Article Summary
- Lawmakers have yet to finalize dozens of bills as their May 31 deadline draws nearer.
- Outside of the three most publicized issues — Bears, the budget and BUILD — lawmakers continue to tinker and negotiate before they break for the summer.
- We’re watching a handful of issues, including regulations on event ticket purchases, scooters and e-bike speeds, prescription drug prices and more.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
As the clocks ticks closer to the May 31 deadline, lawmakers are continuing to hammer out the final details on dozens of bills.
Outside of the three B’s — Bears, budget and the BUILD housing plan — there are several smaller but still significant bills that we’re watching. Some of those take aim at ticket-purchasing bots, e-bike speeds and property tax sales. Others, like an effective ban on Glocks and a control on prescription drug prices, have stalled and face dwindling chances of passing. A pension buyout extension also passed both chambers this week.
Inside the Capitol, we’re in for a couple of late nights on Saturday and Sunday as those details are finalized — or fall short entirely.
Ticket-purchasing bots
Senate Bill 318, part of the Senate’s artificial intelligence package, would prohibit consumers from using bots or multiple accounts to purchase more event tickets than the sale allows. The seller would be responsible for reporting instances to the state attorney general.
The bill awaits a floor vote in the House, which could come Saturday evening after clarifying amendments are heard in an afternoon committee. It would then head back to the Senate for a concurring vote.
Ticket selling platforms, Ticketmaster in particular, have been scrutinized in recent years for operating as a monopoly and allowing bots and “scalpers” to mass purchase tickets and resell them at inflated prices. This bill seeks to address that issue, as courts move to also hold Ticketmaster accountable for its selling practices.
Violators could be fined up to $2,000 per infraction.
Glock ban
A bill prohibiting a certain firing mechanism on pistols that would ultimately ban the sale of new Glocks in Illinois appears to have stalled. The legislation passed a House committee on May 20 but was filed on House Bill 4471.
The Illinois constitution requires bills to be read in each chamber on three separate days, meaning the bill would have had to have passed the House on Friday in order to pass through the Senate on Sunday, the scheduled adjournment date. It’s still possible the legislation could be filed as an amendment on a separate bill that has already satisfied the three readings rule and be passed quickly by both chambers.
Illinois would be the fourth state to pass a ban on Glocks if the legislation is approved.
Property tax sales
House Bill 4537 would reform the way the state regulates the sale of property tax debts. Illinois is the only state that still allows local governments to sell property tax debts without giving homeowners the right to their equity, putting the state in direct conflict with a 2023 Supreme Court decision.
It would make various changes to the state’s sale process, but the key change is that upon the effective date of the act, any homeowners who lose their properties due to tax debt are entitled to the leftover funds after the amount of their debt and interest, to recoup the equity they invested.
Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said she expects the bill to pass the House as well after years of negotiations with stakeholders, advocates and other lawmakers.
Electric bikes, scooters
A bill creating new regulations for electric bikes and scooters needs a do-over despite receiving bipartisan support in both chambers.
The version the House passed on Wednesday was amended to include driving under the influence penalties, but only if the e-bike operator was traveling faster than 28 mph. Republicans in the House argued that is impossible for prosectors to prove in court.
Capitol News Illinois has learned that provision will be taken out of the bill and the other regulations, which passed unanimously in the Senate in April, will be filed as an amendment to another bill so it can pass through both chambers quickly this weekend.
Algorithmic price transparency
House Bill 4248 would prohibit any retailer from using surveillance pricing, a form of algorithmic pricing in which companies use a consumer’s personal data to generate a personalized price based on that person’s demographics, purchasing history, place of residence and more. A common example of this is when airlines artificially increase prices after a consumer starts searching for plane tickets.
Any violation of the act, as investigated by the state attorney general, could be penalized by up to $50,000. It does not apply to any algorithms that do not use personal data or use that data for a specific purpose like credit checks. It also does not apply to insurance policies or financial services regulated by state agencies.
The bill passed the house with bipartisan support last week and awaits action in the Senate.
Prescription drug board
Senate Bill 3496, a bill establishing a board to limit the prices of certain prescription drugs, awaits a concurrence vote in the Senate after the House passed it last week.
But in a news conference held on Friday, lawmakers said they were still in conversation about moving the bill, suggesting it doesn’t have the 30 votes needed to pass in the upper chamber.
Pension buyout program
A two-year extension of the state’s pension buyout program will head to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
House Bill 5196 passed the House last month and cleared the Senate on Friday. There was no opposition in either chamber. It extends the state’s program through fiscal year 2028 and authorizes an additional $1 billion in bonding to cover payments. Pritzker’s office estimates the extension will save another $1.4 billion on future pension obligations.
The state’s program, created in 2018 and extended two previous times, offers workers covered under the more generous Tier 1 pension system the option to receive a one-time lump sum payment in exchange for forfeiting future benefits, or the option to receive a smaller lump sum payment in exchange for forgoing future annual cost-of-living adjustments.
According to data from the state’s three largest retirement systems, the program has resulted in an estimated $2.6 billion reduction in pension liabilities requiring about $2 billion in buyout payments.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
