This update is the second in a two-part series on the legislation that passed during the 2022 Illinois General Assembly session. This part covers a suite of bills to support law enforcement and reduce crime, a trailer to the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), a Medicaid omnibus, changes to the hospital assessment program, and a property tax omnibus, amongst many other passed bills. The first part of this series can be read here.

The Illinois General Assembly adjourned an abbreviated 2022 regular session early in the morning hours on April 9, 2022. Leadership in both chambers pushed for a shorter session given the upcoming June 28 primary election. Adjourning at the beginning of April rather than the usual end date of May 31 gives members facing competitive primaries more time to campaign in their district.

The General Assembly will return to Springfield for a fall veto session and potentially a lame duck session before the 103^rd General Assembly begins in January 2023.

Crime Package

HB 260 (A. Williams/Feigenholtz) exempts images from expressway cameras from FOIA until July 1, 2023. Adds additional cameras on Cook County expressways and Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Law enforcement agencies can use images from an expressway camera to investigate vehicular hijacking, terrorism, motor vehicle theft, any forcible felony, or to detect highway conditions. Extends the Expressway Camera Act sunset date to July 1, 2025. HB 260 passed the House on March 3 by a vote 103-1-0 as a digital license plate study bill. It passed the Senate, as amended, on April 8 by a vote of 44-12-0. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 97-10-2 later on April 8. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature. 

HB 1091 (Buckner/Glowiak Hilton) creates the Illinois Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act requiring online marketplaces to disclose information about high-volume third-party sellers to consumers. It additionally creates the Organized Retail Crime Enforcement Fund to award grants to investigate, indict, and prosecute organized retail crime. Creates a corresponding offense for organized retail crime. HB 1091 passed the House in May 2021. It was amended and passed the Senate by a vote of 42-10-0 on April 9, and the House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 96-5-2 on April 9. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 1321 (LaPointe/Hastings) creates the First Responder Mental Health Grant Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury to provide grants for expenses related to behavioral healthcare services for qualifying first responders. HB 1321 passed the House unanimously on April 5 and passed the Senate unanimously on April 8. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 1568 (Vella/Martwick) invests in recruiting police officer candidates under the age of 21 in collaboration with community colleges. It requires ICCB and IBHE to create a plan to establish transfer credits from public institutions of higher education to satisfy the requirements of law enforcement and correctional intern courses. It also lowers the retirement age for officers who have served at least 20 years from 60 to 55. Finally, it allows retiring officers to purchase their badges and service firearm from the department. HB 1568 passed the House by a vote of 94-5-3 on April 5. It was amended in the Senate to remove out some controversial provisions and passed by a vote of 42-2-0 on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 99-7-5 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 1571 (Manley/Glowiak Hilton) creates the Off-Hours Child Care Act, which tasks DHS with the responsibility of designing an off-hours child care program to meets the needs of first responders and other off-hours workers in Illinois by July 1, 2023. This program will be developed based on results from a Senate-commissioned study under DHS. HB 1571 passed the House unanimously on April 5 and passed the Senate unanimously on April 8. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 3699 (Delgado/Martwick) allows the Illinois Vehicle Hijacking and Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention and Insurance Verification Council to issue grants from its associated trust fund to law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary to assist in the prosecution of vehicle hijackers and recovery of stolen items. HB 3699 passed the House unanimously in April 2021. It was amended into its current form in the Senate and passed unanimously on April 7. The House unanimously passed a concurrence motion on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 3772 (Delgado/Aquino) amends the Illinois Vehicle Code to provide that car owners are not responsible for traffic violations, fees, or fines incurred in the period in which their vehicle was reported to be stolen or hijacked. HB 3772 passed the House unanimously in April 2021. It was amended into its current form in the Senate and passed unanimously on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion unanimously on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 3863 (Vella/Morrison) creates the Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention Fund. The Fund will be used to award grants to units of local government, public institutions of higher education, and qualified nonprofit entities for the purpose of hiring and retaining law enforcement officers. HB 3863 passed the House in April 2021. It was amended into its current form in the Senate and passed unanimously on April 7. The House passed a unanimous concurrence motion on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 3893 (Hernandez/Joyce) extends the qualified eavesdropping exemption for sex and drug offenses sunset through January 1, 2027. Extends the RICO Article of the Code sunset through June 11, 2023. HB 3893 passed the House in April 2021. It unanimously passed the Senate on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 109-2-1 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 4209 (Stuart/Crowe) amends the Downstate Police and IMRF Articles of the Illinois Pension Code to allow employees of sheriff’s departments who are considered law enforcement to transfer up to 10 years of credit under the Downstate Police pension to IMRF from July 1, 2022, and December 1, 2022. HB 4209 passed the House by a vote of 104-0-1 on March 1, and passed the Senate unanimously, as amended, on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 111-4-0 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 4481 (Greenwood/Murphy) expands the Expressway Camera Act to provide for cameras on expressways and state highways in the following counties, in addition to Cook County: Boone, Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, Morgan, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Will, and Winnebago. It additionally extends the repeal date for the Expressway Camera Act two years to July 1, 2025. HB 4481 passed the House unanimously on March 3, and an amended version passed the Senate unanimously on April 8. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 95-10-2 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 4667 (Yednock/Cunningham) amends the Unified Code of Corrections and the County Jail Act to allow DOC correctional officers and county correctional officers to be considered qualified law enforcement officers for coverage under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004. This status also applies to retired correctional officers. HB 4667 passed the House unanimously on March 2, and the Senate unanimously passed an amended version on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 103-6-3 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

