Quick hits: Illinois news in brief for Thursday, March 18, 2021
Pritzker to make all people 16 and older eligible for vaccines by April 12
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to announce that starting April 12 all adults 16 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
He’s also expected to provide details on what the next step of his plan is to reopen the state’s economy.
The leisure and hospitality industry has been looking for the governor to increase capacity to allow for things like conventions to move forward.
More than 70,000 people in Illinois seek unemployment benefits
Another 73,600 Illinoisans filed for initial unemployment claims last week.
That’s 17,000 more than the week before.
New filers for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for independent contractors also increased more than 5,600 more than the week before for a total of 21,100 for the week.
Illinois GOP outlines priorities for state government
Illinois House Republicans launched a new platform called “Reimagine Illinois.”
The four pillars they say improve state government by addressing corruption, fiscal responsibility, creating jobs, and ensuring public safety.
The group introduced a website, ReimagineIllinois.com, which includes tools for the public to learn about the platform through documents, videos and a petition to “get engaged.”
Illinois House returns on Thursday
The Illinois House is back in session in-person Thursday.
Some say a Senate bill could be amended by the House to increase taxes on small businesses by up to $1 billion. Senate Bill 217 about parking excise taxes passed the Senate last week.
It passed a House committee Wednesday.
The Illinois Policy Institute said it could be amended to decouple the state’s tax code from federal code impacting business pandemic loss withholdings.
Redrawing legislative maps underway in Illinois
The first of more than a dozen hearings about redrawing Illinois’ legislative maps is in the books.
More hearings are expected from both the House and Senate in the days and weeks ahead, including virtual hearings to take public comments from around the state.
There’s a June 30 deadline for the legislature to draft a map, but full data from the Census isn’t expected by then. That’s been delayed because of the pandemic.
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