Rep. Ron Stephens

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that all nurses registered or licensed under the Nursing and Advanced Practice Nursing Act performing services for the Department of Corrections on a contractual basis as of the effective date of this amendatory Act shall become employees of the Department on the date immediately following the effective date of this amendatory Act.

Amends the Pharmacy Practice Act of 1987. Provides that a pharmacist licensed under the Act may, based on his or her personal, religious beliefs, refuse to fill a prescription for and to dispense emergency contraception. Amends the Health Care Right of Conscience Act. Adds the dispensation of prescribed medication to the list of activities included in the definition of "health care", adds pharmacist to the list of occupations included in the definition of "health care personnel", and adds pharmacy to the list of facilities included in the definition of "health care facility".

Amends the Illinois Renewable Fuels Development Program Act. Provides that a recipient of Program grants must be constructing, modifying, altering, or retrofitting an (i) ethanol plant (now, just plant) that has annual production capacity of no less than 30,000,000 gallons of renewable fuel per year or a (ii) biodiesel plant. Requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to establish and administer grant programs including: the Illinois Renewable Fuels Majority Blended Ethanol Program, the Illinois Corn Grain to Fuel Research Consortium Assistance Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Corn-to-Hydrogen Fuel Cell Research Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Biodiesel Infrastructure Grant Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Ethanol Development Intergovernmental Assistance Program. Sets forth the purposes and conditions for these grant programs. Provides that subject to appropriation (now, subject to appropriation from the Build Illinois Bond Fund), the Director is authorized to award Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund grants. Sets forth that the annual aggregate amount for these grants shall not exceed $25,000,000 in Fiscal year 2007 and 2008 and $15,000,000 thereafter (now, may not exceed $15,000,000). Specifies how these grant funds shall be allocated. Sets forth certain limitations on spending on the various Program grants including for research conducted at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Facility at SIU-Edwardsville not to exceed $1,000,000 annually, and a one-time grant in FY 2007 not to exceed $3,000,000 for construction, remodeling, and expansion of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Facility at SIU-Edwardsville. Provides that normal operating and execution of renewable fuels programs in existence on January 1, 2006 within the Department from the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund shall not exceed $5,000,000 annually. Amends the State Finance Act to create the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund as a special fund in the State treasury to fund these grant programs. Sets forth certain conditions for the operation of this Fund. Provides for certain annual payments from the General Revenue Fund to the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund. Amends the Use Tax Act, the Service Use Tax Act, the Service Occupation Tax Act, and the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act, to provide that on or after July 1, 2006 and on or before June 30, 2016, those tax rates apply to 90% of the proceeds of sales made on gasohol (now, apply to 80% of the proceeds of sales made on gasohol). Amends the Motor Fuel and Petroleum Standards Act to provide that beginning January 1, 2008 a minimum of 10% of all motor fuel sold or offered for sale in Illinois must be denatured ethanol and that beginning January 1, 2012 a minimum of 15% of all motor fuel sold or offered for sale in Illinois must be denatured ethanol. Effective July 1, 2006.

Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that, beginning with the 2005 assessment year, qualified timberland shall be assessed at 33 1/3% of the lesser of: (i) its value for forestry-production purposes; or (ii) $500 per acre. Defines "qualified timberland" as any parcel of unimproved real property that is timberland and that: (1) does not qualify as cropland, permanent pasture, other farmland, or wasteland; and (2) is not managed under a forestry management plan so as to be considered as "other farmland". Effective immediately.

Creates the Tenant Notification Act. Provides that a landlord of a multi-unit rental complex or rental property with 2 or more rental units, mobile homes, or mobile home lots shall notify tenants that a sex offender or sexual predator is also a tenant, within 10 days of the landlord becoming aware that the sex offender is a tenant. Provides that the notice shall include the sex offender's name, address, and crime. Provides that a landlord who knows that a sex offender is a tenant shall give written notice of information about the sex offender to a prospective tenant before that person signs a lease or makes a rental agreement.

Amends the Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse and Dependency Act. Provides that the Department of Human Services, from appropriations made to it for this purpose, shall make grants on a countywide or regional basis to licensed treatment programs for the treatment of methamphetamine addicts and for programs to prevent beginning use or continued use of methamphetamine. Provides that the Department of Human Services shall conduct community outreach programs and educational programs to inform the public of the dangers of methamphetamine use. Effective July 1, 2005.

Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Provides that joint and several liability does not exist in actions arising out of bodily injury, death, or damage to property based on negligence or product liability. (At present, defendants who are found liable are jointly and severally liable for plaintiff's medical expenses; any defendant whose fault is less than 25% of the total fault attributable to the plaintiff is severally liable with any third party defendant, except for the plaintiff's employer; and, any defendant whose fault is 25% or greater of the total fault attributable to the plaintiff is jointly and severally liable for all other damages with any third party defendant, except for the plaintiff's employer). Provides that the trier of fact determines each defendant's respective liability, each party's percentage of contributory fault, and the plaintiff's damages. Provides that a defendant is responsible to pay that percentage of the plaintiff's damages represented by that defendant's portion of all contributory fault, except that a plaintiff cannot recover damages when the plaintiff's contributory fault exceeds 50%. Provides that no defendant is jointly and severally liable for plaintiff's damages. Amends the Joint Tortfeasor Contribution Act. Repeals provision that states that if a tortfeasor's obligation is uncollectible, the other tortfeasors shall pay, pro rata, the unpaid obligation. Repeals provision that states that the Joint Tortfeasor Contribution Act does not affect a plaintiff's right to recover the full amount of a tort judgment from any defendant.

Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. Provides that a violation for unlawful sale of firearms for delivering a firearm without withholding delivery for the required period of time only applies to persons who are licensed as a dealer, importer, manufacturer, or pawnbroker under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 who deliver firearms to unlicensed persons. Effective immediately.

Appropriates $10,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Human Services for: (1) treatment of methamphetamine addicts; (2) the prevention of beginning or continued usage of methamphetamine; (3) community outreach programs; and (4) education programs to teach public awareness of the dangers of methamphetamine use. Effective July 1, 2005.

Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that a member of the armed forces of the United States, other than a reserve component, on active duty on the due date of any installment of taxes due under the Property Tax Code shall not be deemed delinquent in the payment of the installment until 90 days after the due date or, if the member is deployed outside the continental United States, 90 days after the member is redeployed to the continental United States. Provides that members of the reserve components of the armed forces of the United States or members of the National Guard who are on active duty shall not be deemed delinquent in the payment of the installment until 90 days (now, 30 days) after the member returns from active duty. Deletes provisions concerning an amnesty period in Cook County for certain National Guard members for taxes on homestead property due and payable in 1991 or 1992. Effective immediately.