If HB1429 becomes law, it would turn public spaces in Illinois into homeless encampments.
The bill allows the homeless to occupy playgrounds, parkways, forest preserves, your neighborhood park, or other public places indefinitely.
The homeless would be allowed to eat, drink, relax, sleep, and do any other life-sustaining activity in the parks. They are even allowed to store their personal property there.
The bill says authorities are allowed to request that they move to allow access to others, or if there are scheduled events there, but could only remove a homeless person in cases of emergencies defined as an Imminent risk that death, serious illness, or severe injury to a person or destruction of property would occur by letting the homeless person remain.
But before removal, authorities would have to give a 3-day notice and offer them transportation, social services, and other resources to solve their housing needs.
Let’s be clear – The homeless are already offered help through multiple non-profits and social service agencies. Just one grant in this year’s state budget will spend $27 million on homeless prevention. Another grant – the emergency and transitional housing program will spend over $90 million.
And that’s just two of many homeless grant programs. Maybe Democrats should assess the effectiveness of these grants before letting the homeless take over parks.
Most homelessness is a result of people with deep mental health or drug problems. Allowing them to overrun public parks doesn’t help them; it destroys any sense of goodwill between community members and those in need.
HB1429 is opposed by mayors and managers across the state, the Chiefs of Police, the Sheriff’s Association, and various local governments, including park districts and forest preserves.
Here’s the list of IL Democrat Representatives who think this is a good idea:
Rep. Kevin John Olickal – Emanuel “Chris” Welch – Dagmara Avelar – Lindsey LaPointe – Mary Beth Canty, Lilian Jiménez, Rita Mayfield, Suzanne M. Ness, Bob Morgan, Will Guzzardi, Kelly M. Cassidy, Barbara Hernandez, Michelle Mussman, Abdelnasser Rashid, Hoan Huynh, Anne Stava, Laura Faver Dias, Carol Ammons, Lisa Davis, Nicolle Grasse, Norma Hernandez, Theresa Mah, Edgar González, Jr., Michael Crawford, Nabeela Syed, Diane Blair-Sherlock, La Shawn K. Ford, Camille Y. Lilly, Justin Cochran, Yolonda Morris and Marcus C. Evans, Jr. – 31 Democrats, including the Speaker of the House.
This bill DID NOT PASS out of the House and was re-referred to the House Rules Committee, which usually means that the bill is dead.
I have not heard of a Senate version. But people should still contact their legislators and tell them how they feel about the bill.
31 Democrats signed onto the legislation, which NO ONE with any common sense would ever do! They should lose their seats for even considering legislation like HB1429.
Other Bills That Passed This Week – The Senate passed 123 bills, 8 were Republican. The IL House passed 201 bills this week, 21 were Republican bills.
At this LINK is a list of bills that passed on Tuesday. Look at the list – arguably, none of them make an impact on most Illinoisans. A few bills tweak a law for some situation that came up. A few of them are just stupid and unnecessary.
Here are a few bills that passed this week.
HB690 – Requires all county clerk offices to be closed on all legal holidays. This bill is a perfect example of the state meddling in the business of a local government. Apparently, one county in the state had a clerk’s office that was open on a legal holiday. Somebody didn’t like that, so they are getting the state to make a law mandating closure.
HB 4714 – Changes the Children’s Mental Health Partnership Act. The Act was first put in place in the 93rd GA (2003-04). This bill adds to the required list of diversity members of the Partnership to include a member based on sexual orientation. It changes and adds to some duties as well. Overall, it’s another step into more government involvement in what should be a parent, doctor, and counselor concern.
HB5095 – For State IDs or Driver’s License, the sex choice is Male, Female or X (instead of non-binary) and a simple attestation of the person’s choice is sufficient to select whichever sex designation the person wants, no other documentation is required.
HB5208 – Child Bereavement Act is amended to the Family Bereavement Act to require a specific number of days, over a specific time period, based on the number of employees an organization has, that an employee must given bereavement leave in 4-hour or greater increments. The changes includes an expanded group for who bereavement leave is required to be offered.
For example, in the case of the failure of a round of artificial insemination, the employee (could even be the husband) who works for a firm with 50 or more employees could take up to 10 days of unpaid bereavement leave in a 12-month period.
This is heavy-handed government involvement and the underlying assumption is that employers will not give unpaid time off in the case of the death of a family member. The assumption is always that employers do not care about their employees. I was the Republican spokesman on the Labor and Commerce Committee when the Child Bereavement Act first passed. They took a one-off incident of a person who lost a son and whose employer wouldn’t give him much time off and turned it into a mandate for all – and now they are expanding it.
HB5045 – Allows the state treasurer to act as the investment manager for non-profits. This is outrageous! The state treasurer is getting way too involved in transactions that are already available in the private sector. Frerichs started by getting a law signed that allows him to manage 401 (k) retirement plans for people whose businesses do not offer one and mandating that employers with five or more employees offer the state plan if they don’t have one. Then, last year IL State Treasurer Frerich’s announced a new program making the state a student loan lender with no co-signer required. Now, he wants his office to be the investment manager for non-profits who have excess funds not needed for operations. Presumably, these non-profits already can invest them in the market.
HB5492 – Requires insurance companies to provide coverage for up to a 12-month supply of prescription hormone therapy, and the necessary supplies for self-administration. This is all about keeping the “transgender” ideology going without requiring more frequent visits to the doctor.
