Gov. J.B. Pritzker, declaring Illinois is at a “make or break” moment in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, issued new emergency rules to require businesses and schools to enforce his mandatory face mask rules or face the prospect of being fined.

Pritzker said individuals are not subject to penalties for not complying with the mask mandate.

Businesses that don’t comply with the mask mandate will be given a written notice warning. If they don’t voluntarily comply, businesses will then be given an order for patrons to leave the property “as needed to comply with public health guidance and reduce risks,” Pritzker’s office said.

If businesses still do not comply, they can receive a class A misdemeanor, subject to a fine of $75 to $2,500.

Pritzker issued a mask mandate May 1 for most people in most public settings, but enforcement has been an issue.

Prior to a four-day, pandemic-spurred special legislative session in May, Pritzker’s administration filed a controversial emergency rule with a legislative rule-making body that would have made businesses that flouted the rules in his reopening plan subject to a Class A misdemeanor.

Amid pushback that the punishment was too harsh – a Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a $2,500 fine or 364 days in jail — and the potential that the measure would be blocked by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Pritzker withdrew that rule.

But as some continue to disregard the mask mandate for public settings, Pritzker earlier this week publicly floated the idea of fines for those who flout the mask mandate and an emergency rule with an enforcement mechanism.

“This is one way for us to make sure that businesses that have been scofflaws on this subject know that there is a real penalty at the end of the line here,” Pritzker said Friday.

jmunks@chicagotribune.com

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