2024 Legislative Wrap-Up

6/5/24

The Illinois General Assembly (GA) adjourned last month, having missed an opportunity during an election year to address various reforms needed to protect the environment and government ethics. 

But to its credit, lawmakers passed over $1 billion in revenue increases (primarily from businesses in selected industries) to move the needle on creating economic opportunity for families most in need. Notably, the GA passed three large programs that the League lobbied for at its May Lobby Day event: the state Child Tax Credit, funding for immigrant services, and fully meeting the state’s statutory requirement for Evidence-Based School Funding.

Other bills that the League promoted, and which passed, were implementation of a K-12 curriculum in climate education (HB4895) and, with broad bi-partisan support, a criminal justice bill that modified the language under which simple gun possession crimes could be charged (HB4500).

But there were disappointments as well. For a second time, a bill aimed at addressing the safety of victims of domestic abuse by removing firearms from the abuser could not get support in the Senate (Karina’s Bill SB2633). 

Likewise, a bill aimed at protecting the state’s wetlands (HB5386/SB0771) did not pass. We anticipate seeing these again in veto session, along with a few others that remained stuck in committee and did not get a vote during the session. 

Finally, the GA also passed SB2412, which made a mid-election cycle change to the state’s election code denying any candidate affiliated with either the Democrat or Republican parties the opportunity to run for office in the general election if they did not first run in the state’s primary. The League opposed this change to election law but did not have an opportunity to address it with lawmakers due to how quickly the bill was pushed through the legislature. For more information on LWVIL’s position on SB2412, see the Chicago Sun-Timesop-ed by LWVIL President Becky Simon.