Illinois veto session set for week after election

[November 01, 2024]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – With all eyes on Tuesday’s election, some are already thinking about upcoming Illinois legislation sessions.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he has a legislative agenda, but doesn’t expect much until the new General Assembly is seated in January.

“Lots of agenda. Not necessarily for the veto session,” Pritzker said at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield Monday.

Typically, veto session is where legislators consider acting on vetoes from the governor, to which there haven’t been any this year of the 469 bills legislators approved.

Legislation to address Illinois’ Tier II pension benefits to conform with Social Security limits has been discussed for months. State Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, told the Better Government Association that’s a tall order to tackle.

“Well it’s like, ‘oh, we can get it done.’ There’s an election in November. ‘OK, so after the election,’ well no, then we’ll be at veto and you can’t really do it while you’re there so we’ll get past veto and then we’ll start working on it,” Martwick said Oct. 15. “‘Oh wait, that next week is Thanksgiving and then it’s Thanksgiving to Christmas and we can work on it after Christmas before New Year’s.’ We’re supposed to be in lame duck in early January. So, there’s not a lot of time.”

One thing that could come up are changes to oversight of the film tax credit, Illinois Film Office Deputy Director Peter Hawley told the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.

The Illinois State Capitol
Greg Bishop / The Center Square

“We saw some potential bad actors taking advantage of the program so we put this rule in place,” Hawley told JCAR Oct. 1. “Our rule included caps on above the line salary and caps to related party transactions.”

For other issues, gun control groups are pushing for legislation increasing standards around safe firearm storage and lost and stolen provisions.

Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, wants the Legislative Audit Commission to approve an audit of a taxpayer-funded child welfare operation in Chicago when it meets next month.

“I think it’s very important that we get a full, robust investigation of all the facts and allegations,” Curran said.

The election is Nov. 5. Veto session begins Nov. 12.

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