THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Ethics, guns, and the Bears, oh my...
May 15, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Hold on to your wallets, it’s the final week of the legislative session.
Brandon Johnson’s inauguration as Mayor begins at 10:30 this morning. Governor Pritzker will be there. The House and Senate gavel in at 5pm.
We told subscribers Friday there was an effort to oust Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy at the state central committee Saturday. That effort failed Saturday. We’ll have more for subscribers on it either later today or in tomorrow’s newsletter.
Which, by the way, is a good reminder to tell you being a subscriber is the way to get the latest news, insights, and opinions. You should join us. It’ll be fun.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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House passes bill to bar officials convicted of corruption from holding public office (Capitol News Illinois)
The Illinois House passed a bill Friday that would bar anyone convicted of a felony, bribery, perjury or misuse of public funds while serving as a public official from ever being elected to a state or local office again.
That measure was introduced as an amendment to House Bill 351 on Thursday and moved quickly through the House Ethics and Elections Committee Friday morning with bipartisan support. It then went to the House floor where it passed 106-0.
Current law bars anyone convicted of a felony from holding a state office until they’ve completed their sentence. And a provision of the Illinois Municipal Code bars anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony from holding an elected municipal office.
But those people are free to run for the General Assembly, governor or any other constitutional office once they’ve completed their sentence.
“I think it's important to note that Illinois is the only state in the nation that bars an individual from running for office based on the office sought, as opposed to the crime committed,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago.
Former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich was barred from running for state or local office in Illinois after his impeachment in 2009, but the ban was specific to him.
HB 351 would allow exceptions for people whose convictions have been reversed, if they are restored the right to run by terms of a pardon, if they’ve received a restoration of rights by the governor or their rights are otherwise restored by law.
It also calls for setting up a task force to review current laws and policies about disqualification standards and make recommendations as to what criminal conduct should preclude an individual from holding public office.
The measure comes less than two weeks after the conclusion of the “ComEd Four” trial in which four former officials of Commonwealth Edison were convicted of engaging in a yearslong scheme to bribe former House Speaker Michael Madigan. They were convicted of giving lobbying contracts and no-work jobs to Madigan allies in exchange for favorable legislation in Springfield.
Madigan himself is scheduled to go on trial starting April 1, 2024, on racketeering charges related to his dealings with ComEd as well as his similar alleged dealings with AT&T Illinois, which agreed to pay a $23 million fine in a deferred prosecution agreement in October. Madigan is also accused of improperly wielding his power as both House speaker and head of the state’s Democratic Party to enrich himself via his real estate law firm.
Related: Editorial: It's long past time to enact ethical reforms (Champaign News-Gazette)
Opinion: Quinn’s ethics proposals are detailed, but don’t address punishment (Shaw Media)
Sheriff Tom Dart calls for more funding to recover guns from owners whose gun licenses were revoked (Chicago Sun-Times)
Nearly 30,000 Cook County residents have had their license to own a gun revoked but never turned over their weapons, and state lawmakers must provide more funding for police agencies to recover the firearms, Sheriff Tom Dart said at a news conference Friday.
Standing beside a table covered with some of the more than 1,000 firearms sheriff’s deputies have taken from residents who lost their Firearm Owners Identification cards, Dart on Friday called on state lawmakers to more than quadruple the $2 million in funding available for local departments for FOID card enforcement.
After acts of gun violence occur in the news, “people ask, and rightfully so, where are all these guns coming from? Who has these guns? Where are they?” Dart said. “What if I were to tell you we in law enforcement, we actually know where thousands of them are, illegal guns. We know who has them. We know their address.”
Among the 27,000 Cook County residents whose FOID cards have been voided are 1,863 people who have been deemed a “clear and present danger” to public safety; 5,368 who have been judged to have a serious mental illness; and 5,700 who were required to surrender their firearms because of a protective order, Dart said.
Legislation setting aside the $2 million for FOID enforcement in 2019 was part of reforms to gun laws enacted after a mass shooting at the Henry Pratt manufacturing plant in Aurora. Gary Martin, whose FOID card had been revoked, brought a gun with him the day he was fired from Pratt and shot and killed five of his co-workers. The Cook County Sheriff’s Department receives $700,000 of that total, but Dart suggested $8 million to $10 million statewide would be necessary to make a dent in the growing list of FOID revocations.
