SPRINGFIELD — The 101st Illinois General Assembly took historic action by passing legislation to end cash bail prior to electing a Black House Speaker for the first time in the 102nd General Assembly.
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SPRINGFIELD — The 101st Illinois General Assembly took historic action by passing legislation to end cash bail prior to electing a Black House Speaker for the first time in the 102nd General Assembly.
But lawmakers ran out of time on several consequential measures — including bills that would have expanded vote-by-mail, allowed lawmakers to conduct business remotely during the pandemic and eliminated newly expanded income tax deductions for business owners. Another bill relating to the state’s rollout of legalization of adult-use marijuana also failed to pass, as did a measure that was part of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ health care agenda.
House Democrats fell 10 votes short of passing a bill, endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker, that would have eliminated certain tax deductions for Illinois business owners that were created under the federal CARES Act. Pritzker has argued this change by the legislature is needed to prevent revenues from shrinking by more than $500 million during the current fiscal year, thus enlarging the state’s $3.9 billion budget deficit.
Specifically, the bill would end the CARES Act amendments that expanded income deductions business owners can claim as net operating losses, carryback losses or excess business losses.
In a Jan. 8 news release, Pritzker encouraged the General Assembly to “decouple” Illinois’ tax law from the federal tax amendments under the CARES Act, an action that would have kept the state tax code consistent with previous years.
Pritzker claimed those changes would have preserved $500 million in state tax revenue from noncorporate taxpayers and owners of pass-through entities, such as limited liability companies and partnerships.
During House floor debate in the early hours of Jan. 13, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle described the bill as preserving up to $1 billion in state revenue.
Democratic Rep. Michael Zalewski, the bill’s sponsor, said the proposed changes would impact about 440,000 taxpayers statewide.
Zalewski, of Riverside, tried to appeal to his caucus, but 10 House Democrats voted present while another eight did not vote on the bill, including former House Speaker Michael Madigan, of Chicago, and the newly elected Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, of Hillside.