SPRINGFIELD — In the days after former President Donald Trump was reelected, Illinois Democrats’ raised alarms about the ramifications of his second term and said they would consider whether the state needs to strengthen any of its progressive laws on reproductive rights and other issues that might be threatened by an unfriendly White House.
But the Democratic-led Illinois General Assembly adjourned its final session of the year without taking any meaningful steps in that direction, with some lawmakers saying more time is needed to consider what might be done. Republicans countered by accusing Democrats of considering legislation based only on assumptions about potential actions by the Trump administration.
During their five-day fall veto session — legislators left town a day early in the first week — lawmakers did pass a measure to phase out a subminimum wage for people with disabilities, and moved forward on another aimed at making it easier for the state’s child welfare system to have a child’s family member serve as their legal guardian.
Some bigger issues were pushed into next year, among them legislation adjusting the state’s pension system and a proposal to consolidate the Chicago area’s transit agencies. Following a lame duck session scheduled for Jan. 2-7, a new General Assembly will be seated on Jan. 8, and after that Gov. JB Pritzker and lawmakers will also need to confront a projected budget shortfall of nearly $3.2 billion for next year’s state budget.
Pritzker last week announced he was part of an initiative called Governors Safeguarding Democracy with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to leverage states’ rights against threats following Trump’s reelection. But Pritzker didn’t go the route of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who directly asked his state’s general assembly to address Trump’s election in a special legislative session next month.
Illinois’ Democratic lawmakers said figuring out exactly what to do will take some time, and that the just-completed session simply provided an opportunity to get discussions started.
“So many people that we legislators represent, including ourselves, have so much anxiety about changes to come due to the incoming administration and we don’t know immediately what we can do in the state legislative arena, but we are already listening, talking about it and planning for it,” said Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, a Democrat from Chicago’s Northwest Side. “Those are complicated issues and once we start putting stuff on paper and talking about it publicly, we have to get it right.”
Some of the issues being explored are in the areas of environmental protections, immigration and health care access, along with abortion, LGBTQ+ and workers’ rights.
State Rep. Bob Morgan, a Democrat from Deerfield, believes he and his colleagues will be working on issues that address “preemptive, proactive protections” for Illinoisans. Morgan, who has a special interest in gun safety issues following a deadly mass shooting in his district at the 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, questioned whether President Joe Biden’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention would be on the chopping block and how that would affect Illinois.
“When we start talking about policy to keep people safe, it really puts the pressure on states like Illinois to really figure out what can we do to reduce gun violence, and the opportunity to rely on the federal government will no longer be there,” Morgan said.
Morgan was a main sponsor of Illinois’ sweeping gun ban that took effect in January 2023, but earlier this month was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge who was appointed to the bench during Trump’s first term.
House Republican leader Tony McCombie, who has been critical of the Democratic call for a legislative response to Trump’s approaching presidency, said Thursday she was against having a lame duck session if the Democrats don’t intend to to pass any meaningful measures.
“We do not need more time for out-of-touch Democrats to dream up harmful legislation,” said McCombie, of Savanna. “We need bipartisan legislation that focuses on the issues Illinois families care about most.”
Republican Rep. Charlie Meier said Democrats shouldn’t be changing laws or passing laws “just because America’s doing what America does” by electing a new president.
“They’re going to try to think what he might do before he even does it to create another law on the Illinois citizens that we may not need,” said Meier, of Okawville. “We are a state that has written so many laws, so many rules, that we are about the worst in unemployment in the country.”
Among the measures lawmakers did move to Pritzker’s desk during the brief session was a heavily debated bill to phase out subminimum wage for disabled workers over the next five years.
Federal law allows some employers to pay disabled workers less than minimum wage. In Illinois, some disabled workers are paid less than a dollar an hour, according to the bill’s advocates.
Erin Compton, a student who identified as having an intellectual disability, testified in favor of the bill in committee, saying she has held several jobs including in research and as a ticket scanner for the Cubs.
“Some people say that having a job isn’t for me, because I’m not smart enough or good enough to work, but I was given opportunities to work in the community and have to have a fair wage,” Compton said.