Dart’s department in 2013 created a seven-officer Gun Suppression Team that spends the bulk of its time tracking down FOID violators and making the often tense trips to collect the weapons. In the last 10 years, the team has worked 7,000 cases and recovered more than 1,000 guns.
Related: Federal appeals court in Chicago sets June hearing on two cases challenging state ban on assault-style weapons (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Too many Chicagoans witness gun violence. Stop flooding our city and nation with firearms. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois legislators take another stab at Bears’ Arlington Heights stadium legislation with just a week to go in session (Chicago Tribune)
With one week remaining in the Illinois legislature’s spring session, a revised version of proposed legislation to aid the Chicago Bears’ move to Arlington Heights has surfaced in Springfield.
Like the previous proposal, the new bill would freeze the property tax assessment on the former Arlington International Racecourse, where the Bears have proposed a new stadium as part of a $5 billion mixed-use development, and create a $3 admission tax to help pay off debt incurred to fund renovations of Soldier Field two decades ago.
Among the changes in the new bill are a restructured oversight board that would approve incentive agreements with the Bears. The bill would make state lawmakers nonvoting members of the panel, and also removes language that would have given the board zoning authority over the site.
The latest version also tweaks a proposal to share revenue generated on the site from state sales tax, hotel tax and liquor taxes and a new 3% surcharge on sports betting revenue, which was intended to help Arlington Heights and surrounding communities pay for infrastructure improvements.
The new setup would add Schaumburg to the list of beneficiaries and would change the payout percentages so that Arlington Heights would get 30% of the revenue; Palatine and Rolling Meadows each would get 14%; and Cook County, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg and Wheeling would each get 6%.
Democratic state Rep. Marty Moylan of Des Plaines said the new bill, filed Wednesday, reflects negotiations that have taken place since he filed a measure last month. That proposal caught some local officials and fellow lawmakers off guard.
“We’ve listened to what stakeholders had to say, what they’re concerned about, what issues there were, and we made some adjustments,” Moylan said Friday. “We want to be proactive.”
Related: Bears and school districts reportedly squabble over proposed property taxes (Crain’s Chicago Business)
SOME TOP LINKS FROM LAST WEEK
Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy Faces Potential Ouster Saturday (UPDATE: The effort failed Saturday, we’ll have more for subscribers)
Rep. Mary Flowers Removed from House Leadership, Banned From Caucus Meetings
Illinois GOP to Weigh Making Endorsements in Statewide Primaries
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Pharmacists can now dispense birth control in Illinois (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Crisis pregnancy centers could face legal action under measure poised for Pritzker’s signature (Capitol News Illinois)
As Illinois explores psilocybin bill, Evanston blocks local proposal (Chicago Tribune)
Child social media stars have few protections. Illinois aims to fix that (Associated Press)
Uber warns Democrats, mayor-elect if tougher ride-share rules pass problems might arise, especially during next year’s DNC (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Supreme Court considers whether a fetus can be a ‘victim’ of murder (Capitol News Illinois)
More than 1,200 beds from McCormick Place COVID-19 temporary hospital go unused amid immigrant housing crisis (Chicago Sun-Times)
Jail inmates in need of psychiatric care waiting months for state action (Bloomington Pantagraph)
He used to do business with reputed mob figures. Now, he’s licensed by the Illinois Gaming Board. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois Medicaid and SNAP beneficiaries' personal info leaked in data breach (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Ron DeSantis assails Illinois policies and 'woke' ideals during Peoria speech (Peoria Journal Star)
DeSantis' 'Florida blueprint' plays with Illinois Republicans at Peoria speech (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Editorial: Hospitals make a valid case for first Medicaid rate increase in 28 years (Daily Herald)
Editorial: Three bills addressing fentanyl scourge worth passing (Daily Herald)
Buckner: Candidate Lightfoot and Mayor Lightfoot were on opposite ends of many fights (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Legal cannabis sales starting to simmer (Champaign News-Gazette)
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