SENATE WEEK IN REVIEW: June 19-23, 2006
SPRINGFIELD - An initiative requiring young drivers to spend more practice
time behind the wheel, a tax checkoff to help municipalities buy defibrillators,
and more comprehensive insurance coverage for persons with autism were among the
bills signed into law during the week of June 19-23, according to State Sen.
Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton).
Also this week, it was announced on June 22 that the Senate Republican Health
Facilities Planning Board Task Force will hold public hearings this summer to
take a closer look at the politically charged and increasingly litigious process
that are all too common in determining health facility construction and
modification. Senator Roskam says the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board
has had a tumultuous couple years, with media reports of ties between Planning
Board members and a political crony of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. However, other than
replacing Board members, the Administration has not made substantial reforms.
Senate Republicans are convening this Task Force to examine ways to remove
politics from the system and establish a process based on merit, and not on
political influence.
House Bill 4768 will strengthen the Illinois Graduated Driver’s License
program. Parents and guardians will now be required to verify that their child
spent 50 hours of practice driving time in the car with a parent or guardian,
including 10 hours of night driving, before the new driver is eligible for an
Illinois Driver’s License. Previously, student drivers were only required to
spend 25 hours driving with their parent or guardian.
Also signed this week, House Bill 542 creates a new checkoff for the
Heartsaver AED Fund on state individual income tax return forms. The Heartsaver
AED Fund was created in 2005 and allows the Illinois Department of Public Health
to make matching grants to any public school, public park district, public
college, or public university required to have an automated external
defibrillator.
Another new law, House Bill 4125, requires insurance plans to cover 20
additional outpatient visits for speech therapy for treatment of autism,
Asperger’s Syndrome, or other pervasive developmental disorders.
Other legislation signed into law during the week of June 19-23 includes:
- Class size reduction (SB 2882) - Creates an additional K-3 pilot class
size reduction grant program, to be implemented and administered by the State
Board of Education. Grants will be awarded to schools to defray the costs and
expenses of operating and maintaining classes of no more than 15 pupils per
teacher per class.
- Identity theft (SB 2283) - Provides that, when information is obtained
from a driver=s license or ID card, the information may only be used for the
purpose of identification or in the course of a commercial transaction.
Information may not be sold, leased or otherwise provided to a third party and
information may not be used for purposes unrelated to the transaction for
which it was obtained.
- Auto warranties (HB4425) - Requires automobile manufactures to disclose
information on surcharges to dealers being surcharged as a result of receiving
a prevailing retail rate reimbursement from the manufacturer for work done on
automobiles under warranty instead of accepting a flat rate reimbursement for
the work.
- Lead poisoning (HB 4853) - Prohibits willful and knowing violators of the
Lead Poisoning Prevention Act from doing business with the State or a State
agency.
- Children (HB 4242) - Requires DCFS to make reasonable efforts to identify
and locate a relative who is ready, able, and willing to care for a child. The
placement must be consistent with the child’s best interests.
- School boards (HB 4310) - Requires school board members to take an oath of
office, and lists the duties and responsibilities of suburban and downstate
school boards, such as employment decisions relating to superintendents and
oversight of school district policy.
- Hate crimes (HB 4134) - Expands the crimes covered under the Crime Victim
Compensation Act to include hate crimes.
- Domestic violence (HB 4649) - Requires a person charged with committing a
violent crime against a family or household member to appear before the court
for the setting of bail if specified conditions are met.
- Insurance (HB 4079) - Allows child advocacy centers to participate in the
Local Government Health Insurance Pool of the State Employee Group Insurance
Act
- Anesthesia (HB 4370) - Provides for the administration of limited levels
of sedation or analgesia and local anesthesia by a registered nurse when
ordered by a physician.
- County courts (HB 4527) - Provides that the $10 fee that a county may
impose on each defendant on a judgment of guilty or a grant of supervision may
be used to finance the county drug court, the county mental health court, or
both.
- Subcontracts (HB 4688) - Provides that an individual or entity that
knowingly obtains a subcontract under a contract with a governmental unit, by
falsely representing that the individual or entity, is a minority owned
business, female owned business, or business owned by a person with a
disability is guilty of a Class 2 felony.
- Senior centers (HB 5301) - Allows the Department on Aging to award grants
for the purposes of modifying the physical structure of a center or
experimenting with innovative programming to permit a center to appeal to a
broader array of seniors.
- Barber clinics (SB 2511) - Requires the licensure of barber clinic
teachers.
- Finance crime (SB 2617) - Expands coverage of the Illinois Financial Crime
Law to include currency exchanges.
- Gasoline (SB 2716) - Provides that the quality of gasoline-oxygenate
blends sold or offered for sale in the State will meet the standards set forth
in the listed Sections of the Uniform Engine Fuels, Petroleum Products, and
Automotive Lubricants Regulation.
- Teaching excellence (HB 4308) - Requires the State Board of Education=s
annual budget to set out by separate line item the appropriation for the
Illinois Teaching Excellence Program.
- Co-op schools (HB 4365) - Allows cooperative high schools to receive
supplemental state aid.
- Community service (HB 4832) - Creates the Community Service Education
Program, administered by the State Board of Education. Provides that a school
district may establish and operate a community service education program that
qualifies for a grant from the State Board of Education.
- Board of Higher Ed (SB 2312) - Adds an additional student member to the
Board of Higher Education.
- IPSAN (SB 2137) - Provides for the creation of the Illinois Public Safety
Agency Network (IPSAN) as a not-for-profit corporation to develop and operate
comprehensive interoperable communications systems for law enforcement.
- Tow truck permits (HB 4727) - Allows the Illinois Commerce Commission to
suspend or revoke a permit if the tow truck operator or dispatcher has, during
the preceding five years, violated the provisions of the Commercial Vehicle
Relocator Law.
- Mortgages (HB 4519) - Provides that notice of tax payments from a mortgage
lender to a borrower must be on at least an annual basis.
- Township roads (HB 4699) - Provides that the roads forming a part of a
township road district include those roads maintained by the district,
regardless of whether or not those roads are owned by the township.
- Billing (HB 4999) - Requires hospitals to notify patients that they may be
eligible for financial assistance and the contact information for the hospital
financial assistance representative.
- Condominiums (HB 5267) - Provides that to change a condominium instruments
the majority vote needed to change the instruments cannot exceed three-fourths
vote of the unit owners. Caps the majority voted needed to change the
instruments at a : vote. Does not apply to a condominium building entirely
owned by the developer.
- Child abuse (HB 5375) - Requires school board members who have been
informed of a child abuse allegation to direct the Superintendent of the
school district or other administrators to comply with child abuse reporting
requirements.
- Community colleges (HB 5429) - Requires the Illinois Community College
Board to implement and administer a three-year, mobile response workforce
training pilot program at three community colleges to address the fact that
businesses are struggling to recruit a qualified workforce because of the
frequent emergence of new technologies in the workplace and subsequent skill
set requirements.
###
