THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...The legislative agenda...More funding for migrant crisis...Assault weapon registry
January 18, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
The House canceled their session today. The Senate is still in at noon.
Governor Pritzker talks Early Childhood Education in Rochester near Springfield at 10 and in Peoria Heights at 12:45.
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YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Funding for migrants, Chicago school board elections on agenda as lawmakers return to Springfield (Chicago Tribune)
Funding for the ongoing migrant crisis and crafting voting logistics for Chicago’s first elected school board are among the pressing issues facing Illinois lawmakers as they return[ed] to Springfield on Tuesday for a four-month legislative session.
Adding a potentially complicating element to the session, which ends in May, is the March 19 primary, when all 118 Illinois House seats and 23 of the Illinois Senate’s 59 seats are on the ballot. Legislators are generally loath to confront controversial issues in an election year.
The primary comes less than two weeks before legislators face a self-imposed deadline to approve a new 20-district map for the first Chicago Public Schools elected board, an issue they left hanging last spring and again in the fall after Democrats who control both legislative chambers failed to reach an agreement.
Something has to get done this time around, as the school board election is set for November. At the same time, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and lawmakers have to decide how big of a role the state government should play in assisting Chicago with an even more immediate issue, the thousands of asylum-seekers who have been sent to the city by governors in Texas and other border states.
Related: Back in the Capitol: Illinois lawmakers resume business in Springfield (State Journal-Register)
What We're Watching in Springfield This Spring (The Illinoize)
Pritzker earmarks $17 million for municipalities helping asylum seekers (Daily Herald)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is planning to distribute $17 million to municipalities helping the state handle the influx of asylum seekers who are being sent here from Texas without any assistance.
The funds are part of an Illinois Department of Human Services program to help build capacity in municipalities outside of Chicago that are welcoming migrants.
Republican leaders in Texas, led by Gov. Greg Abbott, have bused or flown more than 38,000 people seeking political asylum in the U.S. to the Chicago area since 2022, Illinois officials said. Most have arrived without proper clothing or any other resources.
In recent months, busloads of asylum seekers have been dropped off at suburban train stations after Chicago officials began threatening bus companies and their drivers with arrest, fines and confiscation of vehicles if they made unscheduled stops and allowed disembarkment outside of designated “landing zones.”
Related: Gov. J.B. Pritzker says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rebuffed his plea to pause migrant transports to Chicago area during freeze (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois House speaker assembles lawmakers to recommend help for migrant crisis (Associated Press)
Texas bus company sues Chicago over migrant drop-off rules (Chicago Sun-Times)
Texas transportation company sues Chicago for migrant bus restrictions (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Too few bathrooms, roaches, fights: City can’t allow a repeat of Pilsen migrant shelter mess (Chicago Sun-Times)
Lawmakers clear path for assault weapon registration rules (Capitol News Illinois)
New permanent rules will soon go into effect spelling out how people who own assault weapons and related items that are now heavily regulated in Illinois can register them with the Illinois State Police.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted along party lines Tuesday to let the rules go into effect, ending months of negotiations and debate between supporters of the law and gun rights advocates.
“Obviously, this is an issue where there is a difference of opinion on a partisan basis, and I think you saw that play out today,” Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, a co-chair of the committee, told reporters after the meeting.
The rules are the result of an assault weapons ban that state lawmakers passed last year in the wake of a deadly mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park in 2022.
That law, known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, bans the sale, purchase, manufacture, or possession of a long list of firearms that are defined as “assault weapons,” as well as several types of attachments, large-capacity magazines and certain kinds of high-power ammunition.
Under that law, people who already owned such items before the ban took effect are allowed to keep them. But to do so legally, they were supposed to register those items with the Illinois State Police before Jan. 1.
Last fall, ISP published temporary “emergency” rules that went into effect Oct. 1, enabling people to begin filing online registrations ahead of the Jan. 1 deadline. But many gun owners, gun rights advocates, and state lawmakers pushed back against the rules, complaining that they were too vague in some areas, too complicated in others, and generally impossible to comply with.
Related: Legislators OK rules for maintaining, enforcing registry of guns covered by state ban (Chicago Tribune)
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POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Pritzker announces milestones for preschool program, industry development (Capitol News Illinois)
Illinois task force suggests policies to save local news (Crain’s Chicago Business)
'Dramatic' increase in pretrial release appeals causes high court to create task force (State Journal-Register)
As recreational cannabis sales again hit record, Illinois AG calls for federal rescheduling (Capitol News Illinois)
Illinois Humane Pet Store Law having impact with store closures. Here's what advocates say (Rockford Register Star)
New state task force aims to promote state’s Underground Railroad history (Capitol News Illinois)
Rep. Adam Niemerg to wage write-in campaign after being removed from ballot (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Lawmakers introduce bill to create state prescription drug price oversight board (Capitol News Illinois)
White Sox in ‘serious’ talks to build new stadium in South Loop’s ‘the 78’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Democratic candidates for Cook County state’s attorney ramping up fundraising (Chicago Tribune)
Bally's seeks big change to casino hotel due to 'unforeseen infrastructure issues' (Crain’s Chicago Business)
The 10 Pols Who Could Replace Dick Durbin (Chicago Magazine)
Editorial: Rising utility rates in northern Illinois are no different from tax increases. Lawmakers, follow Pritzker’s lead. (Chicago Tribune)
LaHood: It’s time for Congress to address the affordable housing crisis (Shaw Media)
Opinion: Does smell alone pass Illinois Supreme Court’s legal taste test? (Champaign News-Gazette)
Opinion: Mail-in ballots have their place, but in-person still an important tradition (Shaw Media)
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