SB3465 – “Provides that, if a woman or an individual who menstruates [duh – only women menstruate] is present on a work site and there are 10 or more workers of any gender at the work site, then a separate toilet facility shall be provided at the work site and designated for use by women and individuals who menstruate.”
They whipped through these bills with little consideration for long-term effects.
I shared this on Wednesday, April 15th – Pritzker’s Home Illinois Program: Approx. $700 Million to address homelessness in Illinois, a combination of state initiatives and federal funds.
IN OTHER NEWS
The CEJA Bill Must Be Repealed
Photo of Elwood Power Plant from J-Power USA website
What happens when policy isn’t well thought out? You get editorials like the one the Chicago Tribune wrote on Friday about the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act(CEJA). It’s a doozy. And I appreciate them writing it, but they should have realized how stupid the CEJA bill was when it passed in September of 2021 – they praised the legislation then.
Then, in September 2024, the Chicago Tribune wrote about the looming energy crisis and the failure of CEJA. Now, here they are again criticizing a bill they thought was dandy and passed by legislators that they continue to endorse cycle after cycle.
Here’s part of what the Chicago Tribune wrote in this Editorial: Owner of massive Elwood Energy plant isn’t waiting for Illinois closure deadlines. They’re literally moving the plant to Texas.
The owner of two-thirds of a massive natural-gas-fired power plant in Will County is moving their part of the facility to Texas.
Literally.
As in, putting huge turbines on flatbed trucks and driving them south to friendlier climes.
We’ve learned that two-thirds of the capacity at the 1,350-megawatt Elwood Energy facility — the largest natural-gas-fired peaker power plant in Commonwealth Edison’s territory and one of the biggest in the nation — now is being shut down thanks to Illinois’ landmark clean-energy law enacted in 2021. The sudden removal of that whopping 900 megawatts of capacity could well drive up local electric bills that already have been rising.
Under the 2021 statute in question, the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act, Elwood was required to stop operating by 2030. The law, one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature accomplishments, requires Illinois to phase out the burning of fossil fuels for electricity by 2045 and sets an earlier 2030 deadline for closing certain gas-fired plants. The idea was to reduce emissions contributing to global warming while simultaneously replacing those polluting sources with clean technologies like wind and solar power…
But here’s the kicker: At least as it concerns the massive Elwood facility, CEJA isn’t helping the environment while also likely raising power prices for ComEd customers.
Rather, it’s the worst of all possible worlds.
Hull Street Energy, of Bethesda, Maryland, early last year acquired six of the nine 150-megawatt gas turbines that have been running at Elwood. The timing was interesting given that the plant wasn’t likely to be allowed to operate for long.
Now, we have a better idea of the rationale for the deal. The equipment was valuable to Hull Street — but not if it stayed in Will County. The firm’s decision to move the turbines to Texas, where they will continue to operate, makes sense because there’s high demand even for older equipment like this. We’re told there’s a five– to seven-year wait to purchase new gas turbines.
So not only will there be no reduction in overall emissions due to CEJA, the Chicago area will lose 900 megawatts of power that had been critical to meeting peak demand and helped dampen prices during those peak periods….
There’s yet more to this story.
The remaining three units at Elwood will continue to operate at the site and now will be permitted to do so under the law until 2045. Why? Because the previous owner, J-POWER, sold those three units to Dairyland Power Cooperative, of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, which by virtue of being a nonprofit is allowed by CEJA to operate gas-fired power plants over the next few decades that otherwise would have to shutter in a few years.
So those emissions also will continue well into the future, but only because ownership changed from a private company to a nonprofit.
Governor Pritzker and his Democrat environmental whackos are idiots. Maybe the Chicago Tribune should be more forthright in its critique.
It isn’t good public policy to shutdown clean reliable energy. It’s being stupid based on ideology and climate scare-mongering.
And anyone who thinks wind and solar power are clean and can solve our energy needs is delusional on both accounts.
MORE IN OTHER NEWS
Meet Illinois Democrat State Senator Graciela Guzman. She’s a former community organizer from Chicago turned state senator. She’s a radical progressive, and now she’s got a new series called “It’s time to tax the MF Rich.”
She’s arrogant, immature, and has no respect for people who have turned their hard work into financial success. The rich are already leaving high-tax Illinois, and more will leave if they are targeted specifically for another 3% tax on earnings over $1 million. Guzman isn’t the only one who wants a millionaire’s tax. It will take a constitutional amendment to make that happen. They have until May 3rd to have the constitutional amendment bill passed by 3/5 of each chamber.
Guzman’s rant is offensive. Regardless, people should hear it because you need to understand how vile these people are. They don’t respect ordinary Illinois taxpayers. Share the information with others. At some point, we need people to get upset enough to get involved and vote Guzman and her fellow socialist Democrats out of office.
You can listen to her vile video on Austin Berg’s X post at this LINK.
What would the patriots of 250 years ago think?
April 19, 1775— a turning point in history.
As part of the America 250 celebration, we remember the Battles of Lexington and Concord—the first fights of the American Revolutionary War.
After Paul Revere’s midnight ride, colonial militias were ready. At sunrise on Lexington Green, the first shots were fired—“the shot heard ’round the world.”
This is part of our No Kings American History series.
