SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Republican state lawmakers, outnumbered and looking to boost their relevance, had one goal for the election-year legislative session — to paint majority Democrats as soft-on-crime and anti-police.
Democrats, sensing political vulnerability, knew they had to counter by passing some pro-police, anti-crime legislation that didn’t weaken their larger equity-based criminal justice goals.
They also sought to change the subject, pushing election-year tax relief for families amid public concerns over inflation.
Crime and inflation became the watch words as the final hours of the truncated spring legislative session played out early Saturday. Those two themes, brought from the national stage to the local statehouse, are likely to be struck repeatedly in TV ads and campaign literature as the June 28 primary and Nov. 8 general election grow closer.
The General Assembly missed its self-imposed Friday session deadline, finally adjourning at 6:10 a.m. Saturday. Its traditional end-of-May cutoff date was bumped up to allow lawmakers, as well as Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who’s running for a second term, to hit the campaign trail.
Not long before adjournment, Democrats sent to Pritzker’s desk a $46.5 billion spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1, sprinkled with election-year tax cuts and rebate checks for voters.
Democrats, hoping to maintain supermajorities in the Illinois House and Senate in November, caught a break on both the economic and crime fronts with an unusually flush budget — Senate President Don Harmon called it “unique”— for a state with chronically chaotic finances.
The additional influx of revenue allowed for legislation that would increase law enforcement recruitment, retention and support, all of which will be used to offset a Republican “defund the police” mantra, while also funding $1.8 billion in tax relief and broadening the number of lower-income taxpayers eligible for tax breaks.
“This budget is for all those who are worried about the rising cost of groceries, which seem ever more expensive each time you go to the store. It’s for those who can only put $10 at a time into your gas tank because filling up the whole tank stretches you too thin. It’s for those who have been straining under the weight of property taxes, only to see them increase without a break,” Pritzker, joined by Democratic leaders who echoed his celebratory tone, said a few hours after the legislative session ended.
“It’s for the 97% of income tax filers who will receive a direct check to help pay their monthly bills,” he continued. “This budget and it’s $1.8 billion in tax relief is for you, the people of Illinois.”
When the budget deal was unveiled two days earlier, Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said that “When this budget passes, the governor and the legislature will be saying: ‘Illinoisans, we hear you.’”
The audience Welch and his party want to hear that message is both the traditional Democratic constituency, which will see additional funding for social service programs, and moderate swing voters such as suburban women who are concerned about rising inflation’s effect on the family checkbook as well as public safety.
The suburbs, once the heart of Illinois Republicanism, have seen steady encroachment by Democrats over the last two decades. But the GOP is optimistic as Democrats face national headwinds in the midterm election.
Democrats, who in the 2018 election increased their power to supermajority status in the legislature, want to hold on to crucial suburban seats in a year when all 177 seats in the General Assembly are up for election and many incumbents are running in new territory as a result of redistricting.
While Republicans have repeatedly attacked Pritzker and Democrats over an increase in violent crime that has reached into the suburbs and other areas of the state, internal Senate Democratic polling has found that the economy and the toll of inflation at the gas pump and grocery store are the top concerns of suburbanites.
The budget plan would suspend for six months an estimated 2.2 cents-per-gallon increase in the state’s gas tax scheduled for July, suspend the state’s 1% tax on groceries for a year, and send homeowners property-tax rebate checks of up to $300.
Individual taxpayers earning less than $200,000 annually and joint income-tax filers earning less than $400,000 also would receive a $50 check, plus $100 per dependent child up to three children. The proposal also would create a back-to-school state sales tax holiday on school supplies and clothing items costing less than $125 from Aug. 5-14.
Republicans labeled the tax relief elements “election-year gimmicks,” noting that the breaks would be temporary and that checks would be arriving shortly before the November election.
“I think we are passing something here that is obviously a little bit disingenuous — so that in an election year so that so you can say you passed a tax cut,” said state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, a Jacksonville Republican who estimated an individual might save $150 on gas and groceries under the Democratic plan. “You may disagree, but this is the bare minimum (in tax relief) to a majority of Illinoisans.”
Democratic state Rep. Michael Zalewski of Riverside rejected the premise that the tax cuts were “small ball,” saying they “are going to lift up everyone we care about.”
Already, however, an association of gasoline retailers said it will go to court to challenge a provision requiring them to post signs telling motorists of the gas-tax freeze, contending it is forcing its members to run “free political advertising.”
The Illinois Fuel and Retail Association also warned motorists they face two gas-tax increases next year — one when the freeze lifts in January and another when the scheduled inflation adjusted increase is scheduled to take effect in July.
The budget does contain one permanent tax relief feature, an increase in the number of people who can take part in the state’s earned income-tax credit, which lowers tax bills and often produces refunds for low-income workers and seniors
The budget package would pay off $1.2 billion in state debt and increase funding for public education, state universities and community colleges, and child welfare, among other areas.
The budget would add money to the state’s public employee pension system to try to reduce its massive unfunded liability for the long term and rebuild a “rainy day” fund that was virtually depleted.
But the final package did not address a remaining $1.8 billion debt in the state’s unemployment insurance fund caused by the pandemic. The state had allocated $2.7 billion in federal pandemic relief funds to reduce the debt from its original $4.5 billion figure, but has put off until the end of the year scheduled employer payment increases and reductions in unemployment benefits. Labor leaders said negotiations with business, lawmakers and Pritzker had reached an impasse.
The more than $200 million put toward public safety initiatives was a major budget talking point for Democrats. That total is on top of $240 million — mostly from federal coronavirus relief money — allocated for violence prevention programs. New money was appropriated for expanded expressway cameras, body cameras, evidence retention and first-responder mental health and child care.
