Owners of real estate in Zion and some nearby towns will start paying an average of $2,000 less in property taxes for approximately the next 20 years thanks to legislation passed late Tuesday as part of the lame-duck session in the final hours of the 103rd Illinois General Assembly.
State Rep. Joyce Mason, D-Gurnee, said she started scrambling Saturday to get support for the bill, which clarifies language in the 2021 Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) assuring taxpayers, not tax recipients, get the benefit of nearly $330 million going to Zion for property tax relief.
Mason, along with the other eight other representatives and five state senators representing parts of Lake County opened the 104th Illinois General Assembly Wednesday in Springfield with plans for a variety of legislation over the next two years, after completing the lame duck session Tuesday.
Signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2021, CEJA was designed to help people and towns impacted by the closure of coal-fired power plants. Mason successfully got Zion included to compensate residents there for the impact of the closure of the nuclear power plant.
As Mason worked with Zion Mayor Billy McKinney on the original bill, the idea was to give $15 million a year for 23 years to the city to reduce property taxes. Some taxing bodies, like school districts, wanted to use the money to benefit schools. The legislation is now specific.
“Now, the taxing bodies will have to abate 75% of the money to the taxpayers,” Mason said. “We cleaned up the legislation. We needed to fix it. It will mean a 20% reduction in property taxes — approximately $2,000 for the average homeowner.”
Also during the lame duck session, state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, state Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, state Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, and state Rep. Dan Didech, D-Buffalo Grove, worked on the successful passage of Karina’s law.
Named for Karina Gonzalez, who was allegedly shot to death along with her daughter by her husband in 2023, Morgan said in an email the law is designed to remove guns from the homes of domestic abusers.
“The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation means the victim is five times more likely to be killed,” he said in the email. “We need to remove these firearms from these deadly situations.”
In other action, State Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, said she tried to secure enough support in the lame duck session to get her bill requiring NRG Energy to remove the coal ash ponds from its decommissioned coal-burning electricity generating station, but she remains five votes short. She will reintroduce it in the next session.
104th Illinois General Assembly opens
As the 104th Illinois General Assembly gathered in the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday, all members of the House of Representatives and newly or reelected state senators took their oaths of office and began charting what they wanted to see enacted in the next two years.
State Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, was the only senator representing Lake County taking her oath. Johnson Morrison, state Sen Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, and state Sen. Craig Wilcox, R-McHenry, are in the middle of their four-year terms.
Four members — Morrison, Mayfield, Mason and Didech — plan to push legislation dealing with schools in some way. Morrison hopes to mandate three-point harnesses on school buses, and Didech wants to increase funding for schools. Mason’s focus will be on early childhood education.
A one-time board of education member, Mayfeild is aware teachers spend their own money to provide supplies and other things for students She plans to introduce legislation to reimburse educators.
“They start the school year with school supplies, but in January they don’t have them,” Mayfield said. “Teachers use their own money to help out. We need to allocate funding for that.”
Johnson said in a text she wants to see environmental safeguards in schools, as well as moves against hate crimes and grant funding for local healing centers, among other measures.
“My commitment remains steadfast in ensuring that every initiative reflects the values and priorities of the people I am honored to serve.,” Johnson said.
Environmental safeguards are also on the agenda for Mayfield, with both her coal ash bill and another proposal to require ethylene oxide (EtO) testing outside plants that use the carcinogen chemical. There is one in Waukegan and another in Gurnee.
“I want testing of the air quality in those areas,” Mayfield said. “It was not included in the last legislation, and we need to take care of it.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on Morgan’s mind. He is introducing legislation giving the Illinois Department of Insurance regulatory oversight of an insurance company’s use of AI to support denial of a claim.
Artificial Intelligence should never stand in the way of you receiving the healthcare that you need,” he said in the email. “As AI becomes universally used in health insurance, this legislation will protect patients from yet another barrier between them and their doctors.”
McConchie said in an email he plans to continue his efforts to help individuals with disabilities. This session he intends to introduce a bill to ensure they do not pay more sales tax than others for the same item.
Since disabled people must order special equipment in a vehicle when they buy the car, they pay a sales tax of 6.25%. The same modification can be acquired from the aftermarket with a 1% sales tax under the durable medical equipment rate.
Other state representatives representing parts of Lake County are Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, Martin McLaughlin, R-Berrington Hills, Tracy Katz Muhl, D-Northbrook, Laura Faver Dias, D-Grayslake, and Tom Weber, R-Lake Villa.