Pandemic response, budget, Black Caucus agenda on table for Illinois 'lame duck' session
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers will return to the capital city on Friday for a “lame duck” session that is expected to focus on the state’s COVID-19 response, a nearly $4 billion budget deficit and a host of social issues being advanced by the Legislative Black Caucus.
House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office notified that chamber’s members of the plans in an email sent Wednesday, Dec. 30. Senate President Don Harmon has not officially announced his plans, but his spokesman said in an email over the weekend that senators have been advised to hold the dates open in the event lawmakers are called back into session.
Lawmakers haven’t met since late May when they held an abbreviated special session to pass a budget and a few other items that were considered essential. The regular fall veto session, which had been scheduled for late November and early December, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The budget that lawmakers passed during that special session with only Democratic votes was about $5 billion out of balance. But it was passed on the assumption that Congress would soon pass a stimulus package that would include aid to struggling state and local governments and that voters in November would approve a constitutional amendment to allow the state to levy a graduated income tax. Neither of those two things happened.
Read more: https://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/pandemic-response-budget-black-caucus-agenda-on-table-for-illinois-lame-duck-session/article_542e8e71-2f48-5a92-8ee0-786151279e9a.html
(Quad City Times)
