Sen. Omar Aquino

Amends the Freedom of Information Act to provide that in the case of sexual assault or sexual abuse by a school district employee or volunteer, nothing in the Act prohibits a school district from disclosing the disciplinary records of that person. Amends the School Code to require a school board to report all credible cases of sexual assault or sexual abuse by a licensed educator to the State Board of Education, to establish a hearing procedure for student victims, and to ensure that a licensed educator under investigation by the State Superintendent of Education is reassigned to non-classroom duty. Provides that, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, the State Board of Education must monitor all fingerprint-based criminal history records checks and any other database checks conducted by a school district or regional superintendent for applicants for employment with a school district. Makes changes concerning educator licensure and allegations of physical or sexual abuse. Amends the Criminal Code of 2012 to create the criminal offense of sexual conduct or sexual relations with a student by an authority figure. Amends the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 to require an arresting enforcement agency to share its reports pertaining to the arrest of a licensed educator with the superintendent of any school district that employs the educator (or, in the case of the arrest of a superintendent, with the school board of any school district that employs the superintendent). Amends the Personnel Record Review Act to provide that the Act does not prohibit a school district from divulging internal investigative findings and discipline to another school district. Effective immediately.

Amends the Equal Pay Act of 2003. Prohibits an employer from: (i) screening job applicants based on their wage or salary history, (ii) requiring that an applicant's prior wages satisfy minimum or maximum criteria, and (iii) requesting or requiring as a condition of being interviewed or as a condition of continuing to be considered for an offer of employment that an applicant disclose prior wages or salary. Prohibits an employer from seeking the salary, including benefits or other compensation or salary history, of a job applicant from any current or former employer, with some exceptions. Limits defenses. Provides for penalties and injunctive relief. Effective 60 days after becoming law.

Amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code. Requires managed care organizations (MCOs) to publish, at least quarterly for the preceding quarter, on their websites: (1) the total number of claims received by the MCO; (2) the number and monetary amount of claims payments made to a service provider; (3) the dates of services rendered for the claims payments made under item (2); (4) the dates the claims were received by the MCO for the claims payments made under item (2); and (5) the dates on which claims payments under item (2) were released. Effective July 1, 2019.

Amends the Criminal Identification Act. Provides that a petitioner may petition the circuit court to expunge the records of his or her arrests and charges not initiated by arrest when each arrest or charge not initiated by arrest sought to be expunged resulted in the underlying conduct being later decriminalized.

Amends the Medical Assistance Article of the Illinois Public Aid Code. Provides that for dates of service from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, rates or payments for home health visits shall be $91; for dates of service from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, rates or payments for home health visits shall be $111; and for dates of service on and after January 1, 2022, rates or payments for home health visits shall be $131. Provides that for dates of service from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, rates or payments for the certified nursing assistant component of the home health agency rate shall be $25; for dates of service from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, rates or payments for the certified nursing assistant component of the home health agency rate shall be $30; and for dates of service on and after January 1, 2022, rates or payments for the certified nursing assistant component of the home health agency rate shall be $35. Effective immediately.

Amends the State Treasurer Act. Provides that the State Treasurer shall establish the Illinois Higher Education Savings Program for the purpose of expanding access to higher education through savings. Provides for enrollment in the Program. Provides further duties and requirements of the Treasurer regarding the Program. Creates the Illinois Higher Education Savings Program Fund as a fund held outside of the State treasury to be the official repository of all contributions, appropriations, interest, and dividend payments, gifts, or other financial assets received by the State Treasurer in connection with operation of the Program or related partnerships. Provides for audits and reports concerning the Program. Allows the Treasurer to adopt any rules that may be necessary to implement the Program. Amends the Freedom of Information Act to provide an exemption for information that is exempt from disclosure under the Illinois Higher Education Savings Program.

Amends the Chicago Teacher Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Provides that for school years beginning on or after July 1, 2019 and ending before June 30, 2022, the service retirement pension shall not be cancelled in the case of a service retirement pensioner who is re-employed as a teacher on a temporary and non-annual basis or on an hourly basis, so long as the person (1) does not work as a teacher for compensation on more than 120 days (instead of 100 days) in a school year or (2) does not accept gross compensation for the re-employment in a school year in excess of (i) $36,000 (instead of $30,000) or (ii) in the case of a person who retires with at least 5 years of service as a principal, an amount that is equal to the daily rate normally paid to retired principals multiplied by 120 (instead of 100). Makes conforming changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the General Obligation Bond Act. Authorizes the issuance of an additional $120,015,000,000 in State Serial Long Term Pension Obligation Bonds. Amends the State Pension Funds Continuing Appropriation Act to create a continuing appropriation for payments on those Bonds. Amends the State Finance Act to create the State Pension Serial Long Term Obligation Bond Fund. Effective immediately.

