SPRINGFIELD – Lawmakers passed more than 200 bills this week ahead of their scheduled May 24 adjournment. 

Many of the measures will soon head to Gov. JB Pritzker, including a bill that changes how damages accrue under Illinois’ first-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law.

The Illinois House on Thursday approved Senate Bill 2979 with several Republicans joining supermajority Democrats in its passage. The Senate last month also OK’d the measure on a bipartisan vote.

Read more: Illinois Senate advances changes to state’s biometric privacy law after business groups split

The measure is a response to an Illinois Supreme Court ruling last year that “respectfully suggest(ed)” lawmakers clarify the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. That ruling found fast food chain White Castle violated BIPA each time its employees used their fingerprints in the course of performing their jobs, as the company never obtained permission under the law.

In that case, White Castle estimated it would be on the hook for up to $17 billion in penalties, as the law provides for $1,000 in damages for each “negligent” violation or $5,000 for each “reckless” or “intentional” violation. 

However, White Castle last month settled the case for $9.4 million.

“That’s million with an ‘M,’” House sponsor Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, said during House floor debate on SB 2979 Thursday, adding that the White Castle case represented a “sky is falling” scenario that didn’t end up coming true.

Read more: Court rulings supercharge Illinois’ strongest-in-nation biometric privacy law

The legislation would change BIPA’s violation accrual so that each initial collection of a fingerprint or other biometric data would amount to one violation, rather than a violation occurring for each individual scan. Employees might scan their fingerprints dozens of times per shift if they’re unlocking doors or cabinets with those scans.

Illinois is the only state that grants residents the right to sue over businesses’ improper collection and mishandling of biometric data – whether they are an employee or a customer. A business is in violation of BIPA if it doesn’t have a storage policy in place, doesn’t properly protect the data, or if it does not get consent from customers or employees for the data being collected. 

Under SB 2979, businesses could get that consent via an electronic signature, which the bill defines as an “electronic sound, symbol, or process.”

Business groups have been clamoring for changes to BIPA in recent years as upwards of 2,000 lawsuits have been filed under the law since roughly 2018, resulting in a few high-profile settlements – including a $650 million class-action payout from Facebook in 2020. The social media giant paid more than 1 million Illinoisans roughly $400 each.

Some business groups are still opposed to SB 2979 because it wouldn’t be applied retroactively and doesn’t specifically shield data centers from liability for storing biometric information on behalf of companies who may have violated BIPA.

Juvenile human trafficking victim records

Legislation that would allow human trafficking victims to have their juvenile disciplinary records expunged has now passed both chambers of the General Assembly.

House Bill 5465 would make it easier for former human trafficking victims to have those records sealed or expunged for offenses they were involved in while they were being trafficked. The bill is an expansion of a law passed last year that allows adults to have their criminal records pertaining to being trafficked sealed or expunged.

Read More: House GOP advances 2 human trafficking victim protection bills as others remain in limbo

The bill is part of a package of human trafficking-focused legislation House Republicans are pushing this year. House Bill 5467, which would remove the statute of limitations for a victim to press charges from being trafficked as a minor, is the only other bill to pass the House and is waiting to be assigned to a committee in the Senate. 

Foster care regulations

The House passed two bills amending foster care policies this week.

House Bill 4781, known as the Kinship in Demand (KIND) Act, would allow the Department of Children and Family Services to use a “kin-first approach” to foster placement by considering placing children with relatives before other foster or guardian options.

Sponsor Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, said the bill would provide permanence to children, reduce instances of family separation and “make that disruptive process less traumatic.”

The bill unanimously passed the House Wednesday and is waiting to be assigned to a committee in the Senate.

Senate Bill 2824 passed the House unanimously this week after also clearing the Senate unanimously. The measure would allow foster children to attend school in their former district and not be charged with nonresident tuition if they were moved out of the district by DCFS as part of a safety plan.

Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, said the aim of the bill is to allow DCFS to decide what is best for the child and to not force guardians to pay tuition to school districts for children to “stay in that stable environment.”

Homeowner landscaping rights

House Bill 5296, dubbed the Homeowners’ Native Landscaping Act, would prohibit homeowners associations from restricting residents from planting native plants on their property.

Associations would still be able to mandate that properties be free from weeds, invasive species and trash. The homeowner would also need to keep the plants from growing onto common areas or neighboring properties. 

Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said the bill is “an intrusion on what a homeowner’s association can do.” She said homeowners know what the association’s rules are when they buy the property, and that any regulation would be best left up to local levels of government.

Last month’s vote in the House was partisan but two Republicans – Minority Leader John Curran and Sen. Sue Rezin – voted in favor of the bill this week in the Senate. It passed 42-17 and needs only a signature from the governor to become law.

Garbage truck littering

Garbage trucks that lose trash because they are not properly covered could soon be fined after a bill unanimously advanced out of both chambers. 

House Bill 4848 would create a specific violation for law enforcement to cite when garbage or other debris falls from a truck and litters highways. Each infraction would result in a $150 ticket. 

Sen. Donald DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said the legislation is an attempt to eliminate unsightly waste. 

“You don’t have to drive very far to see the fences along the farm fields, the trees, all decorated with various pieces of plastic bags and garbage that might have flown off trucks,” DeWitte said. 

Mindful classrooms

A measure allowing educators to provide students with time for mindful stretching and movement during the school day cleared both chambers as well.

Nothing prevents schools from implementing these practices now, but Senate Bill 2872 codifies that educators may provide students with at least 20 minutes of relaxation activities, like yoga and meditation, each week. It would also allow them to partner with an outside institution to provide the activities. 

During House debate, supporters of the bill said practicing soothing techniques, like breathing exercises and stretching, is essential for helping students manage their mental health – especially as students deal with leftover trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic’s interruption of their education. 

But those opposed expressed concern with potential programming interfering with classroom learning time and religious freedoms. 

Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, specifically cited a recent class-action lawsuit filed by former Chicago Public Schools students against the Chicago Board of Education. Students allege the board forced them to participate in a meditation program that students argued was actually a Hindu ritual that violated their religious beliefs. 

The House sponsor, Rep. Laura Faver Dias, D-Grayslake, reiterated during debate that the bill is not a mandate and parents could air any concerns about specific programs with local school boards.

The bill cleared the Senate 36-19 in April and the House 71-40 this week along party lines. 

Food grants

A pilot program that has given nearly $2 million to local farms would be expanded into a permanent fund under a measure that received unanimous approval in the House. 

Senate Bill 3077, which also got a unanimous vote in the Senate last month, would create a special fund for the Department of Agriculture to administer the Local Food Infrastructure Grant Program. In its pilot phase, the state awarded $1.8 million to 19 local farms for a variety of projects, like building a meat processing center and a new kitchen.

Read more: State awards local food infrastructure grants as advocates seek program’s extension

Under the measure, the IDOA would be able to work with a partner nonprofit and grant money from the newly created Local Food Infrastructure Grant Fund to select small farms for things like food processing and cold storage. Grant amounts could range from $1,000 to $75,000 if it’s for an individual project and up to $250,000 if it’s a collaborative project. 

The post Hundreds of bills pass last week, including changes to Illinois’ biometric data privacy law appeared first on Muddy River News.

By HANNAH MEISEL
Capitol News Illinois
hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com

It’s been four years since some of the worst scenes of COVID-19 played out in locked-down nursing homes during the early months of the pandemic. 

But while most of the world has moved on, the nursing home industry is still reeling from COVID, which exacerbated pre-existing challenges in long-term care – difficulties hiring and retaining staff and a population more reliant on government-funded care chief among them.

Read more: ‘Already in crisis:’ Report says Medicaid funding shortfalls causing nursing homes to close | Report: Nursing homes in crisis with staff shortages

Employment in skilled nursing facilities nationwide as of February was down 8.3 percent compared with February of 2020, the month before the pandemic hit. Although the current staffing levels have somewhat recovered from their lowest point in early spring 2022 – when staffing was down 15.5 percent from pre-pandemic levels – other areas within health care have recovered much faster, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis

The hourly cost of hiring a registered nurse increased 12.5 percent nationwide between 2020 and 2022, to $40.84 on average, according to a recent report by national consulting firm Marcum LLP. But amid a shrinking pool of RNs applying for jobs at skilled nursing facilities, many operators are forced to hire temporary contract nurses who earn, on average, 70 percent more than the average RN salary. Hiring certified nursing assistants, or CNAs, has followed a similar trend.

Marcum’s report, which focused on the three-year period after COVID hit in 2020, cited rising wages in other industries as a key reason for CNAs to leave the industry “and further drive up wage rates and increase the agency pool usage.”

