SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — 2023 was an active year for Illinois state lawmakers. More than 300 new laws took effect Jan. 1, 2024, more than double the 180 that took effect New Year's Day the year before.
That new legislation included a ban on book bans, paid leave for all workers and the start of the SAFE-T Act. Jan. 1 also marked the deadline for gun owners to register their assault weapons with the state under Illinois’ assault weapons law.
State lawmakers will return to Springfield for the start of the 2024 spring legislative session on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
"I think this year, really, you know, with it being a campaign year, you might not see a lot of legislation until after the primary March 19," said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie R-Savanna. "You'll see some things."
McCombie said Republicans will want to address some of those new laws that took effect, including repealing and amending "anti-business legislation."
"The paid time off, we anticipated to see that last year in veto session some fixes," she said. "They didn't take into consideration the temporary high school worker, or the person that already works a full time job and gets paid time off and then just wants to maybe work at a restaurant a night, didn't look at non for profit. So we're definitely going to be looking at repealing or amending some of those non helpful to business bills, for sure. But also, I think you're gonna see some SAFE-T Act changes, as we're seeing the results of that legislation starting."
She also believes lawmakers need to focus on ethics reform, issues within agencies such as DCFS and the backlog of licensing for teachers and nurses.
"We're going to be fighting back any sort of increase in revenues in the form of a tax increase," McCombie said. "And the increasing fentanyl is going to be a huge priority."
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic State Senator Mike Halpin said he's focusing on the upcoming budget.
"I think that's always our main focus," Halpin said. "We're going to continue to make historic investments in infrastructure, K-12 education. And one of my priorities is increased funding for higher education ... One of the things when it comes to higher education, we assigned a commission a couple of years ago to study the issue of how to increase and more equitably fund our public universities. Recommendations from that commission are due out very soon. And it's my hope that we will review those recommendations and come to a formula that really gives a boost to our universities."
Among some of Halpin's other priorities are funding the Illinois Veterans Grant and National Guard Grant. The fiscal year 2024 state budget did not include funding for either program to provide for compensating institutions for waiving the tuition and fees for qualified applicants.
"I also have a couple of constituent issues related to domestic violence and family medical caregiving that I'm looking to introduce," he said. "More details to come on that but those constituent driven issues are very important to me."
McCombie will also continue pushing for tougher penalties for people who harm DCFS caseworkers this session. She first introduced the legislation after a Whiteside County woman, Pam Knight, was beaten to death while conducting a welfare check.
"We still haven't passed that legislation, which is really crazy to me," she said. "So that continues to be a number one priority."
According to LegiScan, a nonpartisan site that tracks legislation, nearly a dozen bills have already been filed for the upcoming session.