Amends the Election Code. Provides for the election of the Chicago Board of Education starting with the 2023 consolidated primary election. Makes related changes. Amends the Chicago School District Article of the School Code. Provides that a person shall be a U.S. citizen and registered voter and shall have been a resident of the city and the electoral district for at least one year immediately preceding his or her election. Sets forth provisions concerning nominating petitions and ballots. Sets forth provisions providing that the City of Chicago shall be subdivided into 20 electoral districts by the General Assembly for seats on the Chicago Board of Education. Sets forth provisions providing that in the year following each decennial census, the General Assembly shall redistrict the electoral districts to reflect the results of each decennial census. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the Minimum Wage Law. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title. Senate Floor Amendment No. 1 Deletes reference to: 820 ILCS 105/1 Adds reference to: 5 ILCS 100/5-45 from Ch. 127, par. 1005-45 35 ILCS 5/704A 820 ILCS 105/4 from Ch. 48, par. 1004 820 ILCS 105/7 from Ch. 48, par. 1007 820 ILCS 105/10 from Ch. 48, par. 1010 820 ILCS 105/11 from Ch. 48, par. 1011 820 ILCS 105/12 from Ch. 48, par. 1012 Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act and the Minimum Wage Law. Provides for an increase in the minimum wage and for a credit against withholding payments in relation to the increase. Increases the minimum wage to $9.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2020. Provides for annual increases in the minimum wage culminating in a minimum wage of $15 per hour beginning on January 1, 2025. Provides to employers with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees a credit against tax withheld beginning January 1, 2020. Reduces the credit beginning January 1, 2021. Provides employers may claim the credit amount in effect on January 1, 2025 until December 31, 2026 and that employers with no more than 5 employees may claim that credit until December 31, 2027. Authorizes the Department of Labor to perform random audits of employer to ascertain compliance with the Minimum Wage Law. Authorizes a penalty of $100 per employee for failure to maintain required records. Effective immediately. Pension Note (Government Forecasting & Accountability) There is no readily discernible fiscal impact associated with SB1, as engrossed. To the extent minimum wage workers participate in pension funds governed by the Pension Code, there could be an increase in accrued liability, but it would presumably be very small and likely actuarially insignificant. State Debt Impact Note (Government Forecasting & Accountability) This bill would not change the amount of authorization for any type of State-issued or State-supported bond, and, therefore, would not affect the level of State indebtedness. Fiscal Note (Dept of Revenue) Increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour over 6 years increases state revenues. The positive effect on tax revenue, in the form of income and sales taxes, is only slightly offset by the negative effect on income tax revenues of the tax credit extended to eligible businesses. Overall, the net impact of this proposed legislation is an increase in state revenues of nearly $390 million by fiscal year 2027. The positive effect on tax revenue is produced by the additional income tax collection and sales tax collection given by higher wages and personal consumption expenditure in the state economy. We estimate Individual Income tax (IIT) revenue at the current individual income tax rate of 4.95 percent. The estimate for Sales Tax revenue values were decreased to account for the fact that the state does not tax services and receives no share of revenue on food for consumption off site, prescription drugs or certain medical devices. The negative effect on Income tax revenue is due to the tax credit against withholdings. The tax credit for eligible employers is a declining percentage of the wage increment defined as the differential between the employee's hourly wage from the final quarter of the previous calendar year and the State's minimum wage of the present year). The credit, applied on a calendar year basis, is set to scale down over the course of the ramp (to year 2025) at which point the calculation of the credit shifts to a flat, fixed dollar amount. The schedule of credits is as follows: 25% credit in 2020; 21% credit in 2021; 17% credit in 2022; 13% credit in 2023; 9% credit in 2024, and 5% credit in 2025. In calendar year 2026, the credit for businesses is fixed to match the credit taken in 2025; in calendar year 2027, the credit for those businesses with 5 or fewer employees is fixed to match the credit taken in 2025. In calculating the cost of the tax credit, we considered the number of minimum wage jobs increasing from $8.25 in 2019 to $10.00 in 2020, from $10.00 to $11.00 in 2021 and so on until 2027. We discounted those jobs in firms with more than 50 employees using Census bureau data on small firms in Illinois. We considered 1750 hours of work as full time in accordance with prior studies on the subject. All estimates above are static estimates, meaning that they do not account for changes in the labor supply and demand associated to the increase in labor cost. Home Rule Note (Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity) This bill does not pre-empt home rule authority. State Mandates Fiscal Note (Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity) This bill does create a State mandate. Balanced Budget Note (Office of Management and Budget) Please be advised that the Balanced Budget Note Act does not apply to SB 1, as it is not a supplemental appropriation that increases or decreases appropriations. Under the Act, a balanced budget note must be prepared only for bills that change a general funds appropriation for the fiscal year in which the new bill is enacted. Correctional Note (Dept of Corrections) There is no fiscal or population impact on the Department of Corrections. Judicial Note (Admin Office of the Illinois Courts) This bill would neither increase nor decrease the number of judges needed in the State of Illinois. Housing Affordability Impact Note (Housing Development Authority) This bill will have no effect on the cost of constructing, purchasing, owning, or selling a single-family residence.