For brothers Moe and Sam Freedman, owners of St. Louis-based Accolade Healthcare, the increase in staffing costs and the inflation-driven increase in other costs for operating the home – from food to medical supplies to insurance – have become “very unmanageable,” president and CEO Moe Freedman said in a recent interview. His company has been operating in the red.

Accolade runs seven skilled nursing facilities in central Illinois, in addition to one assisted living facility in East Peoria. The Freedmans entered the industry in 2017, growing from their first acquisition of a pair of nursing homes in Paxton and Pontiac. They’ve since bought homes from independent operators and said operating a long-term care facility as a “mom-and-pop shop” is “virtually impossible,” as rising costs need to be spread across a portfolio of homes for the business to be workable.

“Our cash flow is – we’re hemorrhaging and it’s dire,” Moe Freedman told Capitol News Illinois. “I don’t see us growing anytime soon and I don’t know if we’ll be at the same level in a year from now at the rate that we’re at right now.”

Keeping staffing up has also been a challenge due to the changing nature of who lives in nursing homes. In recent years, wealthier people have trended toward staying in their homes and receiving care from visiting nurses and CNAs. As a result, facilities are more dependent on – and at the mercy of – Medicaid reimbursement rates instead of private payers, which had long been a more stable source of revenue.

Overall nursing home census rates haven’t recovered since the pandemic either.

“We’re forced to cut staff because more patients don’t come in the door, yet, when we do see new patients, their level of care has intensified,” Nikki Dinsmore, regional director of operations for Zahav Healthcare Consulting said last month at a Capitol news conference. “They’re being discharged from the hospital sooner and their care needs are greater.”

Zahav, which operates a nursing home in Des Plaines, has been “losing workers to jobs in the hospital or telehealth,” Dinsmore said, not to mention jobs in totally different sectors like retail and food service. 

But even as the industry grapples with greater reliance on Medicaid instead of private payers, state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said nursing homes have to be ready to absorb patients when their needs become too great for home care – like his mother, who died earlier this year at age 93.

“We provided home care for her but that started to get more expensive as we had to have visiting nurses, we had to have an aide in there,” he said, adding that 24-hour care at a nursing home also felt safer toward the end. “Then you had to have oxygen brought in. And when you start looking at what the daily cost was for us to have her at home, it ended up being cheaper for us in the last couple of months of her life to move her to a nursing home.”

‘We are still well underwater’

Forty-nine Illinois nursing homes closed between 2019 and 2022, according to the state’s Department of Public Health; 2023 data is not yet available. In that same time period, six new facilities opened, for a net loss of 43. The closures mean more than 2,500 nursing home beds have vanished.

Peoria-based Petersen Health Care, which operates more than 90 nursing and senior care homes in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, filed for bankruptcy in March, estimating it had nearly $300 million in debt. A federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan last week for the company to borrow $45 million to keep operating throughout bankruptcy proceedings. 

Petersen plans to sell off its assets this summer, according to the company’s proposed timeline. Whether the homes remain open beyond that will be up to the winning bidder. 

Petersen is far from the only nursing home operator to face bankruptcy; according to a new report from national law firm Polsinelli, health care companies’ levels of real estate distress – a term for properties on the brink of or already in foreclosure – is the highest it’s been in 15 years. The report noted significant distress in nursing homes in particular.

The Freedmans said it’s scary to look around their industry and see operators they admired having to close their facilities. They told Capitol News Illinois they worry about the possibility of facing that outcome themselves.

Sam Freedman, Accolade’s CFO, said federal stimulus money during the pandemic “kind of bridged the gap” between losses and an increase in Illinois’ Medicaid reimbursement rate the General Assembly approved in 2022. 

Read more: New law provides $700 million for nursing home staffing

“The increased rate really helped us get over the hump once that (stimulus) money started running out,” he said. “It’s not helping us, you know, be profitable, but it’s helping us survive.”

The $700 million increase in funding for nursing home staffing came after two years of negotiating with the industry. Matt Pickering, executive director of the for-profit nursing home advocacy group Health Care Council of Illinois, pointed to the state’s years of depressed Medicaid reimbursement rates before the 2022 increase, which he said in a recent interview represented a 12 percent increase – but only “brings us up to 2017 costs.”

“Even though we got that increase, we are still well underwater,” he said. “We’re not ungrateful. But we’re still scrambling.”

The law also included $83 million to help long-term care providers launch recruitment efforts with an apprenticeship model. 

