Measures to extend private school tax credit, lift nuclear plant moratorium top agenda of state legislature’s end-of-year session
A controversial private school tax credit that’s set to expire at the end of the year is one of the biggest unresolved issues Illinois lawmakers could take up when they return to Springfield on Tuesday to begin their final session of 2023.
The debate over whether state income-tax incentives should continue to be used to fund the “Invest In Kids” voucher program has divided Democrats who control the General Assembly, while firing up Republican lawmakers who see the program as a promotion of their school choice platforms in their proxy war against teachers unions.
Other matters legislators could address before they’re scheduled to adjourn for the year on Nov. 9 include a measure to lift a nearly 40-year-old moratorium on new nuclear power plants, which was passed in the spring but then vetoed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pritzker wielded his veto pen more freely following the first legislative session of his second term than he had previously, forcing lawmakers to revisit a number of other issues that appeared settled.
In addition to the nuclear moratorium, Pritzker vetoed a measure that would have allowed a downstate utility company to build new electrical transmission lines without going through a competitive bidding process.
Two high-profile items that have been scratched from the fall agenda are legislation to help the Chicago Bears build a stadium in Arlington Heights, and the allocation of additional money for the ongoing migrant crisis.
The Bears announced earlier they wouldn’t continue to pursue stadium legislation this year, while both Pritzker and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch have essentially ruled out the possibility of more state aid for the migrants.
That leaves the Invest in Kids program as the issue likely to be most contentious this fall.
Pritzker said Thursday that if lawmakers send him a bill, he’d agree to extend the program. But with his comments, Pritzker essentially absolved himself of responsibility if the program ends.
“The governor has already put the General Assembly on notice that ‘it’s up to you guys,’“ said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat. “Man, that was something for the governor to do that to us.”
At the same time, Pritzker’s stated willingness to extend the program ignited lobbying efforts by two of the state’s most politically powerful education unions to persuade their Democratic allies to kill the program.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association issued a statement Friday strongly condemning Pritzker’s position, saying he “has chosen to side with anti-public education Republican governors in other states with his support of vouchers, going against the values of the Democratic Party, which clearly stands opposed to vouchers.”
Signed into law by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017, the program is set to expire Dec. 31 absent any legislative action. It allows individuals and corporations to donate funds for private school scholarships and get a 75% income tax credit in return, which is capped at $1 million. From there, a handful of nonprofits process the applications and distribute the money. The maximum allowed in total annual contributions is $75 million.
The debate centers on the use of tax credits to help fund private schools, many of which are religious. In addition, state records show Invest in Kids funds have gone to schools with policies that potentially deny entry to LGBTQ students, pregnant students or those who’ve fathered a child, those who are not U.S. citizens or who have certain disabilities, according to school websites or publicly available handbooks.
“Our public dollars should support public schools in Illinois,” said state Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Chicago Democrat who cited those factors as among the reasons he does not back an extension for the program. “Until our public schools are adequately funded across the state, we just don’t have the resources to be dedicating money to supporting private schools.”
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who’s the only openly gay member of the House, put it more bluntly in a news release Wednesday: “At its core, Invest in Kids exists to send state funds to schools that wouldn’t hire me as a lesbian, that teach that our family isn’t real and that I am an abomination. There’s not enough makeup to cover up that reality.”
Supporters say the program benefits children whose families can’t afford to give them a good education, particularly if they’re from impoverished neighborhoods with underperforming public schools.
Republican calls for extending the program during budget negotiations this spring were ignored by Democrats, who passed a budget without GOP support in either chamber.
House GOP leader Tony McCombie of Savanna said she is optimistic a deal can be reached to preserve the program, which she says has support on both sides of the aisle.
“Unfortunately, it’s just another topic that has been used as a political football, and it’s taken to the end, to the sunset, and it’s really unfortunate for the families that have been utilizing the scholarship program because they don’t know what’s next,” McCombie said.
Acknowledging that Democratic support isn’t broad enough to make the program permanent, McCombie said she supports extending it for another five years and would also back efforts to make sure a certain portion of the money is targeted toward schools that serve large numbers of minority students.
“It would bring everybody together for once, actually, on something that most people agree upon,” she said Wednesday, before Pritzker indicated he would sign an extension if it reached his desk.
Ford, a Chicago Democrat whose district covers a swath of the predominantly Black Austin community, said he generally approves of the Invest In Kids program but thinks it has to be changed to benefit more children from underserved communities.
“I think that if the program saves 10 children, 10 Black kids and lifts them out of poverty, 10 Hispanic kids and lifts them out of poverty, that’s a win,” he said. “But, of course, we know that the full intent was for communities that are disadvantaged, and this program has fallen to a dismal collapse of that.”
Creating another issue for the fall session, Pritzker surprised many this summer by vetoing a measure — backed by allies in organized labor but opposed by environmental groups, another key Democratic constituency — that would have cleared the way for nuclear power plants to be built in Illinois for the first time in more than a generation.
