During 2008, issues currently in the media spotlight may lead one to believe these were the only business of your government in Springfield.  Not true!  Your legislature had laser beam focus on over 100 other important “issues of the day” ranging from amending the Soybean Marketing Act to regulating Lawn Sprinklers During a Rain Storm everywhere except on golf courses. 

While the Executive Branch was busy with “whatever it was busy with”, the following new or modified laws were passed by the Legislative Branch and signed into law.

If any of these items pique your interest as being applicable to you, then we look forward to discussing them with you further:

1.         Cell Phone Providers - Telecom Leases:  Allows counties that have telecommunications towers (such as towers for emergency communication systems) to lease space on the towers to private companies (such as cell phone providers). 

2.         Childbirth – Expenses:  Statute makes it easier to recover the costs of childbirth in cases where parentage has to be determined by a legal proceeding.

3.         Courts - Post-Trial Motions:  Allows state and local governments to continue to enforce ordinances or laws while a challenge is pending.

4.         Courts - Testimony by persons with disabilities:  Allows a court to allow developmentally disabled victims to submit testimony outside the courtroom and have the testimony shown at the court proceeding via closed-circuit TV.

5.         Criminal - Billy Clubs:  The carrying of billy clubs or similar weapons in government buildings, with certain exceptions is prohibited.

6.         Criminal - Brass Knuckles:  The sale, manufacture, purchase, possession, or carrying of a device similar to metal knuckles is prohibited.

7.         Criminal - Child Pornography:  Prohibits the use of computer encryption to facilitate a crime and allows possession of 100 or more child pornography images to be a factor in child pornography sentencing.

8.         Criminal – Children:  Healthcare providers are prohibited from releasing medical records about a child to a parent, when the parent has had an order of protection filed against them.

9.         Criminal – Children: Statute creates a Class 3 felony for a person 18 or older who knowingly causes bodily harm, disability or disfigurement to a child younger than 13 or to a person with severe mental retardation.

10.       Criminal – Cigarettes:  Prohibits minors from using fake identification to obtain cigarettes.

11.       Criminal – Cyber stalking:  There is a ban on electronically harassing a person on two separate occasions, knowingly soliciting that person or family member to commit an unlawful act and creating an Internet site for at least 24 hours that harasses or threatens another person – punishable with up to three years in prison.

12.       Criminal - Domestic Violence:  Statute eliminates an automatic two-year expiration of orders of protection, allowing the order to remain in effect until it is vacated or modified.

13.       Criminal - Domestic Violence:  In response to the murder of an Arlington Heights woman, individuals charged with violating an order of protection, or a restraining order, are required to undergo a risk assessment evaluation at an approved partner abuse intervention program. Additionally, as a condition of bail the individual could also be placed under electronic surveillance for constant monitoring.

14.              Criminal – DUI:  As of January 1, 2009 individuals convicted of driving under the influence will be required to install a breath alcohol ignition interlock device in their vehicles. The individual will have to breathe into the device before the engine will start and will be required to submit additional breath samples at random intervals while the car is in motion.

15.              Criminal – Elderly: The offense of financial exploitation of an elderly or disabled person no longer requires that the person with a disability must suffer from a permanent physical or mental impairment.

16.              Criminal – Guns:  The penalties have been raised for those attempting to illegally buy firearms. Buyers now face 3 to 7 years in jail if caught trying to illegally buy a gun, up from 1 to 3 years. The punishment also increases if an offender illegally buys multiple guns.

17.              Criminal - Lock Bumping: Allows the courts to consider the possession of a “lock-bumping” key as“intent to commit a felony or theft” when weighing the offense of possession of burglary tools.

18.              Criminal - Minor Detention:  Requires counsel to be appointed for a minor in advance of a detention or shelter care hearing.

19.              Criminal - Resisting Firefighters:  Resisting or obstructing a firefighter is a Class A misdemeanor.
 

20.              Criminal - Sex Offenders: 

a.          Provides the method for calculating the 500-foot distance in statutes prohibiting a child sex offender from living or loitering near certain locations.

b.         Prohibits child sex offenders from renting property to people who have children younger than 18.

c.          Allows prior commission of child pornography or murder to come into evidence when the person is being tried or retried on certain sexual related offenses.

d.         Requires victims of a sex offense to be notified when the sex offender is released from prison, work release, or international transfer.

e.          Allows the prosecution of a sex offense to be commenced at any time, if the defendant’s DNA profile was obtained and entered into a DNA database within 10 years after commission of the crime.

f.           Creates an offense of “grooming” (using the Internet to seduce or entice a child to commit a sex offense).

g.          Sex offenders will no longer be allowed to serve as election judges. The change comes after it was discovered that sex offenders were entering schools to work at polling places.

h.          Creates an offense for traveling to meet a minor for the purpose of engaging in a sex offense with the child.

