Legislation Now Before Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
The Illinois General Assembly’s spring legislative session ended in last-minute drama as Democrats barely eked out enough votes to pass a package of tax hikes that mostly affect gambling operations and corporations. But lawmakers in the final days also sent a number of other bills to Gov. J.B. Pritzker that will directly affect the state’s residents and communities. And, during the course of the four-month session they approved some less significant measures, among them a bill designating Calvatia Gigantea, colloquially known as the Giant Puffball, as the state mushroom.
A total of 469 pieces of legislation (House Bills: 210 and Senate Bills: 259) will head to Gov Pritzker desk for his signature. Gov Pritzker has until August 27, 2024 to act of those pieces of legislation.
Here’s are some of the bills heading to the governor’s desk:
- Residents would be able to keep digitial versions of their driver’s licenses and other state IDs in their cellphones under legislation pushed by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
- Lawmakers attempted to give local journalism a boost with a measure that would not allow a local news organization to be sold without 120 days notice to employees and their representatives, the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the county government in which the outlet is located and any “in-state nonprofit organization in the business of buying local news organizations.”
- Lawmakers approved a key Pritzker initiative aimed at erasing as much as $1 billion in medical debt for more than 300,000 Illinois families. It would follow a similar effort launched in Cook County that was on track to wipe out medical bills for around 73,000 residents as of last year.
- Bills spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz would protect artists and others in creative fields from unauthorized digital replicas, in line with the national conversation about artificial intelligence in pop culture.