HB 4736 (Gordon-Booth/Peters) includes a variety of provisions to decrease violent crime and support distressed witnesses. HB 4736 passed the House by a vote of 66-43-0 on February 24, and an amended version passed the Senate by a vote of 40-17-0 on April 7. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 109-2-0 on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature. Here are the components of the bill:

Crime Reduction Task Force

• Creates the Crime Reduction Task Force to develop and propose policies to reduce violent crime to the General Assembly and the governor by March 1, 2023.

Trauma-Informed Homicide Instigation Training

• Requires Illinois State Police homicide investigator training to include instruction on victim-centered, trauma-informed, investigation by July 1, 2023.

ICJIA Tip Hotline

• Establishes a grant program for anonymous violent crime tips under ICJIA, with cash rewards for tips that lead to an arrest.

Co-Responder Pilot Program

• Creates a Co-Responder Pilot Program within the East St. Louis, Peoria, Springfield, and Waukegan police departments to send social workers along with law enforcement officers for mental and behavioral health needs.

Violent Crime Witness Protection

• Requires ICJIA to establish a program to assist victims and witnesses who are actively aiding in the prosecution of perpetrators of violent crime.
  • This assistance can include housing, food, and other needs.

SB 2364 (Harmon/Slaughter) is the SAFE-T Act trailer, making a variety of changes to the original highly controversial bill. It requires officers to issue citations, not arrests, for traffic offenses, Class B misdemeanors, Class C misdemeanors, petty offenses, and business offenses, unless the accused meets certain criteria. The accused must pose a threat to the safety of the community or pose a medical or mental health risk in order to be arrested. Extends the implementation date of the mandatory supervised release provisions of the SAFE-T act to March 1, 2023, instead of July 1, 2022. Creates the Commission on Pretrial Implementation within the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council. Clarifies language about house arrest to state that people on house arrest must be given two movement periods per week, rather than movement on two separate days. Additionally, it allows the state to file a motion to deny pretrial movement rights for people charged with a forcible felony. Courts can only grant this motion if there is clear and convincing evidence that movement should be denied. SB 2364 passed the Senate unanimously prior to being amended. Early in the morning on April 9, the House amended it into the SAFE-T Act trailer, and it passed by a vote of 64-45-0, with all Republicans and some Democrats in opposition. It now awaits Senate concurrence, which could be taken up in the fall veto session, likely occurring after the November election.