21.       Criminal – Victim Notification:  Strengthens notification requirements for victims to be informed about any release of an individual found not guilty by reason of insanity.

22.       Cyber – Alcopops:  No entity may advertise, promote, or market any alcopop in cartoons, billboards, youth-orientated photos, sponsorships of athletic events, videogames, theater productions, amusement parks, where the intended audience is primarily children; Alcopops include an energy drink containing alcohol and other stimulants including caffeine, guarana, taurine, and ginseng.

23.       Cyber - Internet Gaming: Statute requires Internet gaming service providers that automatically re-enroll subscribers to provide subscribers with a secure method of canceling the subscription on the Web site.

24.       Cyber – Public Records:  County Recorders may not display personal information on Web sites.
 

25.       Education – Cyber:  Beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, districts across the state will have to teach students about Internet safety. Schools must incorporate online safety classes at least once a year for students in 3rd grade and higher.
26.       Education – Cyber:  Responding to shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, colleges and universities across the state are required to develop disaster response plans with local and state safety officials and practice them at least once a year.
 

27.       Education - Golden Apple Scholars:  Statute requires that a minimum of 200 Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois awards be allocated annually.

28.       Education – Military Residency:  Requires public universities to consider individuals, and their dependents, who are on active military duty stationed out-of-state, but who were stationed in Illinois for at least three years prior to being out of state, to be Illinois residents for purposes of tuition.

29.       Education - State Scholars:  Provides a one-time $1,000 grant for tuition and fees to each State Scholar who is enrolled in college in Illinois.

30.       Education - Student Health Condition Instruction:  Requires teacher institutes in Cook County to include instruction on prevalent student chronic health conditions.

31.       Elections – Absentee Ballots:  Allows voters who have been released from a hospital, nursing home, or rehabilitation center because of an injury or illness that occurred within 14 days of an election (currently five), and expect to be homebound on the day of the election, to have a relative or another person from the voters’ precinct bring them an absentee ballot.
 

32.       Elections - Popular Vote:  Endorses a system to effectively eliminate the Electoral College system and allow the selection of a president by popular vote.

33.       Elections – Voting:  Allows municipalities to create a new absentee ballot for consolidated elections that will count for both the primary and general elections.

34.       Employment – Civil Air Patrol:  Requires employers to grant unpaid leave to employees who are civil air patrol members performing a civil air patrol mission.

35.       Employment - Day Camp Counselors:  Provides that a day camp counselor may not be subject to minimum wage laws if other conditions are met.

36.       Food – Food Banks:  Statute requires food banks to give a list of member food pantries to the local department of health.

37.       Health – Anorexia:  Insurance companies must pay for treatment of anorexia and bulimia and expands the definition of "serious mental illness" to include eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa.

38.       Health – Equipment:  Public and private outdoor facilities focusing on cardiovascular exertion are now required to have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and a trained user on the premises during all physical fitness activities. 

39.       Health - Genetic Information: Prohibits an employer from soliciting genetic information of an employee as a condition of employment, or allowing genetic information to impact employment status or work conditions.  Employers are banned from discriminating against workers because of test results. 

40.       Health - Shingles Vaccine:  Requires insurance to cover the cost of a shingles vaccine that is ordered by a physician for enrollees older than 60.

41.       Health – Uninsured Patients:  The Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act, will begin to cap “out of pocket payments” at 35 percent above the cost of care for uninsured patients. Uninsured urban residents with an annual household income of up to 600 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) will be eligible, as will rural residents with an annual household income up to 300 percent of (FPL).  Maximum payments to a hospital in a single year will be capped at 25 percent of annual gross income.  The law only applies to hospitals, not preventative care at a doctor’s office. 
 

42.       Health – Use of Older Adults:  Creates a demonstration program to evaluate the use of older adult volunteers to perform telephone reassurance activities and outreach on the emergency home response program.

43.       Health – Women:  Designates each February as Women’s Heart Disease Awareness Month. 

44.       Lenders - Fairness in Lending: Statute increases fines that can be levied against lenders for violating the Human Rights Act by discriminating on the basis of race, gender, disability, or national origin.

45.       License Plates:  Allows the Secretary of State to issue Illinois Police Association license plates.

 
46.       Liquor Control: Allows two Chicago retailers to sell liquor on Sunday despite their proximity to a school or church.

47.       Long-Term Care:  Requires the creation of a form to be completed by all long-term care facilities, assisted living, shared housing and supportive living facilities to gather information that will be used to help consumers make informed decisions.
 

48.       Marriage – Non Avoidance:  Provides that a marriage is no longer invalidated by the fact that the marriage was inadvertently solemnized in an Illinois county other than the county where the license was issued.

