2021 End of Session Newsletter:
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I hope you and your family are well and enjoying your summer.
With the start of June comes a new start for Illinois. We are finally be turning a corner in this pandemic. I am ever more hopeful for the future of our health and looking forward toward a robust recovery as Illinois begins Phase 5 on June 11. All sectors of Illinois’ economy will reopen and be able to operate at full capacity for the first time since the pandemic began.
At the beginning of May, the Pfizer vaccine was approved for those aged 12 and over. Walk-ins are welcome at the Kane-Cook Mass Vaccination Site at the Eastside Recreation Center in Elgin. You can also register for an appointment or volunteer at the site. Getting vaccinated is the best way you can protect yourself and your family and is the best way to stay ahead of new COVID-19 strains.
We returned for in-person legislating after months of remote work. This session, we passed more historic legislation on ethics reform, term limits for leadership, expanding tele-health services, affordable housing and much more. We also passed a balanced budget that pays down our debt, helps small businesses recover from the COVID 19 pandemic, invests in education and essential social services, closes corporate tax loopholes, reduces fees and keeps individual taxes flat. You can read more about these initiatives below.
Several key pieces of legislation I sponsored passed both houses, including legislation that will reduce the cost of infrastructure to local governments (HB270) and legislation that will protect students who are the victim of sexual assault and harassment (HB3223). I also sponsored legislation that will reform nursing facility rates (HB4085). And ensure that nursing homes are using state and federal dollars to increase new rate methodology will reward staffing and quality-of-life improvements for nursing facility residents.
Tomorrow I return to Springfield to vote on a historic clean-energy jobs bill in Illinois. I plan to update you all on Wednesday’s special session when I get back.
If you ever have any questions, concerns or requests for assistance please do not hesitate to contact my office at staterepmoeller@gmail.com or 847-841-7130. It is an honor to represent you in Springfield and my staff and I look forward to serving you.
Warmest Regards,
Anna
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FY22 State Budget
This year’s budget protects our state’s most vulnerable, invests in infrastructure and job creation, and maintains sound fiscal responsibility with early debt repayments. The recent $42.2 billion spending package keeps individual income and sales taxes flat while reducing fees on trailers. This package will additionally allocate one year of money form the American Rescue Plan, including a $570M investment in economic recovery and small businesses.
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Budget Break-Down
This $42.2 billion spending package will allocate an additional $350 million to K-12 education for a total of $9.2 billion for K-12 education. It will set aside $3.4B for the Child Care Assistance Program and $170 million in additional investment in services for people with developmental disabilities. This spending package will also fully fund the FY22 pension contribution.
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Rebuild Illinois
IDOT’s multi-year program for the fiscal years 2022-2027 seeks to invest in Illinois infrastructure and build a premier transportation system. Rebuild Illinois will allocate $20.7B over the next six years, with $15.84B going to the state system and $4.87B going to the local system. This historic program will revamp the state’s infrastructure and create economic opportunity. Of the money allocated for the state system, $5.79B will go to fixing our roads and 4.82B will go to fixing our bridges.
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In Kane County, $94.4 million will go to bridge replacements, construction of auxiliary lanes and other improvements on U.S. 20, from west of Randall Road to east of Shales Parkway. Another $65.5 million will go to improving 4.3 miles of Illinois 47/U.S. 30 with bridge replacements, reconstruction and additional lanes from Cross Street to south of Galena Boulevard.
This program will also allocate $516 million for reconstruction and the addition of auxiliary lanes from Bessie Coleman Drive to I-90 to improve safety and access to the O’Hare International Airport.
I am proud to say that I was able to include funding in our State Capital Budget for Elgin Community College and the Elgin Math and Science Academy the City of Elgin, the Village of Carpentersville, and the Village of East Dundee for infrastructure and other public investments.
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Representative Moeller’s Legislative Initiatives
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Ensuring Success in School
HB3223, passed the House and Senate and is on it’s way to Governor Pritzker. The Ensuring Success in School bill will help ensure that K-12 schools provide support and resources for students who have experienced sexual or domestic violence or who are pregnant/parenting. Making sure schools are trauma-informed spaces will help students continue their education and successfully graduate.