CEJA Trailer

SB 3866 (Hastings/Walsh) is the primary trailer bill to the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). SB 3866 passed the Senate 39-14-0 on February 25. It was amended in the House and passed 83-25-0 on April 7. HFAs 5, 6, 7, and 8 included a variety of additional changes requested by stakeholders but were tabled because of a lack of time at the end of session. These issues could be addressed in the fall veto session. The Senate passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 40-17-0 on April 8. It now awaits the governor’s signature. The bill makes changes to the following sections of CEJA:

Co-pollutants

• Allows natural gas peaker plants to temporarily continue operating above decarbonization targets if necessary to maintain grid reliability.
  • Specifies that CO2 and co-pollutants, rather than greenhouse gases, may be emitted in this case.

Climate Works Hubs

• Provides that Climate Works Hub grants are awarded in multi-year grants no longer than 36 months.
• Gives priority to Climate Works Hubs that have an agreement with North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to utilize the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum or a successor curriculum.
• Requires that preapprentices receive stipends. These may vary in amount based on occupation.
• Requires Climate Works Hubs to issue an annual report with a buying plan for specific goods and services the company intends to buy over the next 6 to 18 months.

Utility Scale Solar Projects

• Allows utility scale photovoltaic solar energy generation pilot projects at multiple locations with construction in phases.

Home Solar Storage

• Prevents homeowners from receiving delivery service credits for home solar generating devices or storage devices after submitting a rebate application.
  • Homeowners can continue to receive storage delivery service credits if their rebate application was only submitted for the generating device.

Utility Broadband Service Prohibition

• Extends the utility prohibition on providing broadband services to its customers until December 31, 2027.

Medicaid Omnibus

HB 4343 (Harris/Gillespie) is the Medicaid omnibus bill, which works to improve behavioral healthcare, provide coverage to certain noncitizens, and makes a variety of other changes to the Medicaid system in Illinois. HB 4343 passed the House by a vote of 102-1-0 on March 3. It was amended into the Medicaid omnibus in the Senate and passed by a vote of 33-17-0 on April 9. The House passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 71-42-0, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

Wellness Checks in Schools

• HFS will establish a program for school districts that wish to implement wellness checks to identify mental health issues in students grades 7 through 12.
  • Requires HFS to work with school districts that have a high percentage of students enrolled in Medicaid and a high number of referrals to the State's Crisis and Referral Entry Services (CARES) hotline to implement the wellness check program.

Behavioral Health Services

• Requires the outpatient add-on payment of at least $113 to any hospital with more than 500 outpatient psychiatric Medicaid services patients under age 19 in a calendar year.
• Requires DHS to develop a program for behavioral health providers to approach a phone call with a patient with severe mental illness or a developmental disability.
• Requires DHS to track available beds for substance abuse withdrawal management services.
• Extends coverage for peer recovery support services.

Midwife Services Coverage

• Requires coverage of midwife services for people covered by medical assistance.

Community Spouse Allowance

• Changes to the community spouse resource allowance beginning January 1, 2023:
  • Provides for a community spouse allowance of $109,560 plus an additional $2,784 added to the base amount each year for a period of 10 years from 2024-2034.
  • Beginning 2034, requires the maximum community spouse allowance under the Social Security Act, with yearly increases as the maximum amount under the Act changes.
  • The monthly community spouse maintenance allowance will be established and maintained as the greater of $2,739 per month or the minimum level permitted under the Social Security Act.

Ambulance Services

• Requires HFS to file rules to allow for ground ambulance services for the sole purpose of navigation of stairs or lifting a patient at a medical facility or during a medical appointment.
  • This only applies when HFS, an MCO, or the patient’s transportation broker is unable to provide transportation.
• Requires funding increases of at least $24M to the medi-car service car and attendant services program.