49.       Motor Vehicles – Accident Reports:  Requires a driver involved in an accident to forward a written accident report if the accident resulted in property damage in excess of $1,500.

50.       Motor Vehicles - Car Title: Vehicle titles now allow a space on a car title where the vehicle owner may designate a beneficiary similar to beneficiaries of land trusts, insurance policies and pension plans.

51.       Motor Vehicles - Highway Safety: Gives fire department officers the authority to close traffic to protect the safety of persons/property. Also increases penalties for those failing to abide by these closures.

52.       Motor Vehicles - LED Lights:  Requires the use of Energy Star lights or LED lights (now, Energy Star lights) in State owned or leased buildings of 1,000 square feet or larger.

53.       Motor Vehicles - Lemon Law:  The “Lemon Law” now includes vehicles purchased by a fire department, fire protection district or township fire departments.
 

54.       Motor Vehicles – License Plates:  An optometrist may determine visual disability for purposes of issuing a Disabled Person Identification Card or disability license plates or decals.
 

55.       Motor Vehicles – License Plates:  Statute provides for issuance of special license plates to a holder, or the surviving spouse of a holder, of the Distinguished Service Cross.

56.       Motor Vehicles - Railroad Obstruction:  Increases the penalty for a motor vehicle driver who obstructs a railroad grade crossing.  Practical Note:  Although the laws of Illinois may have changed, the consequences of the laws of physics have not.

57.       Motor Vehicles - Rental Cars:  Provides that rental car companies must provide an emergency phone number that the person renting the vehicle can call for roadside assistance.

58.       Motor Vehicles - Restricted Driving Permit:  Allows a person who has a restricted driving permit to transport family members to and from school and daycare.

59.       Motor Vehicles - School Buses:  Requires school bus drivers to open the bus door before crossing railroad tracks.
 

60.       Motor Vehicles - “Scott’s Law”:  Increases felony penalties for violating “Scott’s Law,” which requires a driver to move to another lane of traffic, if possible, or slow down when approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing lights. The Secretary of State can only suspend a license for violating “Scott’s Law” if the violation results in damage to property or death or injury.
 

61.       Parental Responsibility Law:  Increases the amount of damages that a parent can be held liable for when a child vandalizes property, raising the amount to $20,000 for the first instance, $30,000 for a pattern.

62.       Podiatric Medical Malpractice:  Exempts Chiropractors from the Podiatric Medical Practice Act.

63.       Politics – Pay To Play:  Bans state contractors from giving campaign contributions to the statewide officeholder responsible for awarding the contract, as well as contributions to declared candidates for the statewide office awarding the contract. The measure will apply to all contracts totaling $50,000 or more.  The new law will require businesses with contracts or pending bids to register with the State Board of Elections, including registering affiliated entities, owners and key executives. Those found in violation of the law could have their contracts voided, and incomplete or falsified filings with the State Board of Elections would be considered a criminal offense, punishable by a fine. Contractors are obliged to notify legislators to whom they donate, that they are registered with the State Board of Elections.

64.       Real Estate – Environmental Covenants:  Statute allows a property owner to record an “environmental covenant” against their real estate.  This could make subsequent owners liable for cleanup or maintenance and clarify these issues for lenders. 

65.       Real Estate - Home Ownership:  Adds home ownership education to the financial literacy component of the consumer education mandate.

66.       Real Estate – Lawn Sprinklers:  Requires all (excluding golf courses and agricultural areas) automatically operated lawn sprinkler systems to include technology that halts operation of the system during periods of sufficient rainfall or moisture.

67.       Real Estate – Penalties:  Provides for a transfer of money held in escrow by a licensed real estate agent to the State Treasurer’s office if the real estate transaction is not complete and the escrow funds are in dispute.

68.       Real Estate - Rental Property:  Helps rental property owners by creating a permissive inference for the intent to permanently deprive the owner of rental property if the lessee fails to return rental property to the owner within 10 days of a written demand for return.
 

69.       Real Estate – Trailer Parks:  Requires signed agreements between mobile home parks and the local fire chief if no private water supply and hydrants are available in the park.

70.       Real Estate - Zoning Decisions:  Provides that all zoning decisions made by the corporate authorities of a municipality, township board, or county board are subject to judicial review.

71.       Renewable Energy:  Makes a change in the definition of renewable energy resources to allow the “heating” of tires to be included in the definition.

72.       Safety Device Sales — Fake:  Prohibits the manufacture, installation, or sale of fake life safety or fire protection devices.

73.       Science and Technology:  Creates the Illinois Science and Technology Commission within the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

74.       Senior Citizens - Technology Grants:  Provides that senior citizen homes may receive grants under the Community Technology Center Grant Program.

75.       Soybean Pricing: Amends the Soybean Marketing Act to define “net market price” and to alter the assessment from cents per bushel to a percentage of the market price for soybeans sold.

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