Amends the Election Code and the Regional Transportation Authority Act. Provides for the nonpartisan election of members of the Commuter Rail Board, beginning at the consolidated election in 2007. Adds 2 additional members, and makes a pro rata reduction in member salaries. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.
Amends the Minimum Wage Law. Provides that an employer of an employee engaged in an occupation in which gratuities have customarily and usually constituted and have been recognized as part of the remuneration is not entitled to an allowance for gratuities as part of the hourly wage rate (and deletes language giving an employer such an allowance in an amount not to exceed 40% of the applicable minimum wage rate).
Makes a supplemental appropriation of $5,400,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission for payment of Merit Recognition Scholarships to undergraduate students. Effective immediately.
Amends the Property Tax Code. Changes the exemption for disabled veterans. The exemption now applies only to property up to an assessed value of $58,000 owned and used exclusively as a home by a disabled veteran found eligible for specially adapted housing by the federal government or the spouse or unmarried surviving spouse of the veteran. This amendatory Act provides that the exemption applies, for taxable years 2005 and thereafter, to the first $58,000 in assessed value of property owned and used exclusively by a disabled veteran, or the spouse or unmarried surviving spouse of the veteran, as a home. Provides that a disabled veteran is a person who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and (i) who was found 100% disabled and eligible for disabled veterans benefits or (ii) who was found disabled and eligible for Social Security Disability or SSI benefits. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement.
Congratulates the people of Harvard, Illinois, on the sesquicentennial anniversary of their community.
Amends the IMRF Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Prohibits a person convicted of a felony relating to or arising out of or in connection with his or her service as an employee who is an employee of more than one employer that participates in the Fund from receiving benefits based on any of his or her service as an employee for all employers that participate in the Fund. Provides that, if, as a result of the felony, the employee is ordered by the court to pay restitution to the employer, then (i) the employer may apply for a refund of employee contributions on the employee's behalf and (ii) pursuant to appropriate documentation from the employer and the court, the Fund shall pay to the employer all or a portion of the refund in a sum sufficient to satisfy the court-ordered restitution. Effective immediately.
Amends the Acupuncture Practice Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning activities exempt from the application of the Act.
Amends the Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title and policy of the Act.
Amends the Criminal Code of 1961 and the Unified Code of Corrections. Re-enacts provisions of those Codes affected by Public Act 88-669, which has been held to be unconstitutional as a violation of the single subject clause of the Illinois Constitution. Includes validation provisions. Effective immediately.
Amends the Identity Theft Law of the Criminal Code of 1961. Provides that identity theft also occurs when a person knowingly: (1) uses any personal identification information or personal identification document of another to portray himself or herself as that person, or otherwise, for the purpose of gaining access to any personal identification information or personal identification document of that person, without the prior express permission of that person, or (2) uses any personal identification information or personal identification document of another for the purpose of gaining access to any record of the actions taken, communications made or received, or other activities or transactions of that person, without the prior express permission of that person. Provides that where a person has been convicted of this form of identity theft, in the absence of proof of actual damages, the person whose personal identification information or personal identification documents were used in the violation in question may recover damages of $2,000. Provides that it is no defense to a charge of aggravated identity theft or identity theft that the offender received the consent of any person to access any personal identification information or personal identification document, other than the person described by the personal identification information or personal identification document used by the offender. Establishes exemptions to violations of the Identity Theft Law. Effective immediately.
