstream.com)
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Bill allowing brewers to sell mead also gains committee approval
Senate Bill 536 would amend the state election code to allow
candidates to spend political committee funds on part-time or
full-time child care or dependent elder home care expenses, as
long as those expenses are “necessary for fulfillment of
political, governmental or public policy duties, activities or
purposes,” the bill states.
The bill would also apply to candidates running for political
office, as well as officeholders, campaign staff or volunteers.
Sen. Melinda Bush, a Democrat from Grayslake who sponsored SB
536, said the measure “helps us level the playing field for
people that want to run for office, and maybe don't have the
financial wherewithal to cover those childcare, and eldercare
expenses.”
“How this started really is as the byproduct of traveling around
the state,” Bush told the Senate Executive Committee, noting she
talked to many women who “felt as if it was prohibited to run
for office” because they were caring for children or elderly
relatives and “there was no way to cover the cost of that.”
Bush said a similar measure was approved last session by the
Senate but was not taken up for a vote in the state House of
Representatives. Unlike the bill introduced last session, SB 536
includes covering the expenses for elder home care.
“Of course, many people do have a responsibility to take care of
someone who may be a family member, and we felt we should be
adding that also,” Bush said.
Bush said she agreed to put forward a Senate floor amendment
that would “tighten up the language a bit so that it reflects
the same as the (Federal Election Commission).”
The bill passed out of the Senate Executive committee with 14
members voting yes, and only Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford,
voting no.
Syverson said he wanted to see the details of the amendment
before voting yes.
Mead brewers
The committee also advanced a bill that would enable breweries
in the state to sell mead, an alcoholic beverage produced by
fermenting honey.
Republican Sen. Jason Barickman, of Bloomington, said he
sponsored Senate Bill 297 in response to one his constituents,
Brian Galbreath, who owns Unpossible Mead in Dwight and is
unable to grow his business without an amendment to the state
Liquor Control Act.
The bill amends the Liquor Control Act to define mead, which was
previously not defined under state law, as a type of honey wine,
and to include mead as one of the alcoholic products that
breweries can sell to customers and other distributors.
Danielle D'Alessandro, executive director at Illinois Craft
Brewers Guild, said this bill would apply to the fewer than 10
existing meaderies in the state.
In her testimony before the committee, D’Alessandro said SB 297
would provide these few meaderies with the ability to sell
directly to breweries and to their retail consumers, both of
which are not allowed under the current law.
“It would just be a natural extension for brewers to offer that
product,” she said of mead being included in the state Liquor
Control Act.
The bill unanimously passed to the Senate floor.
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news service covering state government and distributed to more
than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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