ššEnd of Session Wrap-Up, Part 4: Fights weāre still fighting: transit, energy, hemp, and more
Dear Neighbor,
Today Iāll be sending out the last of four emails recapping this spring session. If you missed my notes on the budget and major legislation we passed this year, or the bills I led, feel free to go back and catch up!
This email will be all about the important projects we didnāt complete this legislative session, and where we go from here.
The first and most important is mass transit. Some background: when COVID hit, no one rode the trains or buses. But we (and everywhere else) got a lot of federal relief money to keep our transit system running. Gradually, ridership started picking back up again, but it never got back to pre-pandemic levels. Thatās largely due to the change in commuting patterns ā there just arenāt as many people taking the train to and from work every weekday anymore.
Now the federal relief money is gone. And with ridership still low (meaning less revenue from fares), the CTA, Metra, and Pace are facing major budget shortfalls ā to the tune of around $770 million. Theyāve asked the state to help shore up their budgets, or else theyāll have to make steep cuts in service.
Weāve agreed that we need to do something to support these systems, but we donāt want to just give them hundreds of millions of dollars for the same service weāve been getting. The CTA needs to be better: safer, cleaner, more reliable, more regular, more modern. And it needs to be meaningfully integrated with the other systems ā why, after all these years, canāt you use one farecard for CTA and Metra?
Our motto this year has been āno revenue without reformā ā meaning weāre not going to raise taxes and fees to fund the system unless we also transform it to provide better service.
After hundreds of hours of negotiations and discussion, my colleagues who were leading this work got to pretty broad consensus on what the reform should look like. We developed a new governance structure for the transit agencies in the Chicago region, planned fare and service integration across the systems, and crafted the procedural changes needed to make sure that service is genuinely better. All that stuff is basically agreed on by all parties now, which is a huge lift.
The thing we couldnāt get consensus on was the funding. At around 11:45pm on May 31st (the last day of the legislative session), the Illinois Senate passed a bill that included around $1.5 billion in new revenue to fund operations of the system ā from rideshare and delivery fees, EV charging fees, and a real estate transfer tax in the suburbs. None of those fees had ever been discussed in the House. And with 15 minutes left until the end of session, there was no way for us to muster the support we needed for that level of revenue in time.
The agencies have enough money to operate at their current levels of service until early next year. Weāre going to work hard over the summer to figure out a revenue package thatās fair, sustainable, and supports the operations of a newly reinvigorated transit system. And Iām confident weāll pass it when we return to Springfield in the fall. If we donāt, the consequences ā for Chicago, the region, and our whole state ā will be dire.
A few other topics got a lot of discussion during this session, but the planes didnāt quite land by May 31. There was a lot of negotiation around a clean energy omnibus that would have included incentives for battery storage, new grid technology, energy efficiency, and more. Itās a vital step in reaching our stateās ambitious climate goals over the coming years. But negotiations fell apart at the end of session over issues including the role of nuclear power and how much data centers should be asked to contribute for their enormous energy demands.
Then thereās hemp. Hemp is the same plant as cannabis ā the only difference is in how much THC it contains. Hemp doesnāt naturally contain enough of that compound to be intoxicating. In 2017, the federal government legalized hemp. Since that time, lab wizards have figured out how to extract intoxicating substances from hemp plants and concentrate them to create potent new cannabis-like products, including the āDelta-8ā inhalables and edibles that you may have seen around. These products are untested, unregulated, can be highly intoxicating, and can be legally sold to minors.
This is a real problem. We need to regulate this stuff and get it out of the hands of kids. But thereās a messy debate going on in Springfield about it. On the one hand, you have the existing cannabis stores, who say: this stuff is basically the same as cannabis, you shouldnāt be able to sell it without a cannabis license. On the other hand, you have the existing hemp retailers, who say: cannabis licenses are really expensive, theyāve been monopolized by big business, hemp is legal, and itās the only way that anyone other than the super-rich has been able to get into this industry, so you can regulate us but please donāt put us out of business. This debate has paralyzed the legislature on this issue, so once again we didnāt get anything done.
Finally, you may have gotten this lovely letter with my face on it this spring:
This is about an issue called ā340Bā. Itās a federal program that requires drug companies to sell medications at discounted prices to clinics and hospitals who serve poor patients. Itās a really important program thatās a lifeline to many of our free clinics and federally qualified health centers. Unfortunately, some big hospital systems have tried to take advantage of the program ā they own one clinic in a rural area that qualifies, and then they use that clinic to get the 340B discount for all their prescriptions. So thereās a fight between the drug companies (who feel like thatās unfair) and the big hospitals (for whom itās very profitable). Frankly, I donāt have a lot of sympathy for either of them, I just want to see our free clinics get the low-cost drugs they need. But with very powerful lobbying interests on both sides of this, nothing got done.
I hate to end this series of emails with a list of things we didnāt accomplish. But itās an important reminder that legislating is an iterative, ongoing process. We won some important victories this year. Weāll keep working, negotiating, organizing, and fighting, and weāll be back this fall to get more wins. The work is never done, but every year we do a little more to bend the moral arc toward a more just and better state.
If thereās anything here youād like to learn more about, or other issues we havenāt touched on, please bring your questions to our upcoming legislative town hall. Iāll be joined by fellow progressive legislators who will be excited to discuss them.
All my best,
-Will
Office Closure
Our office will be closed on Thursday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth. We will re-open on Friday, June 20 for regular hours from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Thank you!
Legislative Town Hall
Join your state elected officials for a community update on what theyāve been working on in Springfield these past few months. Come with your questions, share your thoughts, and enjoy some tacos while you're at it! RSVP here.
Date: Wednesday, July 9
Time: Free Tacos & Refreshments 5:30 - 6:00 pm | Town Hall 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Location: Prosser Career Academy, 2148 N. Long Ave
Advanced Business Development Cohort
Center for Changing Lives is gearing up to launch the first Scaling for Business: Advanced Business Development cohort. This cohort program is open to all established business owners looking to grow their businesses and will run for 8 weeks. See the flyer for more information and to apply by July 7.