Noncitizen Medical Services Coverage

• Permits HFS to provide medical services to noncitizens ages 42 through 54 years who are not otherwise eligible due to lack of citizenship status or incomes at or below 133% of the federal poverty level.

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Intern Program

• Requires IDPH to establish a CNA Intern Program to address nursing worker shortages.
  • Establishes employment requirements for CNA interns and establishments that employ CNA interns.
• Requires HFS to establish a temporary CNA Intern Program that will end upon the termination of the Secretary of Health and Human Services' public health emergency declaration for COVID-19 or 3 years after the program becomes operational, whichever occurs later.

Department of Healthcare and Family Services Administration

• Requires HFS to waive estate recovery when whenever possible.
• Requires HFS to compile monthly data on the percentage of medical assistance patients whose eligibility is renewed through ex parte redeterminations.
• Requires HFS to submit a plan by July 1, 2022, to use the asset verification system to assist in the determination of whether seniors or people with disabilities are eligible to have coverage renewed through the ex parte process.

Hospital Assessment

HB 1950 (Harris/Gillespie) is the Hospital Assessment program bill. HB 1950 passed the House unanimously in April 2021 as a Medicaid bill and passed the Senate unanimously on April 9. The House passed a concurrence motion unanimously on April 9, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

Safety-Net Hospitals

• Allows hospitals designated as a federal rural referral center on October 1, 2020, and that would have qualified for the rate year beginning on October 1, 2020, to be designated as safety-net hospitals from July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2026.
• Assignment to safety-net status based on the annual safety-net rate beginning 15 months before the first payout quarter of the calendar year, beginning January 1, 2023. 

Hospital Provider Fund

• Extends the period during which transfers shall be made from the Hospital Provider Fund.
  • Extends the applicable reimbursement factor from July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2026.
  • Extends fee-for-service supplemental payments beginning January 1, 2023.

Hospital Classification and Reporting

• Extends certain annual assessments on inpatient and outpatient services through calendar year 2026.
• In calendar year 2023, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) has the authority to establish the funding amounts given to the hospital class direct payment fixed pools.
  • Requires HFS to ensure that hospitals assigned to the fixed pools are paid at least 95% of the annual initial rate for each 6-month period of each annual payout period.
• Requires general care hospitals to file a notice to HFS and the Health Facilities and Services Review Board to establish an acute mental illness category of service and add authorized acute mental illness beds under one of the following circumstances:
  • The hospital qualifies as a safety-net hospital.
  • The hospital plans to establish less than 24 mental illness beds.
  • The hospital seeks to reduce beds in another category to add mental illness beds.

Department of Healthcare and Family Services

• Requires HFS to pay at least $3.75M for poison control through FY 2026.
  • Requires HFS to pay at least $1.875M for the period from July 1, 2026, through December 31, 2026.
• Requires HFS and IDPH to provide a report to the General Assembly on options and recommendations for the establishment of a permanent Safety-Net hospital Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) grant program.
• Provides for adjustment payments for inpatient services in hospitals that reopen within 4 years after being previously closed.
  • Previous requirement only allowed for 3 years.

Hospital Income Tax

• Extends the sunset for the income tax credit for certain hospitals through December 31, 2027.

Property Tax Omnibus

SB 1975 (Martwick/Kifowit) is the property tax omnibus. SB 1975 passed the Senate in April 2021, prior to being amended into an omnibus bill. It passed the House by a vote of 110-0-1 on April 8, and the Senate passed a concurrence motion by a vote of 51-1-1 early in the morning on April 9. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

PTELL Changes

Makes changes to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL), which limits the amount of total taxes billed for non-home rule taxing districts. According to the Illinois Department of Revenue “This if often referred to as a tax cap; however, it doesn’t actually cap or limit taxes, it allows taxing districts to have limited inflationary increase in tax extensions on existing property, plus any amount from a voter approved increase or amounts from new construction.” Increases in property tax extensions are limited to the lesser of 5% or the Consumer Price Index for the year prior to the levy.

