100th GA Starts Off in a Sprint
The nearly two-year budget stalemate remains the number one issue this session. Senate Democrat and Republican leaders continued negotiation on several bills (SB 1 – 13) called the “Grand Bargain”, which includes tax increases, public pension reform, workers’ compensation reform, property tax freeze, minimum wage increase, school funding reform, and perhaps a kitchen sink. The measures were all written so that if one did not pass, none would pass.
Though Senate President John Cullerton forced early votes on a handful of the measures over Republican objections, there appeared to be little progress made on an overall package. Negotiations on an over-all compromise package are on-going.
NFIB/IL Reacts
With concerns over a lack of substantial reforms to workers’ compensation and hard state budget cuts in the “Grand Bargain,” the NFIB state office issued an alert mid-week to members asking them to contact their state senators in opposition to SB9, that seeks to raise income taxes as well as create a new 5% excise tax on five service sectors: landscaping, storage, laundry, amusement, and maintenance and repair.
Introduced Legislation
NFIB/IL is keeping an eye on the thousands of bills introduced do far. Here are some that we oppose:
HB 262 (Flowers) and HB 2387 (Wallace) Increase minimum wage to $15 per hour
HB 366 (McDermed) Employee Classification – Increase penalties on employers
HB 764 (Kifowit) Protection Orders – Employer accommodations
HB 690 (Ammons) Day and Temp Workers
HB 2351 (Currie) Wage Lien Act – employee liens on employers
HB 2376 (Flowers) Family Leave Insurance Program
HB 2493, HB 2495 (Hoffman) Prevailing Wage bills
HB 2771 (Mitchell) Mandated paid sick leave
SB 2 (Lightford) Minimum wage increase
SB 9 (Hutchinson) Excise tax on services, income tax increase
SB 924 (Bush) Mandated pricing in laundry and salon businesses
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 15—Governor Rauner Budget Speech
April 26—Employer Action Day in Springfield
NFIB Illinois has set the 2017 date for the annual Employer Action Day at the Capitol so please mark your calendar. As with past EAD’s we expect an outstanding array of guest speakers and issue workshops to bring attendees up to speed on hot legislative topics. More information to come.
For questions or comments on small-business issues contained in this edition of Capitol Roundup please contact Illinois State Director Mark Grant in the NFIB/Illinois office at 217-523-5471, or via e-mail at [email protected]