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Eliminating Local Match for Sidewalks and Bike Paths
Construction of roads and highways often has not stopped to consider side paths, sidewalks, or bike lanes because localities could not afford to request such additions. HB270 remedies this by eliminating the requirement that communities cover 20 percent of the cost.
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Eliminating the Local Match requirement for cities and localities will result in more equitable distribution of safety and walking infrastructure in our communities. This bill will apply to all towns with 1,000 or more residents and hopes to make transportation safer for Illinoisans.
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Preventing Social Isolation in our Nursing Homes
I was pleased to sponsor SB2137 in the House. This legislation requires all nursing homes and long-term care facilities to implement policies to prevent social isolation.
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Far too many of our most vulnerable residents in nursing homes have been cut off from family because of the pandemic and denied access to basic technology to connect with loved ones. We know that social isolation can be deadly and no one should suffer alone in a long term care facility.
This is one of many bills I have introduced to reform Illinois’ long-term care system. Click here to read the Op-Ed in the Daily Herald written by me and several of my colleagues calling for more accountability, reform and improvements for residents in the long term care system.
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Ethics Reform in Illinois
A comprehensive ethics package, SB0539, seeks to start restoring confidence in Springfield and ensure integrity. It is a good first step that will limit the revolving door of legislators and staff members becoming lobbyists as well as ban elected officials from lobbying their own unit of government.
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This ethics package also further limits fundraising activity around session and severely limits the political contributions and activities of members of the State Board of Elections. With this law, lawmakers will also be required to provide expanded financial disclosure documents.
We created statutory term limits for house leadership, a great step that hopes to reform the culture of the General Assembly, and closed a loophole that allowed lawmakers to collect an entire month’s salary even if they did not serve the whole month.
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Telehealth Services
HB3308 seeks to make critical mental and physical health care services more accessible and affordable to Illinoisans by requiring individual and group accident or health insurance providers to cover telehealth services in the same manner as any other benefits covered on their policy.
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Way Forward Act
SB0667 ensures that private, for-profit detention centers will not profit off the separation of families and detention of immigrants in Illinois. The Illinois Way Forward Act prohibits cities and counties from entering into contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants in ICE custody at local jails.
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This law also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from asking anyone in their custody about their immigration status and will restrict the information that law enforcement can share with ICE.
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Vaccine Progress
In Illinois, 42% of the population is fully vaccinated, including 40% of Kane County and 45% of Cook County. About 62% of Illinoisans aged 18+ have had at least one dose. Getting vaccinated is a tremendous service to yourself, your loved ones, and your community. The vaccine will help protect you against severe illness as well as the other virients.
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We recommend getting vaccinated even if you have had SARS-COV-2. The disease still poses a real threat to our health and the health of people around us. You can learn more about the vaccines here and find a vaccine location near you here.
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CDC Guidelines for Vaccinated People
Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by rule or law. They can also resume domestic travel and refrain from testing and quarantine before or after travel. Being fully vaccinated means you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.
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Federal Relief for Illinois
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The American Rescue Plan and Illinois
The American Rescue Plan (ARPA) is a $1.9 trillion dollar plan that allocates about $8 billion for the Illinois State Government. These funds can be used through CY2024. Illinois is allocating $1.5 billion this year for crucial investments in Illinois businesses, families, and communities.
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ARPA Funding Break-Down
The recent Illinois spending package allocates $570M for small businesses and industries impacted by the COVID-19 recession. This includes $300M for Back to Business Grants, $10M for Tourism promotion, $50 million for Workforce Recovery efforts, and $45M for commercial corridors and downtowns.
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The Illinois spending package will also allocate $350 million for public health response, pandemic assistance for the healthcare industry and behavioral health investments. Another $100 million will go toward affordable housing, supportive housing and homelessness initiatives.
ARPA will additionally extend the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, and the Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation through September 6, 2021.
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State Representative Anna Moeller 
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