Creates the Continuing Appropriation for Education Act. Provides that if the General Assembly fails to make sufficient Common School Fund appropriations sufficient to fund general State aid, supplemental general State aid, and supplementary grants in aid, then the Act shall constitute an irrevocable and continuing appropriation. Effective immediately.
Creates the State Employment Credit Check Act. Provides that if a credit check is required by a State agency as part of the employment application process, the credit check must be conducted at the beginning of the application process and not at the end of that process.
Amends the Illinois Public Aid Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the collection fee a court may impose on an individual who owes child or spouse support.
Amends the Environmental Protection Act. Specifies that the term "recyclable general construction debris" includes clean wood that is segregated from general construction or demolition debris and that is processed for use as fuel. Amends the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act. Provides that the definition of "recycling" includes the combustion of wood or biomass fuel for energy recovery. Effective immediately.
Amends the Department of Veterans Affairs Act. Requires that a member of the Illinois National Guard, appointed by the Adjutant General, be added to the membership of the veterans advisory council.
Amends the Charter Schools Law of the School Code. Under specified circumstances, allows for a maximum of 5 additional charter schools exclusively for truants or dropouts in Chicago if the limit on the number of charter schools that may operate at any one time in the rest of the State has not been reached. Provides that if any of the additional charter schools are not used exclusively for truants or dropouts, then the State Board of Education shall withhold and the charter school shall forfeit all State funding designated for that school.
Amends the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971, the Counties Code, the Illinois Municipal Code, the School Code, the Illinois Insurance Code, the Health Maintenance Organization Act, and the Voluntary Health Services Plans Act to provide coverage for habilitative services, including, but not limited to occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy for children under the age of 19 with congenital or genetic defects existing at or from birth or with a defect acquired at a young age. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement.
Creates the Affordable and Clean Energy Standards (ACES) Act. Provides the findings of the General Assembly. Provides that electric utilities shall utilize cost-effective energy efficiency and load management investment in their energy resource portfolios according to specified guidelines. Provides that the Capital Development Board shall adopt the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code, without amendment, as the statewide residential building code for new home construction and significant additions or remodels of existing homes. Includes a severability clause. Preempts home rule. Effective immediately.
Amends the Payday Loan Reform Act. Changes the definition of "payday loan" to include any loan with a finance charge exceeding an annual percentage rate of 36% (instead of with a finance charge exceeding an annual percentage rate of 36% and with a term that does not exceed 120 days). Provides that no lender may make a payday loan with periodic payments unless the periodic payments are substantially equal term payments and, if paid as scheduled, result in full payment of the principal and interest owed on the loan at the end of the loan term. Requires the licensee, as part of the information that he or she must collect and maintain, to include the total number of lawsuits filed by the licensee or its agent against consumers to collect on payday loans from consumers during the preceding calendar year. Prohibits a licensee or a person making payday loans from evading the requirements and prohibitions of the Act by use of a device or subterfuge including, but not limited to, (i) disguising a payday loan as a different type of transaction, or (ii) characterizing a required fee as a purchase of a good or service in connection with a payday loan. Authorizes the Department to develop rules to determine if any person or entity seeks to evade the applicability of this Act by any device, subterfuge, or pretense. Effective immediately.
Amends the School Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning county board duties.