Pritzker praised the legislation, calling it an “unprecedented, crucial leap forward” for disabled people to earn a fair wage.
“Far too often, people with disabilities still endure barriers to employment and discrimination in the workplace,” he said in a statement. “Many are paid subminimum wages that devalue their contributions and diminish their likelihood to secure meaningful work and participate in other life-enhancing activities.”
While the bill passed with bipartisan support, opponents including Republican Sen. Chapin Rose of Mahomet warned it could lead to a loss of opportunities for some disabled people.
Another measure that has bipartisan support provides additional incentives for relatives of children in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to maintain a home for the youths as an alternative to the children being placed in foster care with nonfamily members. It passed with no opposition in the Senate on Thursday after passing 113-0 in the House last spring. But because of an amendment that was attached to the bill by the Senate, it has to go back to the House for what will likely be the bill’s final vote.
The legislation requires DCFS to seek federal funding to start a “kinship navigator program” to assist relatives who are caregivers with the agency and increase financial support to those relatives.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which pushed for the measure, more than 10,000 children in DCFS care live with relatives, but over 60% of these caregivers are denied the foster care benefits necessary to care for a youth being placed in their household because state law requires them to meet complex standards that were put in place decades ago.
“Current licensing procedures create unnecessary roadblocks to financial assistance for relatives serving as caregivers,” Sen. Mattie Hunter, a Chicago Democrat who was a chief sponsor of the measure, said in a statement. “Research shows children are better off when they can maintain connections to their families and traditions. We need to provide these families with the support they need to make this possible.”
The veto session was also an opportunity for lobbyists, unions and other advocates to make last-minute pushes to get their bill proposals on lawmakers’ agendas.
On the second day of the veto session, thousands descended on the state Capitol for a rally highlighting their concerns over changes made to Illinois’ beleaguered pension system 13 years ago.
Workers hired after Jan. 1, 2011, were placed into a “Tier 2” system that offered reduced benefits compared with other employees hired before that date. The overall goal of creating the Tier 2 plan was to shrink a pension debt that now runs to about $141 billion.
But benefits paid out under the Tier 2 system at some point won’t equal to what Social Security would provide to those employees, a violation of a federal “safe harbor” law. This would require Illinois to pay large sums in Social Security taxes instead of operating its own pension system which, while still costly, allows the state more flexibility.
At the rally, proponents cheered and bellowed chants calling for equality in the state’s pension system.
“We are union people. We believe people doing the same job, a fair day’s work, deserve a fair day’s pay, whether that’s in your paycheck, your benefits or your retirement security in a pension,” Pat Devaney, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, said to the crowd. “So what happened over the years? Politicians, state governments, local governments came up with schemes to underfund the pensions, take pension holidays, use other gimmicks to cause stress in the system.”
The state’s perennial pension problems are among several budgetary matters that will likely be taken up in the coming months by the legislature, along with how to deal with a $730 million fiscal cliff for Chicago-area public transit once federal pandemic aid dries up in early 2026 and whether to set aside more state funding for Chicago’s public school system.
Other unresolved issues include gun safety measures that Democrats haven’t been able to bring over the finish line.
Legislation often referred to as “Karina’s Bill,” named after Chicago resident Karina Gonzalez, who, along with her 15-year-old daughter, was shot and killed by her husband last year, would require police to remove guns from people who have orders of protection against them, clarifying when and how authorities can confiscate such firearms. As it stands, firearms aren’t always taken from people in those situations even if the firearm owner’s identification card is revoked.
Illinois lawmakers could weigh a proposal to create a statewide office to help under-resourced public defenders. One of the proposal’s goals is to address the lack of public defense resources in rural areas, many of which don’t even have a public defender’s office.
The measure also seeks to address disparities in the resources allotted to county prosecutors and public defenders. For example, Cook County’s 2024 budget provided about $102 million for its public defender’s office, and about $205 million for its state’s attorney’s office.
Other unresolved issues range from whether to allow all dispensaries to sell medical cannabis to legalizing medical aid in dying, often referred to as physician-assisted suicide or medically assisted death. This proposal would give mentally competent, terminally ill adults the right to choose to end their lives by allowing these patients the right to access life-ending prescription medication.