But operators say it’s not nearly enough to stem the bleeding in their staffing levels. 

Accolade has set up its own CNA “school,” in which CNAs are pre-hired as “auxiliary aides” and do weeks of classroom and clinical work at two of its locations. While the setup has helped Accolade wean itself off depending on agency CNAs, except in rural areas, Moe Freedman said the state has lagged on paying for the CNA incentive program by about six months. 

“We are compensating CNAs at a rate that is not really appropriate for the Medicaid reimbursement rate,” he said. “But we are anticipating this revenue source that (the state) promised us and they continuously drag out that reimbursement.”

But with a tight budget year, leaders in the General Assembly can’t promise a huge windfall for the struggling industry. House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, who leads a working group on Medicaid issues, told Capitol News Illinois the industry asked for $75 million to make up for increased property taxes, which the state had at one time subsidized.

Read more: ‘Significant enough’ opposition to Pritzker’s revenue plan leads to call for cuts

But in the waning days of legislative session, Gabel said the working group is still exploring ways to help the industry but was explicit that General Assembly can’t give the industry anywhere near the $75 million it requested.

“You know, last year we gave just about every sector a rate increase,” she said. “Did we give them what they wanted? No; we probably cut every request in half. And it still added up to a billion dollars…It was like a huge, huge increase. So this year, we’ve really tried to rein back and just not do those kinds of rate increases.”

Gov. JB Pritzker last summer used his power of amendatory veto to nix a provision in a broader property tax bill that would have brought property taxes for nursing homes in Cook County in line with those for other residential health care settings. The industry claimed it would have provided “critical relief” to 300 nursing homes in Cook County. 

But Pritzker disagreed, siding with local mayors who complained the resulting shift in property tax burden would especially hurt municipalities in Chicago’s south suburbs. Despite the General Assembly’s unanimous support on the original bill, lawmakers declined to override the governor during their fall veto session, and Gabel indicated the issue wouldn’t be taken up again “in that way.”

Minimum staffing rule

The industry is also fearful a new federal rule designed to implement minimum staffing ratios will have the unintended effect of further closures.

More than two years after announcing a plan to set mandatory staffing minimums at skilled nursing facilities, President Joe Biden’s administration last month implemented a new rule to phase in those minimums over the next five years. 

Organized labor, including caregiving juggernaut Service Employees International Union, supported the rule, which will require skilled nursing facilities provide residents with a minimum 3.48 hours of nursing care per day, including at least 33 minutes of care from a registered nurse and nearly 2 1/2 hours of care from a nurse’s aide. Additionally, the rule will require facilities have a registered nurse on site at all times.

In a statement after the rule was finalized, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of nonprofit nursing home industry group LeadingAge, pointed out that “schools are not graduating enough nurses” to fill either currently open positions or those projected to open in the future. She added that registered nurses, or RNs, are leaving the workforce, and those who are staying are “typically choosing to work in environments that are not long-term care.”

“How can providers hire more RNs when they do not exist?” she said in a statement.

After the Biden administration released its proposed rule in September, a KFF analysis found that fewer than one in five nursing homes nationwide would be able to meet the staffing minimums outlined in the rule without having to hire more staff.

Gabel said she was attempting to address staffing issues by sponsoring a measure that would allow CNAs to dispense some medications in order to free up RNs to provide more care. She shepherded Senate Bill 774 through a House committee earlier this month, despite pushback from several groups that represent nurses, and it awaits a vote in the full chamber. It previously passed the Senate with only one vote against it.

Syverson, who’s long been involved in nursing home issues, blamed Democrats for prioritizing funding for Medicaid-style health care for noncitizens – a pair of recent programs that could cost nearly $700 million in the current fiscal year – and mandating that insurers cover an increasing roster of procedures.

Read more: Copays take effect for immigrant health programs as cost estimates continue to decline | Immigrant advocates tout new report showing benefits of state-funded health plans

But, Gabel said, the state can only do so much when the entire nursing home industry is up against trends that have been festering for years.

“I mean, there are nursing homes closing,” she said. “And, you know, it’s just possible that there aren’t enough people to fill the beds… There’s nothing I can do about that business model.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

Construction on 1-57 beings May 20

The Illinois Department of Transportation announced today that weather permitting, construction on Interstate 57 in Iroquois County will begin Monday, May 20. The work zone is from mile marker 279 near Onarga to mile marker 286 north of Gilman.

