After a much-needed vacation, Municipal Minute is back. We have a few recent bills to report on today and tomorrow.
General Assembly Passes Several
Bills During Fall Veto Session
The
Illinois General Assembly met for its annual Fall Veto Session last month.
Despite its name, there were no vetoed bills for the General Assembly to attempt
to override—instead, members considered and passed several new bills which will
be sent to Governor Pritzker for consideration.
SB 1169 Would Amend the Health Care Right
of Conscience Act
SB 1169, which started as a bill to
provide a technical amendment to the Pyrotechnic Use Act, was passed by both
houses of the General Assembly as a completely different bill. The bill passed
both houses on October 28th as an amendment to the Health Care Right of
Conscience Act (HCRCA), which generally protects an individual’s right to
refuse to obtain, receive, or accept medical treatment without facing
discrimination based on their medical decisions. The amendment provides an
explicit exception to the Act by stating that any person,
public official, employer, institution, or other entity may impose requirements
that are intended to prevent the contraction or transmission of COVID-19 or
“its subsequent iterations." The bill has been formulated as a “declaration of
existing law."
HB 3136 Would Create Gaming Omnibus Law
The
General Assembly passed HB 3136, the omnibus gaming legislation,
on October 28th. While the bill is long and incorporates several different
changes to the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975, the Illinois Gambling Act,
the Raffles and Poker Runs Act, and the Video Gaming Act, we want to provide an
update of the legislative changes to video gaming that most greatly impact
local government and municipalities’ regulatory authority.
The bill
allows non-home-rule units of local government to impose an annual video
gaming terminal fee of $250 (previous cap was $25). The bill does not restrict the authority of home rule municipalities to charge terminal fees in excess of the statutory cap, which was previously upheld by an Illinois Appellate Court. The fees imposed by home-rule and
non-home-rule units of local government must be shared equally between the
gaming terminal operator and the licensed establishment where the terminal is
being operated. The bill also curtails the taxing power of units of local
government with regard to video gaming—municipalities may not impose taxes on the following entities or persons:
- manufacturers,
distributors, terminal operators, licensed technicians, licensed terminal
handlers, licensed establishments, licensed veterans establishments, licensed
truck stop establishments, licensed fraternal establishments, or their
authorized activities under the Video Gaming Act;
- video
gaming terminals;
- users
or players of video gaming terminals; or
- other
uses, play, or operations of video gaming terminals by any person or entity.
Municipalities
that have already adopted an ordinance to impose an amusement tax on any of the
above entities can continue to impose those taxes, so long as the ordinance was
adopted prior to November 1, 2021. However, a municipality that has adopted
that type of tax cannot increase, expand, or extend the tax or enact a new tax on
persons participating in video gaming.
Post
Authored by Erin Monforti & Julie Tappendorf, Ancel Glink
