BUDGET
General Assembly monitor reports largely flat State revenues in August 2024. The monthly report tracks State general funds revenues, equivalent to inflows into the State’s overall ‘checking account.’ Money coming into Springfield-based general funds totaled $3,485 million in August 2024, up only $50 million (1.5%) from the $3,435 million in equivalent State revenues enjoyed in the year-earlier period, August 2023. This 1.5% increase concealed a decline in real State income during this 31-day period, as 2023-2024 inflation has caused the prices of goods and services to rise faster than 1.5%.
August 2024 State general funds income was held back by a slight fall in personal income tax receipts, with this key State revenue cash flow dropping $54 million from August 2023 to August 2024. While some other State revenue sources showed slight increases, this key area of relative weakness held back the consolidated bottom-line number for all State revenues.
Most Illinois personal income tax cash flow is funneled to Springfield through automatic deductions from paychecks paid to employed Illinois residents, and this cash flow is heavily dependent on the overall employment picture in Illinois. During a comparable 12-month period starting in July 2023 and ending in July 2024, Illinois unemployment has gone up from 4.4% in July 2023 to 5.2% in July 2024. This increase in Illinois joblessness, of 80 basis points, could be affecting cash flow into the Illinois personal income tax top line.
Moneys paid in income tax go to the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR), which reports their monthly revenue numbers to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA), the nonpartisan budget monitoring arm of the Illinois General Assembly. As the State of Illinois’s independent fiscal watchdog agency, CGFA monitors monthly general funds revenue trends in Springfield.
JOBS
Progress towards startup of a new Central Illinois school focusing on the building trades. The San Damiano College for the Trades will provide adult-level education aimed at skilled-trades career pathways. The College will focus on carpentry, plumbing, and electrical contracting, which will be taught through a Catholic framework that will concentrate on the future of households and families in Illinois. The current scheduled operational startup date is the fall of 2025.
The San Damiano College will be located on a repurposed footprint on the grounds of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis near Springfield, Illinois. The location will continue and step up the Catholic educational heritage of its predecessors, with the goal of enabling the formation of adults with strong, family-oriented values. Together with hands-on training in the building trades, the new College plans to offer coursework that will be oriented towards the awarding of associate’s degrees to student learners.
TOURISM
In a new mandate, Illinois government bans convenience hygiene bottles in hotel guest rooms. The familiar hand-sized bottles have been found throughout Illinois hospitality spaces, especially bathrooms and shower chambers. They contain soap, shampoo, and conditioners, and are meant to ensure that these hygienic products are personal to each guest. However, the new Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act will soon forbid these goods from being placed in Illinois hotel rooms. The Act will become fully effective on January 1, 2026, but many hotels will be taking action before that time to remain in compliance by phasing out these toiletries.
The ban on small hospitality toiletry bottles applies to all such bottles that are less than 6 ounces in size and are not intended for re-use. The new law is supposed to reduce demands on Illinois landfill facilities. The toiletry bottles cannot be recycled and, after they are emptied, they are bulky and volumetric. Some Illinois hotels are installing, or have installed, shower brackets to hold larger pump-action bottles to dispense shampoos and conditioners. Many hotels will also continue to distribute small wrapped bars of soap.
All Illinois House Republicans voted “no” against the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act. House Republican opponents pointed out the measure as yet another intrusive mandate imposed by Springfield on the Illinois small businesses. The bill was approved by the House and Senate Democrats as SB 2960, and was signed into law by Gov. Pritzker.
PROFESSIONAL LICENSES
House Republicans focus on delays in issuing required State licenses. Led by House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, House Republicans have introduced a comprehensive plan and bill package intended to unsnarl the license-issuance and license-renewal processes operated by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). IDFPR is the Springfield-based State agency that is responsible for issuing most of the licenses used by professionally trained Illinoisans. In recent years, this routine procedure – one depended on by hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents – has become badly dysfunctional. Illinois license applicants mail to the Department the fees required to take out or renew a license, submit required documentation, and then have to wait long periods of time for a license to be issued or renewed.
State Representative Mike Coffey understands the frustration from professionals seeking work in Illinois and filed House Bill 5007 to help individuals receive a professional license. This bill would create a task force that would help manage reports submitted to the General Assembly for review.
“We have incredible people seeking professional careers in Illinois, but waiting months to obtain their license to work is depriving them from earning a paycheck. The result of poor policy is driving workers to other states and creates a barrier for economic growth. I filed legislation in support of our professional workers in Illinois.”
The Springfield-based IDFPR blames “computer problems” for the delays and snafus. The Department’s licensure paradigm is based on an antique 1990s electronic technological platform that is no longer receiving adequate support from professional solutions providers. In addition, the Department has overlaid many separate security-software add-ons onto their creaking system, which means neither their computers nor the machines’ operators know what is going on any more. The General Assembly has issued bipartisan instructions to the Department to switch out their licensure hardware and software and create a new platform, but the State’s personnel have so far been unable to actually do so. The McCombie plan and legislative package, also sponsored by House Republicans Bill Hauter and Dave Severin, will speed up the necessary work of procuring new hardware and software and getting it up and running. This is an especially important goal for Hauter, who is a trained physician. Illinois doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals have been impacted with special force by IDFPR’s licensure delays.
State Representative Mike Coffey has posted a form to help professionals in tracking their license renewals or applications inside the current IDFPR process.