During the spring legislative session, Pritzker had indicated support for allowing the construction of small modular nuclear reactors, which supporters contend would create well-paying jobs and aid in achieving the governor’s goal of reaching 100% carbon-free energy generation by midcentury. This new generation of small reactors can be at least partially fabricated in factories, potentially cutting down on the astronomical cost of building a traditional nuclear plant, such as the six already in Illinois.
But Pritzker argued that the final proposal that reached his desk also left the door open for large-scale nuclear plants, which he opposes.
“Unfortunately, the vague definitions in the bill, including the overly broad definition of advanced reactors, will open the door to proliferation of large-scale nuclear reactors that are so costly to build that they will cause exorbitant ratepayer-funded bailouts,” Pritzker wrote in an August veto message to lawmakers.
The governor told lawmakers to take another shot at crafting legislation that would include more safeguards for people living near new nuclear plants and that would be more targeted toward small modular reactors.
Supporters are working on a proposal that addresses Pritzker’s concerns — state Sen. Sue Rezin, a Morris Republican, filed legislation Wednesday that would allow for construction of small modular reactors and establish some guardrails. At the same time, backers are keeping open the possibility of a vote to override his veto, given that the original legislation was passed by three-fifths majorities in each chamber.
“We certainly feel that we’ll have enough votes in the Senate and the House, if we can get the bill called, to override the governor’s veto,” Rezin, who sponsored the measure in the spring, said last week. “That’s our hope. But the challenge will be to get the bill called in the House.”
In his message to lawmakers, Pritzker said he vetoed the measure “at the request of the leadership team of the speaker of the House and advocates.”
At the time, a spokesperson for Welch, who voted in favor of the legislation, said the speaker needed to “seek input from the (Democratic) caucus on next steps.”
Heading into the fall session, the speaker’s office remained noncommittal.
“We need to see what the Senate does, and then we’ll review with the caucus,” spokeswoman Jaclyn Driscoll said Wednesday.
Lawmakers also are trying to figure out how to address Pritzker’s veto of another labor-backed measure that, for a limited time, would have given downstate power utility Ameren Illinois the right of first refusal to build transmission lines in its territory.
Pritzker used his amendatory veto authority to strike that provision from a larger energy package. Pritzker’s veto was cheered by consumer advocates and environmentalists but it angered some of the governor’s organized labor allies. He argued that allowing Ameren to build the lines without going through competitive bidding would ultimately raise rates for the utility’s customers.
The original measure was approved by a veto-proof majority in the Senate, but that was not the case in the House, making an override vote unlikely.
Another bill vetoed by Pritzker was a measure requiring the Illinois State Board of Education to enter into a statewide contract to provide religious dietary options to all Illinois school districts. Pritzker vetoed the bill because he believed the local governing bodies, not the state, should have the authority to provide such meal options, and the General Assembly didn’t set aside any funding for the contract.
He issued an amendatory veto for a bill that passed regarding property tax changes, including a tax relief policy for spouses of deceased first responders. But Pritzker opposed the measure because of a policy change that gave a tax break to nursing home operators in the Chicago suburbs that could lead to higher taxes for homeowners.
Still in question is whether the legislature will take up a new map of Chicago Public Schools’ school board districts in preparation for an elected board that is supposed to be fully in place within four years.
A hybrid board — with half of the members elected and the others, as well as the president, appointed by the mayor — is set to be installed in 2025 after the November 2024 election.
A fully elected 21-member board is then supposed to be in place in January 2027.
Legislators faced a July 1 deadline to establish district boundaries for the board, but instead reset the deadline to April 1, just seven months before the first school board representatives will be elected.
The extension was a relief for those who opposed the maps that had been proposed, but it also shortens the time candidates will have to make their pitch, raising questions about whether the elected school board will be able to achieve its goal of better representing the interests of the community.
State Sen. Robert Martwick, a Chicago Democrat, said new maps have been submitted, while legislators have also held public hearings on the matter.
“It’s my hope that we resolve the mapping issue sooner than later to ensure that people who are considering running understand what district they’re in and can start organizing,” said Martwick, who has championed the move to an elected school board system. “I am hopeful that we’ll get it done in veto (session) but we’re not required to.”
Martwick filed a proposal Wednesday that would create a path for compensating board members, another issue that needs to be hashed out.
Lawmakers also hope to take up a domestic violence measure generally spelling out when law enforcement would have to take possession of firearms belonging to alleged abusers named in orders of protection that are granted by a judge. The House passed a broad firearms safety bill that included this measure in the spring but it didn’t make it through the Senate.
Lawmakers may also take up a piece of legislation that was filed by Welch last month and would allow legislative employees to collectively bargain “through representatives of their choosing on questions of wages, hours and other conditions of employment.”
The proposal comes after about 20 of Welch’s staffers in May declared their intentions to form a union in an effort to secure higher wages and better benefits. The employees, whose roles included research and legislative functions, formed the Illinois Legislative Staff Association.
