Amends the State Employee Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Expands the special retirement formula for credit as a security employee of the Department of Corrections or Human Services to include all eligible (alternative formula) creditable service. Effective immediately.
Appropriates $2 from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Revenue for its FY04 ordinary and contingent expenses. Effective July 1, 2003.
Amends the Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act. Adds entities that may elect to adopt a referendum to the definition of "State". Grants any school district, public community college district, municipality, municipal corporation, or unit of local government the authority to pass, by initiative petition and referendum, a binding ordinance authorizing the adoption of provisions of the Act. Sets out requirements for passing an initiative petition.
Creates the Illinois School Capital Facility Act. Contains only a short title provision.
Amends the Illinois Controlled Substances Act. Creates the offense of use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense. Provides that a person commits the offense when he or she is 18 years of age or over and commits a felony delivery or felony attempted delivery of a controlled substance in violation of the Act and, as part of that criminal transaction, knowingly uses a child under 16 years of age to effectuate the felony delivery or felony attempted delivery of the controlled substance. Provides that the penalty is a Class 4 felony. Effective immediately.
Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. In the statute relating to bringing contraband into a penal institution, defines "penal institution" to include "visitors' parking lots of the penal institution".
Amends the Illinois Insurance Code, the Health Maintenance Organization Act, and the Voluntary Health Services Plans Act to require coverage for services rendered by assistants in surgery. Effective immediately.
Amends the Department of Natural Resources Act. Makes a technical change with respect to definitions.
Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that, in counties with 3,000,000 or more inhabitants, if a property has been granted a Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption, then the person qualifying need not reapply for the exemption. Increases the ceiling for household income eligibility for the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption provisions, for taxable years 2003 and thereafter, from $40,000 per year to $45,000 per year. Creates a general homestead exemption provision that applies only to counties with 3,000,000 or more inhabitants and counties contiguous to counties with 3,000,000 or more inhabitants. Provides that the amount of the exemption is the equalized assessed value of the homestead property for the current tax year minus, in most cases, the property's base homestead value increased by 7% for each tax year after 2002 through and including the current tax year. Establishes procedures for determining the base homestead value of property improved after the 2002 tax year. Sunsets the provisions after the 2010 assessment year. Amends the Economic Development Area Tax Increment Allocation Act, the County Economic Development Project Area Property Tax Allocation Act, the County Economic Development Project Area Tax Increment Allocation Act of 1991, the Economic Development Project Area Tax Increment Allocation Act of 1995, the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act and the Industrial Jobs Recovery Law in the Illinois Municipal Code, the School Code, and the Criminal Code of 1961 to include a cross reference to the new general homestead exemption provision in the Property Tax Code. In provisions that authorize a partial exemption from property taxes for homestead properties that have been improved and residential structures on homestead property that have been rebuilt following a catastrophic event, changes the limit to $75,000 per year for that homestead property beginning January 1, 2004 and thereafter (now, $45,000 per year). Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement for the new general homestead exemption and the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption. Effective immediately.
Amends the Illinois Optometric Practice Act of 1987. Makes technical changes in a Section concerning holding a license.
Amends the Residential Mortgage License Act of 1987. Adds a caption and makes technical changes in the Section concerning the short title of the Act.
Amends the Pyrotechnic Operator Licensing Act. Removes references to Division 1.4 explosives as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations from the Act.
