Amends the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Increases the retirement formula for sheriff's law enforcement employees (SLEPs) to 2.5% of the final rate of earnings for each year of SLEP service. Increases the maximum pension payable to a SLEP from 75% to 80% of the final rate of earnings. Removes the 2-year service requirement for earning new benefits after a return to service as a SLEP. Makes these changes apply to persons in service on or after July 1, 2004. Also increases the additional employee contribution paid by SLEPs to 2.5% of salary. Eliminates the reduction in benefit imposed on a surviving spouse who is more than 5 years younger than the deceased member, for the surviving spouse of any member who dies on or after the effective date. Allows a SLEP to convert up to 10 years of non-SLEP service credit into SLEP credit by paying the difference in employee and employer contributions, plus interest. Makes the additional unfunded liability for all changes subject to a full 30-year amortization period. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement. Effective immediately.
Sponsored bills
Amends the Ticket Scalping Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning service charges.
Celebrates Mayor George Van Dusen's dedication to the Village of Skokie and his efforts to make Illinois a leader in the field of biotechnology.
Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the executive committee of domestic mutual companies.
Amends the Prevailing Wage Act. Provides that while participating on public works, each contractor and subcontractor shall submit weekly a certified payroll to the public body in charge of the project. Provides that any contractor or subcontractor subject to the Act who fails to submit a certified payroll or knowingly files a false certified payroll is in violation of the Act and is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. Provides that the public body shall keep these records for at least 3 years. Provides that these payroll records are public records subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Effective immediately.
Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. In provisions requiring an insurer that provides coverage for hospital or medical expenses under a group policy of accident and health insurance or health care plan to provide coverage under the policy for treatment of serious mental illness under the same terms and conditions as coverage for hospital or medical expenses related to other illnesses and diseases (commonly referred to as "mental health parity"), eliminates the December 31, 2005 sunset date that applies to those provisions. Effective immediately.
Creates the Home Care Consumer and Worker Protection Act. If an agency places a home care worker with a consumer to provide home care services, requires the agency to give the worker and the consumer a notice setting forth the rights and responsibilities of each of them as well as appropriate phone numbers and addresses of the Department on Aging. Provides that the Act does not apply to nursing homes, home health agencies, and certain other agencies. Provides that an agency subject to the Act must comply with the Health Care Worker Background Check Act and must ensure that every home care worker placed by the agency for hire by a consumer has the appropriate credentials and is appropriately licensed or certified as required by law. Authorizes the Department on Aging to investigate complaints of violations of the Act, issue cease-and-desist orders, and seek injunctive relief. Provides for a civil penalty of $1,000 per day for each day that a violation continues. Effective January 1, 2006.
Creates the Firearms Act. Contains only a short title provision.
Creates the Health Care Setting Violence Prevention Act. Requires health care settings, including hospitals, mental health evaluation and treatment facilities, community mental health programs, home health agencies, and hospice programs, by July 1, 2006, to adopt and implement a plan to reasonably prevent and protect employees from violence at the setting. Requires a health care setting to file copies of its plan, and copies of changes to the plan, with the Department of Labor and the Department of Human Services. Requires a review of the plan at least once every 3 years. Requires health care settings to provide violence prevention training to employees by July 1, 2007. Requires health care settings to keep records of violent acts against an employee, a patient, or a visitor and to forward copies of such records to the Department of Labor and the Department of Human Services. Provides for enforcement of the Act by the Department of Labor, and authorizes the Director of Labor to issue an order for correction to a health care setting fixing a time for abatement of a violation. Amends the Illinois State Auditing Act. Requires that the Auditor General's audits of certain mental health and developmental disabilities facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services include their records concerning reports of suspected abuse of facility staff by facility residents or patients. Effective immediately.
Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. Provides that a person commits aggravated battery if in committing a battery he or she knows the individual harmed to be an employee of the State of Illinois or a municipal corporation or political subdivision of the State of Illinois, engaged in the performance of his or her authorized duties as such employee. Effective immediately.