Legislation ONE Northside Led On:
SB1353 #RaisethePNA (Sen. Steans/Sen. Collins/Rep. Sims/Rep. Feigenholtz/Rep. Gabel)—Increases the personal needs allowance (PNA) to $60/month (from $30/month) for people living in Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Facilities (SMHRFs) and facilities licensed under the ID/DD Community Care Act, the Community-Integrated Living Arrangements Licensure and Certification Act, or the MC/DD Act for whom payments are made throughout a month. This is the first increase in Illinois since 1987 for people living with mental illness! Passed the Senate and the House!
HB4004 Close Corporate Tax Loopholes Bill(Rep. Guzzardi)—With our partners in Fair Economy IL, we introduced this bill that closes 9 key corporate tax loopholes in Illinois which would bring in $924,000,000 of revenue to the IL state budget. We were able to get the bill introduced and gained 25 co-sponsors, but currently it is stuck in the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives.
Legislation ONE Northside Supported Allies On:
SB81 $15 Minimum Wage(Sen. Lightford/Rep. Guzzardi)—The IL State Legislature passed a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour in Illinois! Shout out to our friend and allies at Fight for $15, SEIU and Grassroots Collaborative. Passed the Senate and the House!
HB3871 Payment Prioritization (Rep. Martwick)—Legislation to prioritize paying for human services and education before Wall Street banks. Passed the House Executive Committee. Bill has been granted an extension to June 30th to be passed.
Other Noteworthy Legislation from Our Allies’ Efforts:
SB31 Illinois Trust Act (Sen. Cullerton /Rep. Hernandez /Rep. Welch)—Legislation to provide protection for Illinois immigrant communities. Passed the Senate and the House.
SB1933 Automatic Voter Registration (Sen. Steans/Sen. Biss/Rep. Feigenholtz)—Makes our voter rolls cleaner and more inclusive. It would also streamline the process of voter registration while taking the burden off the backs of eligible voter. Passed the House and the Senate.
HB1774 Elected Representative School Board (Rep. Martwick/Sen. Raoul)—Legislation to give control of the Chicago School Board back to the people of Chicago. Passed the House and the Senate.
SB1719 Closing the Carried Interest Tax Loophole (Rep. Welch/Sen. Biss)—Legislation that will close the expensive carried interest tax loophole in Illinois. Passed the Senate and is currently being considered as a revenue option in the House budget negotiations.
HB3213 Restoring Childcare Assistance for Low-Income Students (Rep. Wallace/Sen. Aquino/Sen. Biss)—Legislation to restore the cuts made to the childcare assistance program. Passed the House and the Senate.
SB 453 Educate Don’t Incarcerate (Sen. Lightford/Rep. Welch/Rep. Cassidy)—Limits school based arrests to truly serious offenses that threaten school safety, passed out of Senate and is awaiting a second House vote by June 30.
HB 3817 Automatic Expungement of Juvenile Arrests (Rep. Nekritz/Sen. Hastings)—Provides for automatic expungement of juvenile arrests not resulting in a finding of delinquency and expungement of records of juvenile delinquency adjudication for qualifying offenses two years after a case is closed. Passed the House and the Senate.
HB3803 (Sen. Steans/Rep. Cassidy)—Replaces a statute that provided an unnecessary hurdle for returning citizens to reintegrate back into their communities. Persons on parole could be sent back to prison for doing something as simple as getting a ride to work with an uncle who happened to be in a gang. This bill makes it so that participating in gang activity is a parole violation, but simply being around members of your community is not. Passed the House and the Senate.
HB3142 (Sen. McGuire/Rep. Wheeler)—Removes the felony questions from college applications. Allows public colleges to inquire about criminal history for certain purposes after the admission decision making process, and forbids public colleges from rescinding an admissions offer based on the information. Passed House and will go to veto session in the fall.
HB3712(Sen. Van Pelt/Rep. Mayfield)—Says Department of Corrections will provide educational and visitation opportunities to committed persons within its institutions through temporary access to content-controlled tablets that may be provided as a privilege to committed persons to induce or reward compliance. Passed the House and the Senate.