Republicans set the tone on the crime issue by calling on Democrats to repeal the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today law, known as the SAFE-T act, which was one of the legislative pillars of the legislative Black Caucus enacted last year.
The GOP used SAFE-T as the target of their attacks, also knowing it could split moderate and progressive factions in the Democratic caucus — even though there was no chance Democrats would repeal the law.
“Democrats in Illinois have repeatedly attacked our police and justice system,” House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said as Democrats began to unveil anti-crime proposals. “They are trying to rewrite history. Until they wake up and repeal their pro-criminal SAFE-T Act, there will be no safe communities in Illinois.”
Republicans railed at various proposals offered by Democrats as insufficient to curb crime but, faced with election year prospects of having a no vote thrown back at them, largely ended up supporting them.
Rather than Republican attacks splitting Democrats, Harmon said the party’s factions coalesced around legislation aimed at dealing with the causes of crime while trying to avoid creating tougher criminal penalties.
Concerns over rising incidents of carjacking and highway shootings prompted Democrats to approve an expansion of expressway cameras beyond Cook County into the five collar counties and 16 downstate counties. Additional cameras also could be placed in Cook County, including DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and all of the authorized roadside cameras could be used to investigate a variety of crimes, including carjacking and firearm offenses.
Lawmakers approved legislation to have Illinois Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention council put together plans and strategies to curb incidents of carjacking, and another bill to waive traffic fines and tow recovery fees when a vehicle has been hijacked.
In response to high profile smash-and-grab burglaries at high-end stores where the stolen goods are later fenced for resale, lawmakers created the offense of organized retail crime. The measure also requires third-party online retailers to verify the identity of sellers using their outlet.
“What we’re trying to do with the bill is get to the big fish. We don’t want to get the little fish. We’re not interested in little shoplifting, things like that. We want to get to the enterprise,” said state Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, a Western Springs Democrat.
State Sen. Steve McClure, a Springfield Republican and former prosecutor, echoed a frequent complaint from his party — that the Democrats were creating criminal offense categories already covered by existing law.
“This is extremely disappointing and I have to say this has sort of been a running theme with a lot of these bills that take a look into criminal law,” McClure said. “We have a lot of new charges that are just rewording things that are already law. Not good.”
Legislators also passed a measure to combat so-called Ghost Guns that can be made with a 3D printer or from kits and have no identification numbers for tracing. Possession of such a gun would be a felony. Hobbyists who make guns would be required to go to a federally licensed firearm dealer to get them engraved with a registered identification number.
Receiving bipartisan support was a measure with provisions for witness protection, victim-centered training for homicide investigators, a crime reduction task force and a pilot program to send social workers along with police officers in certain instances.
Democrats also approved legislation allowing current and retired county sheriff deputies and county and state correctional officials to carry concealed firearms while off duty. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police said other Illinois law enforcement officers have had that right since 2004.
They also created a charitable checkoff on the state income tax form for donations to a charity assisting fallen first responders and the Senate designated May 15-21 as “Police Appreciation Week in Illinois.”
Another bill that advanced to the governor’s desk would make clear that having a car-fob replicator in an attempt to break into a car would be considered possession of a burglary tool.
“Crime is up because we are in desperate times right now,” said state Sen. Omar Aquino, D-Chicago. “A lot of people before the pandemic were suffering and you know what, they’re suffering even more and sometimes that ends up with a bad situation.”
Late Friday, Pritzker nominated Rodger Heaton, former U.S. attorney in Springfield, and Robin Shoffner, a former civil trial attorney in Cook County, to sit on the Prisoner Review Board, which considers early release for convicted criminals. The appointments were confirmed by the Senate early Saturday.
The board has become a proxy for the political fight over crime, and Democrats joined with Republicans last month in rejecting two Pritzker appointees over concerns that their decisions on releasing inmates represented the soft-on-crime theme that the GOP has been pushing.
With the Senate rejections or candidates withdrawing their appointment, the 15-seat board was down to just six members, and advocacy groups have expressed concern about its ability to function.
Heaton may be best known in Springfield as former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s last chief of staff, and for serving as an assistant federal prosecutor in the 1996 case of Management Services of Illinois Inc.
MSI was a major political contributor to then-Gov. Jim Edgar and was found to have bilked the state out of $12.9 million on a lucrative state Public Aid contract it held to identify people with private medical insurance who were receiving government-paid health benefits.
Democrats also advanced legislation aimed at curbing dark-money donations in judicial races. The move came after Democrats earlier this year used their majority to redraw Illinois Supreme Court district boundaries outside Cook County amid fears of losing their 4-3 advantage on the state’s highest court.
Millions of dollars in outside money was spent in the 2020 election that saw Democratic Justice Thomas Kilbride defeated in his bid for another 10-year term. Kilbride’s redrawn open seat is up for election in November as is the redrawn suburban seat previously held by Republican Justice Bob Thomas, who retired in 2020.
Under the proposal, no one other than the judicial candidate or the candidate’s immediate family could give more than $500,000 to a judicial political committee. The $500,000 individual contribution threshold also would apply to independent expenditure committees supporting or opposing a judicial candidate. and groups would have to disclose donors of $500 or more.
Currently, dark money groups do not have to publicly disclose their donors — and opponents of the measure warned that the new legislation could run afoul of constitutional rulings. But Democrats noted that special allowances dealing with campaign financing of judicial campaigns have been made by the courts.
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(Pearson reported from Chicago.)
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