Gov. Pritzker signs comptroller-backed disability compensation bill

Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 3162 on Wednesday, a bill covering first responders who dealt with COVID-19 before vaccines were available.

Through amendments to the Illinois Works Jobs Program Act, families of first responders who died after contracting COVID-19 in the field have been due death benefits. The "Act-of-Duty" bill extends that eligibility to those who have been disabled by the virus.

HB 3162 passed both chambers of the General Assembly unanimously and would retroactively provide Chicago police officers and firefighters disability benefits for the time they were unable to serve due to contracting COVID-19 between March 9, 2020, and June 30, 2021.

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"When our first responders aren't given their full due, the state of Illinois won't let them down," the governor said during a bill signing ceremony at the Capitol.

The bill was an initiative of Comptroller Susana Mendoza, testifying in several Senate and House committees. Her brother, Chicago Police Det. Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, was the first COVID-19 disability case to go before the city’s police disability board, which adopted a policy of not giving disability pensions to officers disabled by the virus.

The board policy caused him to only receive an ordinary disability benefit and not the duty disability benefit, meaning he only received half of his salary for the next five years plus no health insurance. Comptroller Mendoza said her brother's claim was denied since he could not point to when exactly on duty he came in contact with COVID-19.

The same fate happened to Chicago police officer Diana Cordova-Nestad, who now requires oxygen tank to breath. A total of 18 to 20 first responders are waiting to go to the board for the specific issue of disability benefits, the comptroller estimated.

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Countless surgeries and five strokes have followed for Joaquin Mendoza, who could not attend the bill signing due to a surgery-related hospitalization.

"If you're a Chicago police officer who dies from COVID, you'd have a rebuttable presumption that you caught COVID in the performance of an act or acts of duty, and your family would receive duty death benefits," Comptroller Mendoza said, thanking the bipartisanship behind the legislation. "But if you survive COVID and become disabled from it you're out of luck and you're on your own. Frankly, cops shouldn't have to die, to be eligible for the benefits."

The signing took place one day before the state officially ends its COVID-19 public health emergency. The most recent data from the Illinois Department of Public Health finds that there have been 4.1 million cases and 36,850 deaths across the state throughout the pandemic.

Contact Patrick Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Gov. Pritzker signs comptroller-backed disability compensation bill