This coming week is a key week in the Springfield legislative calendar: all bills originating in the House, have to have been voted on in the House and sent to the Senate, by April 17th (with the exception of the budget, “shell bills” and other loopholes). This means that last week was a busy week for votes, primarily on less controversial bills, but more concerning ones are at risk of being brought up for a vote this coming week.
Here’s one:
HB4416 would pay unemployment insurance benefits to school staff members over summer break. This bill is being heavily pushed by the teachers’ unions and it moved through committee on party lines. If it passes and becomes law, it will increase schoo districts’ costs by an estimated $450 million across the state. After all, “unemployment insurance” does not come from a magic money tree – in this case, it is directly paid by the school districts themselves. The long-term consequences? Either they’ll cut costs elsewhere, or they’ll take advantage of tax cap loopholes to raise our property taxes to pay for it.
Teacher’s unions in Illinois are powerful. I do not claim to have any “inside baseball” on the likelihood of House Speaker Welch choosing to bring this up for a vote, but it will be very costly if he does. Democrats are repeatedly insisting they are laser-focused on affordability, but these kinds of bills certainly suggest they care more about some people’s “affordability” than others.
What you can do
If you’re in my district, then you already know your State Rep: Nicolle Grasse.
You can call her Springfield office at (217) 782-3739 or her local district office at (847) 749-1137, or you can email her office at contact@staterepgrasse.com. It matters to tell her that her constituents oppose this.
If you’re not in the 53rd district, you can use the Illinois Policy look up tool to find out who your state rep is, and then go to the Illinois legislature website to look up their contact information at https://www.ilga.gov/House/Members.
But I also encourage you to go a step further and contact the office of House Speaker Chris Welch directly at (217) 782-5350 (Springfield) or (708) 450-1000 (district office) to tell his staff that you oppose these bills and do not want them to come up for a vote.