This bill adds an alternative aggregate extension base levy for certain districts. Allows qualifying school, park, library, and community college districts to recapture levy amounts from previous years, rather than encouraging districts to take the maximum possible 5% levy every year. It allows the base levy to be the greater of the taxing district’s aggregate extension limit or the taxing district’s last preceding aggregate extension. These PTELL changes were taken from HB 448. 

Homestead Exemption

This bill sets the maximum homestead exemptions. For tax levy year 2022, it provides in counties with 3 million or more inhabitants (Cook County), a homestead exemption of $10,000. It additionally provides continues bordering Cook County (collar counties) a homestead exemption of $8,000. All other counties will have a maximum homestead exemption of $6,000. 

Senior Homestead Exemption

It also raises the maximum senior homestead exemption in Cook County and the collar counties from $5,000 to $8,000. In all other counties, the maximum senior homestead exemption is $5,000. It allows for Cook County seniors who receive SNAP or LILHEAP benefits to automatically qualify for the senior freeze and decreases the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral program interest rate from 6% to 3%.

Veterans Homestead Exemption

In taxable year 2023, it allows for a taxpayer who is the surviving spouse of a veteran whose death was service related to retain exemptions held by the veteran. If a veteran is deemed to be permanently and totally disabled, their property tax exemption shall be in effect permanently without having to re-apply on an annual basis. Allows a study of the impact of the homestead exemption for veterans with disabilities in St. Clair, Lake, Will, Madison, Rock Island, and DuPage Counties.

Procurement Omnibus

HB 2770 (Stuart/Munoz) makes a variety of changes to make the Procurement Code more open to minority and women-owned businesses. Requires the Capital Development Board and Department of Transportation to prepare quarterly reports on the status of change order requests. Expands long-term land leases to other public higher education institutions, besides just the University of Illinois, in certain circumstances. Requires construction agencies to make reasonable efforts to procure from Illinois businesses for all projects costing more than $100,000. Requires vendors to provide financial disclosure for all procurements that exceed the small purchase threshold. Creates the State Procurement Task Force to make recommendations to ensure the process is equitable and efficient, provide departments with flexibility to be successful, change the current structure of the procurement process, modernize the process, increase women and minority-owned business participation, increase participation by state vendors, and reduce costs and increase efficiency of procurements. Provides the Department of Human Rights the opportunity to cure vendor noncompliance prior to awarding a contract. HB 2270 passed the House in April 2021 as a veteran’s procurement bill. It passed the Senate by a vote of 55-0-1 on April 9, and the House unanimously passed a concurrence motion on April 9. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

Other Procurement Bills

HB 5546 (Robinson/Muñoz) establishes the State Procurement Task Force which will survey the state procurement process and make recommendations to ensure that the process is equitable and efficient, provide departments with the flexibility needed to be successful, and increase women-owned and minority-owned business participation. A similar version of this bill passed as HB 2770. HB 5546 passed the House unanimously and was assigned to the Senate Executive on March 16, where it remains.

HB 5326 (Lilly) requires a corporation that has contracts with the state to report on supplier diversity as a part of their annual report. HB 5358 passed the House by a vote of 66-35-1. It was referred to the Senate Assignments on March 4, where it remains.

Legislative Accessibility

SB 180 (Peters/A. Williams) creates the Legislative Accessibility Act working to make the General Assembly accessible to people with disabilities. Requires the House speaker and Senate president to each appoint an accessibility coordinator to address accessibility needs in each chamber. Requires the General Assembly website to include an email address or webform to request reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities and attend legislative meetings, hearings, and events. Establishes the General Assembly Accessibility Task Force to consider and recommend proposals on accessibility by December 31, 2023. SB 180 unanimously passed the Senate on February 23, and passed the House unanimously as amended on April 5. The Senate unanimously passed a concurrence motion on April 8, and the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.