Sen. Mattie Hunter

Amends the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Act. In provisions regarding the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority's Chief Executive Officer's requirement to certify to the State Comptroller and the State Treasurer the amounts of incentive grant funds used during the current fiscal year, provides that, during the years 2022 through 2024, the certification shall demonstrate registered attendance in excess of 3,000 individuals or in excess of 5,000 individuals, as appropriate, rather than registered attendance in excess of 5,000 individuals or in excess of 10,000 individuals, as appropriate. Provides that, on July 15, 2022 and each July 15 thereafter through July 15, 2026, the Comptroller shall order transferred, and the Treasurer shall transfer, into the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Incentive Fund from the General Revenue Fund an amount equal to the incentive grant funds certified by the Chief Executive Officer as having been lawfully paid under the provisions of the Section in the previous fiscal year that have not otherwise been transferred into the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Incentive Fund, except that transfers in excess of $15,000,000 shall not be made in any fiscal year. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Provides that the provisions of the Act or any collective bargaining agreement negotiated between a public employer and the exclusive representative of peace officers thereunder shall not take precedence over any conflicting State or local law regarding peace officers. Makes conforming changes.

Amends the Department of Returning Resident Affairs Act and amends the Freedom of Information Act and the Property Tax Code. Contains declarations and findings. Creates the Second Chance State Housing Program under which the Department of Returning Resident Affairs shall provide decent, affordable single-family and multi-family housing opportunities to returning residents who have been prescreened for and referred to the Program by a hub site operator and have completed a 12-hour course conducted by or through a hub site operator using a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved housing counselor. Provides that the Department shall receive not less than 15% of the Illinois affordable housing tax credit allocation. Provides that the Department may borrow money and issue notes and bonds, issue renewal notes, issue bonds to pay such notes, refund any bonds by the issuance of new bonds, create funds and accounts, and exercise other powers. Provides that the property of the Department and its income and operation are exempt from taxation. Provides that the Department shall be considered to be a municipality under the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act and have all of the authority, rights, powers, duties, and obligations of a municipality under that Act, subject to specified provisions. Provides that the Department's territorial limits shall be anywhere within the State. Provides that the Director of Returning Resident Affairs shall fulfill the role of all officials of a municipality and its corporate authorities. Provides that the Department may offer non-recourse reverse mortgage loans to qualified borrowers, subject to specified conditions. Provides that no unit of local government shall enact any zoning, permit, building code or other requirement for the purpose of preventing the Department from acquiring, revitalizing, rehabilitating, and conveying an interest in single-family and multi-family residential housing to one or more returning residents. Authorizes the purchase by the Department of tax delinquent single-family or multi-family residential property, subject to specified conditions. Makes other changes. Contains a severability provision. Effective immediately, but does not take effect at all unless another Act becomes law.

Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Provides that every insurer that amends, delivers, issues, or renews a group or individual policy of accident and health insurance or a qualified health plan offered through the health insurance marketplace in the State and Medicaid managed care organizations providing coverage for hospital or medical treatment shall provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of mental, emotional, nervous, or substance use disorders or conditions. Provides that an insurer shall not limit benefits or coverage for medically necessary services on the basis that those services should be or could be covered by a public program. Provides that an insurer shall base any medical necessity determination or the utilization review criteria on current generally accepted standards of mental, emotional, nervous, or substance use disorder or condition care. Provides that in conducting utilization review of covered health care services and benefits for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental, emotional, and nervous disorders or conditions in children, adolescents, and adults, an insurer shall exclusively apply the criteria and guidelines set forth in the most recent versions of the treatment criteria developed by the nonprofit professional association for the relevant clinical specialty. Provides that an insurer shall not apply different, additional, conflicting, or more restrictive utilization review criteria than the criteria and guidelines set forth in the treatment criteria. Provides that the Director may, after appropriate notice and opportunity for hearing, assess a civil penalty between $5,000 and $20,000 for each violation. Amends the Health Carrier External Review Act. Provides that the independent review organization shall comply with specified requirements for an adverse determination or final adverse determination involving mental, emotional, nervous, or substance use disorders or conditions. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Provides that, regarding peace officers, employers shall be required to bargain collectively with regard to wages only, and shall not be required to bargain collectively concerning hours and terms and conditions of employment.

