103rd ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY:
The Illinois General Assembly is on a two-week spring break. Both chambers return to session on Tuesday, April 18. Five weeks remain in the spring legislative session; an early adjournment is scheduled for May 19.
After adjourning last week, the Illinois Senate extended the 3rd Reading deadline through April 28, 2023 for 67 Senate Bills.
The Senate Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board will hold a series of subject matter hearings to discuss the drawing of the new Chicago Elected Representative School Board districts:
- April 12 at 4 pm at Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave
- April 13 at 4 pm at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St
The Senate Energy and Public Utilities will hold a virtual subject matter hearing on April 13 at 10 am to discuss reliability first.
2023 Key Dates:
April 28: Deadline – Substantive Bills Out of Committee in both chambers
May 11: Deadline – Third Reading Substantive House Bills in Senate
May 12: Deadline – Third Reading Substantive Senate Bills in House
May 19: Adjournment
GOVERNOR’S HIGHLIGHTS:
Executive Order 2023-06 Reissues previous Executive Orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic through April 29, 2023.
Electric School Bus Grant: The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is offering over $27 million to replacement existing diesel school buses with new all-electric school buses. Eligible recipients must be located and operated in any of the three priority areas outlined in the Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP). Illinois EPA will also fund a portion of new electric charging equipment if a charging infrastructure is needed. The funding is made available through the Volkswagen (VW) Settlement funding.
Funding will be available for entities in the following areas:
- Priority Area 1: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, Oswego Township in Kendall County, and Aux Sable and Goose Lake townships in Grundy County.
- Priority Area 2: Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties.
- Priority Area 3: Champaign, DeKalb, LaSalle, McLean, Peoria, Sangamon, and Winnebago counties.
School districts that own their buses and commercial school bus providers are eligible to apply. Existing diesel buses must be engine Model Year 2009 and older diesel-powered Class 4 – 8 school buses and must be scrapped within 90 days of the new bus being placed into service.
All required forms for the Notice of Funding Opportunity are here.
Disaster Proclamation: Severe weather raced through Illinois last Friday, spawning 12 tornadoes throughout the state killing 4 and injuring dozens. Governor Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation to unlock immediate assistance and provide public safety support for impacted communities. The disaster proclamation includes Boone, Crawford, DuPage, Marion and Sangamon Counties. The Governor is also directing the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to coordinate a statewide response and recovery effort, which includes multiple state agencies, public safety entities, and non-governmental organizations.
The disaster proclamation, effective immediately, will support local government response and recovery operations wherever necessary.
Areas impacted by Friday’s severe weather include:
- Boone County, where high winds clocked in at 90 m.p.h., causing a partial collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere resulting in one fatality.
- Crawford County, where high winds led to several structures collapsing, resulting in three fatalities.
- In both Boone and Crawford County, approximately 30 structures were damaged, including the Robinson Airport.
- Sangamon County reported a tornado touchdown, causing damage to multiple structures in Sherman, Riverton, and Dawson.
- In Marion County, approximately a dozen homes and businesses were damaged and in the Village of Addison in DuPage County, multiple structures were damaged.
- IEMA is in close contact with the National Weather Service, which has officers out assessing damages and making determinations on tornado strength and activity statewide.
A second round of severe weather rolled through Illinois on Tuesday, spawning additional tornadoes.
OTHER NEWS:
Progressive candidate Brandon Johnson was elected Chicago’s 57th Mayor on Tuesday, defeating challenger Paul Valls 51% to 49%. Tuesday night, with 90,000 votes left to count, Vallas conceded the election. Johnson, a Cook County Commission and Chicago Teacher’s Union organizer, started his victory speech by addressing those who did not vote for him, “Here’s what I want you to know: that I care about you, I value you, and I want to hear from you. I want to work with you, and I’ll be the mayor for you too. Because this campaign has always been about building a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all the people of Chicago.”
State Representative Lamont Robinson was elected 4th Ward alderperson after defeating Prentice Butler in Tuesday’s election to replace Alderman Sophia King.