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Friday, March 29, 2024

Naperville’s Pulse in Springfield – New Year brings new laws with wishes for health and happiness

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Happy New Year! I hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful holiday season.

The start of every New Year is a new beginning. It’s the perfect time for taking stock of the positive things from the year just completed, and looking forward to our hopes and goals for the New Year ahead.

There’s no question that my first year in the Illinois House last year was at times supremely frustrating, but there were also times of real bi-partisan cooperation that resulted in good things for our community and our state.

Despite the partisan divide, we worked together to pass landmark legislation to increase trust and accountability between law enforcement and minority communities, the first of its kind in the nation, and we took substantial steps to help stem the rising tide of heroin deaths here in the suburbs and across Illinois.

There were even some budget issues on which we were able to ultimately come together, including the release of state motor fuel tax revenues to municipalities and townships for emergency services and road maintenance, including purchasing salt for the winter.

On January 1, 231 bills we passed last year officially took effect as new state laws. Among them are several more that highlight what we can accomplish when we resolve to work together. They include the Right to Try Act (PA 99-0270) which may provide new hope to some battling a terminal illness. It will allow them, once they have considered all FDA-approved treatment options, to try new drugs or treatments in testing that have not yet been fully approved.

Also effective January 1 is a new law that expands the equal pay for equal work requirement to cover all Illinois employers (PA 99-0418), and new guidelines that allow private employers in Illinois to support our veterans by adopting a voluntary veterans preference policy for hiring (PA 99-0152).

In light of the fact that Illinois has more units of local government than any other state in the nation, we also adopted a four year ban on the creation of any new local government entities effective January 1 (PA 99-0353). Prohibiting expansion is a good first step. The Lieutenant Governor last year led a commission looking into consolidating or eliminating some of these layers of government. I look forward to her recommendations.

Of course, there is a very, very important job that remains uncompleted – agreement on a full-year responsible balanced budget. While the vast majority of state spending is moving forward nonetheless through court order or agreed appropriation, many of our local service providers and our colleges and universities are still without funding. Since this is January, I have a suggested New Year’s resolution for Speaker Madigan: Come to the negotiating table with an open mind, resolve to meet the Governor half-way on a reasonable compromise and get this done.

I wish you all health and happiness in 2016!

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Grant Wehrli
Grant Wehrli
Grant Wehrli is a lifelong Naperville Resident and former Representative in the Illinois House of Representatives and Naperville City Councilman.

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