Work includes milling and resurfacing I-57 along with the ramps at the Illinois 54 interchange (exit 280) in Onarga and the U.S. 24 interchange (exit 283) in Gilman. One lane in each direction will be closed during this $27.9 million project, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.



Motorists can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area and be prepared for slow and stopped traffic. To avoid the work area, when feasible, use of alternate routes should be considered. Drivers are urged to pay close attention to changed conditions and signs in the work zones, obey the posted limits, refrain from using mobile devices and be alert for workers and equipment.

CTU’s Day Off

Hundreds of members of the Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) took a taxpayer-funded day off at the Capitol May 15 to demand $1 billion more in state funding for Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

Hypocrisy was on full display as the union’s members took a day away from the classroom, forcing the district to spend significant taxpayer dollars on substitute teachers, while also paying salaries of the CTU members who traveled to Springfield. Republican lawmakers held a press conference to highlight the special funding CPS receives that’s not made available to other schools in the state that face far greater financial challenges.

Under the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) model, school districts are divided into a four-tier system with Tier One school districts being those that have the greatest need for new state funding to adequately educate their students. Since the funding formula was passed, and with additional state support, CPS has already improved and moved up from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

For many years CPS has received a disproportionate share of the state’s education resources through special carve-outs and unique grants, such as hundreds of millions from the Chicago Block Grant that was written into the CPS base as part of the formula.

Republican lawmakers also hit on the fact that in a tight budget year for the State of Illinois, the demands made by the Chicago Mayor and the CTU members are tone-deaf to the fiscal realities Illinois faces in crafting the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Members of the Senate Republican Caucus say they will continue to stand up for taxpayers as well as provide equal funding for schools throughout Illinois.

stand up for taxpayers as well as provide equal funding for schools throughout Illinois.

Illinois Pays Tribute to Fallen Firefighters in Annual Memorial Ceremony

State leaders gathered in Springfield on May 14 to attend the 31st Annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial and Medal of Honor Ceremony. 

The service and ceremony were held at the Bank of Springfield Center, bringing together scores of firefighters from across Illinois to honor and remember their fallen brothers and sisters.

This occasion included a tribute to five Illinois firefighters who died in the line of duty last year: 

• Chicago Firefighter/EMT Jermaine Pelt
• Chicago Fire Lt. Jan Tchoryk 
• Chicago Fire Lt. Kevin Ward
• Chicago Firefighter/EMT Andrew “Drew” Price
• And Maroa Countryside Fire Protection District Chief Larry Peasley

Another 12 firefighters from around the state were honored with medals of honor or valor for acts of outstanding bravery.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, the toll on firefighters’ lives continues to rise, with 25 casualties recorded already this year in the United States. Among them was an Aurora firefighter who tragically lost their life in the line of duty just last month. 

Also, congratulations to Firefighter/Paramedic Bill Perry of the Coal City Fire Protection District for receiving the Medal of Honor for his quick actions and courage to save life.  Congratulations to the Minooka Fire Protection District for receiving the Firefighter Excellence Unit Citation Award for their excellent teamwork and professionalism in service. 

Spring Planting Trails Behind Last Year Amidst Seed Inventory Concerns

Spring planting in Illinois is well under way but is currently trailing last year’s pace. However, farmers were able to make recent headway thanks to a spell of dry weather and average soil temperatures. 

According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Illinois farmers have so far planted 42% of their corn acres and 39% of their soybean acres. That’s far behind where they were at the same time last year, when the Illinois corn crop was 81% planted and soybeans were at 74% planted. 

In 2023, Illinois led the nation in soybean production, yielding nearly 649 million bushels and ranked second in corn production, producing more than 2.27 billion bushels of corn. 

Farmers will continue to be on the roadways in the coming weeks, as they finish planting season. Drivers should be aware that most agriculture equipment will be travelling much more slowly than car traffic. 

How much do we owe?

As of the time of this writing, the State of Illinois owes $941,717,627.50 to  state vendors, including 16,515 pending vouchers. This figure represents the amount of bills submitted to the office of the Comptroller and still awaiting payment. It does not include debts that can only be estimated, such as our unfunded pension liability which is subject to a wide range of factors and has been estimated to be more than $139 billion. At the same time last year, the state’s accounts payable stood at a little less than $2 billion.

The post Update from Illinois State Senator Tom Bennett (May 20, 2024) first appeared on Ford County Chronicle.

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Housing issues discussed at Bloomington City Council meeting