Creates the Right to Read Act. Provides that the State Board of Education shall offer support: to each public school district to select evidence-based core reading instruction programs and implement them using structured literacy instruction; and to each early childhood, elementary, and special education teacher, reading specialist, literacy coach, and administrator to complete evidence-based training in teaching reading. Requires the State Board of Education to annually compile and post on its website information on the steps it has undertaken to support school districts to deliver high-quality, evidence-based literacy instruction, including a list of any Early Literacy Grant recipients, documentation of how the recipient allocated the funding to support improved literacy, and what evidence-based literacy curricula the recipient is utilizing. Amends the School Code. In provisions concerning educator testing, requires applicants seeking specified licenses to pass a test in reading foundations, which shall include assessment of the applicant's understanding of phonological and phonemic awareness, concepts of print and the alphabetic principle, the role of phonics in promoting reading development, word analysis skills and strategies, vocabulary development, application of reading comprehension skills and strategies, and methods for assessing reading development. In provisions concerning minimum requirements for educators trained in other states or countries, provides that an applicant who has successfully completed a reading foundations test of at least comparable rigor to the Illinois reading foundations test is not required to complete a reading foundations test. Makes other changes. Effective immediately. Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Adds reference to: 105 ILCS 5/21B-20 Replaces everything after the enacting clause with provisions of the introduced bill with the following changes. Makes changes to the General Assembly's findings. Makes changes concerning the support offered by the State Board of Education to a public school district to select evidence-based core reading instruction programs and implement them. Makes changes concerning the support offered by the State Board of Education to each early childhood, elementary, and special education teacher, reading specialist, literacy coach, higher education faculty member, and administrator to complete evidence-based training in teaching reading, including creation of a tool that school districts and the public may use to evaluate professional development and training programs (instead of the creation of an advisory list of rigorous professional development programs). Further amends the School Code. Requires that, before October 1, 2023, the State Board of Education, in consultation with the State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board, review and, as needed, amend its professional licensure standards to align with the principles of evidence-based literacy instruction. Makes changes to the amendatory provisions concerning educator testing, including requiring that applicants seeking specified licenses pass a test in reading foundations after October 1, 2025. Makes changes concerning the minimum requirements for educators trained in other states or countries, including providing that applicants must complete coursework concerning evidence-based methods of reading that include explicit and repeated focus on phonemic awareness, a systematic approach to phonics (decoding), spelling instruction (encoding), vocabulary development, including morphology, reading fluency, oral language development, and reading comprehension, including syntax and background (content) knowledge. Effective immediately.

Creates the Task Force on Black Immigrants to study the state of Black immigrants in Illinois and provide recommendations on how to assist them.

Amends the Illinois Housing Development Act. Provides that the Illinois Housing Development Authority shall develop a form and include it with certain financing agreements. Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides for a reduction in assessed value for affordable rental housing construction or rehabilitation. Effective immediately. Senate Committee Amendment No. 2 Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Reinserts the provisions of the introduced bill with various technical, grammatical, and formatting corrections. Provides that the reduced valuation applies through December 31, 2031 (in the introduced bill, December 31, 2030). Provides that the special assessment program applies in counties with 3,000,000 or more inhabitants. Effective immediately. Senate Floor Amendment No. 3 Makes various grammatical and technical corrections.

Creates the Recovery and Mental Health Tax Credit Act. Provides that the Department of Human Services shall establish and administer a recovery tax credit program to provide tax incentives to qualified employers who employ eligible individuals in recovery from a substance use disorder or mental illness in part-time and full-time positions within Illinois. Creates the Advisory Council on Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder Impacts on Employment Opportunities within Minority Communities. Sets forth the membership of the Council. Provides that the Council shall advise the Department of Human Services regarding employment of persons with mental illnesses and substance use disorders in minority communities. Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act to make conforming changes. Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Reinserts the provisions of the introduced bill with the following changes: Requires the Department of Human Services to maintain an electronic listing of the tax credit certificates it issues under the recovery tax credit program so that the Department of Revenue may confirm the eligibility of qualified employers for the tax credit. Provides that the tax credit authorized under the Act may not be carried forward. Contains provisions concerning tax credits for partners, shareholders of S corporations, and owners of limited liability companies. Makes other changes. Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Provides that a taxpayer who has been awarded a credit under the Recovery and Mental Health Tax Credit Act is entitled to a credit against the tax imposed under specified provisions of the Illinois Income Tax Act. Senate Floor Amendment No. 2 Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Reinserts the provisions of Senate Amendment No. 1 with the following changes: Requires the Department of Human Services to maintain an electronic listing of the certificates of tax credit issued by which the Department of Revenue may verify tax credit certificates issued to qualifying employers. Provides that the tax credit authorized under the Act may not be carried forward. Provides that a taxpayer who is a qualified employer who has received a certificate of tax credit from the Department shall be allowed a credit against the tax imposed equal to the amount shown on such certificate of tax credit. Provides that if the taxpayer is a partnership or Subchapter S corporation the credit shall be allowed to the partners or shareholders in accordance with the determination of income and distributive share of income as provided under specified provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Makes other changes. Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Provides that for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, a taxpayer who has been awarded a credit under the Recovery and Mental Health Tax Credit Act is entitled to a credit against the tax imposed under specified provisions of the Illinois Income Tax Act.

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: (1) an order of misdemeanor diversion under the Unified Code of Corrections, and the diversion program was successfully completed by the petitioner; or (2) a conviction for possession of certain specified amounts of a controlled substance; (3) a conviction for possessing less than 5 grams of methamphetamine; or (4) a conviction where the statutory penalty changed as a result of a resentencing hearing under the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Amends the Illinois Controlled Substances Act. Changes the penalties for the manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver, or possession of a controlled substance. Amends the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act. Changes the penalties for methamphetamine delivery or possession. Amends the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Provides that a person serving a sentence, including a sentence of probation, for an offense for which the statutory penalty has been subsequently reduced under the amendatory Act to petition the trial court that entered the judgment of conviction to request resentencing in accordance with the statutory penalty in effect at the time of the filing of the petition. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections to create a Misdemeanor Diversion Program. Fiscal Note (Admin Office of the Illinois Courts) HB3447 amends the Criminal Identification Act regarding expungements. Based on a review of the bill, it has been determined that the proposed legislation would have no fiscal impact on the state appropriation to the judicial branch. It is not possible to determine what fiscal impact, if any, the bill would have on local judicial budgets.