By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike will resign on March 14 after three years leading the agency and two years navigating a deadly pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 32,000 Illinoisans. 

Ezike, a mother of four, was appointed IDPH director in 2019, became a widely recognized public figure in the state as the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life across the globe.

“There is something particularly heroic about the service of an extraordinary individual who did not seek greatness, but found it anyway,” Gov. JB Pritzker said, proclaiming Tuesday, March 1 “Dr. Ngozi Ezike Day” in Illinois.

Beginning with daily updates in March 2020, Ezike appeared at more than 160 COVID-19-related news conferences alongside the governor, putting a public face on the medical side of the state’s executive branch-driven pandemic response.

Pritzker said the department will be led in the interim by Dr. Amaal Tokars, an IDPH top deputy who has at times appeared next to the governor at his news conferences as well.

Ezike thanked her family for “tolerating the absences” over the past two years.

An emotional Ezike thanked the governor and the people of Illinois for giving her strength in a difficult time.

“I acknowledge and mourn with the families of all the lives lost not just to COVID, but to gun violence, to suicide, to drug overdose, to racism, to cancer, and all the other diseases and ills that public health officials and all of our partners work tirelessly to curb,” she said.

Ezike also said that while the statewide indoor mask mandate was lifted as of Monday, it’s important to be respectful of Illinoisans who still choose to wear face coverings for medical or other reasons.

Ezike said declining COVID-19 transmission rates and hospitalizations, as well as increasing vaccination rates, are leading to a lull in the pandemic that created a window for her to step down. 

“I’m hoping that with all the vaccinations and the therapeutics that are available that we will have, you know, a quiet spring. Spring and summer have typically been stable times. So this is my chance,” she said.

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MASK GUIDANCE: Facial coverings are now optional in most public places in Illinois, including schools, after Gov. JB Pritzker issued new guidance Monday to comply with new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Under a new executive order issued by Pritzker on Monday, masks are no longer required in most indoor public places, including K-12 schools and day cares. But schools and private businesses can continue to require masks at their own discretion.

Face masks are still required in health care settings and on public transportation such as buses, trains and airplanes, as well as transportation hubs like airports and bus stations.

Those developments came after the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear the state’s appeal of a temporary restraining order issued Feb. 4 by a Sangamon County judge, calling the issue “moot.”

In its ruling late Friday, the court, in a 5-2 vote, echoed a 4th District Court of Appeals decision from a week earlier that said the issue of the TRO was moot because the emergency rules that the Illinois Department of Public Health had issued in September had expired and the legislative Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted Feb. 15 not to renew them.

Because the issue of the TRO was moot, the state’s high court said Friday, the order itself was vacated and the case was remanded back to Sangamon County to be heard in its entirety.

Justices Michael J. Burke and David K. Overstreet dissented in the decision. The court said a written dissenting opinion would be forthcoming.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was one that left both sides in the dispute claiming victory.

“I’m gratified that the Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s restraining order, meaning that if a school mask mandate needs to go into effect in the future, we continue to have that authority,” Pritzker said in a statement released by his press secretary.

But Republican lawmakers who have questioned Pritzker’s use of executive orders and criticized the Democratic majority in the General Assembly for not exercising oversight, said the ruling will serve as a check on the governor’s powers.

“The Illinois Supreme Court found the governor’s mask mandate moot and not enforceable thanks to a bipartisan group of legislators who decided to strike it down earlier this month,” Senate GOP Leader Dan McConchie, of Hawthorn Woods, said in a statement.

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NUTRIENT LOSS BILL: A bill meant to stem nutrient pollution resulting from farm runoff has met opposition from a formidable foe – the Illinois Farm Bureau – as negotiations on a final package continue.

The state aimed to reduce nitrates and nitrogen by 15 percent and phosphorus by 25 percent by 2025, but the latest Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Implementation Report showed that nutrient loss increased by 13 percent and phosphorus losses increased by 35 percent, compared with a baseline period from 1980 to 1996.

The bill, Senate Bill 3471,creates the Healthy Soils and Watershed Initiative that would be administered by the Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the state’s soil and water conservation districts, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and the University of Illinois Extension program.

The Department of Agriculture would create guidelines to help with soil and water conservation districts to create a plan and establish funding levels with “measureable, cost-effective and technically achievable goals” to reduce nutrient loss.

The Initiative would then produce a study every two years, beginning in 2023, outlining efforts to combat nutrient loss and their overall effectiveness. It would also measure the overall picture of nutrient loss and whether the state was moving towards goals set out in the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.

Supporters say the bill creates a baseline to gauge the scope of the problem and identify appropriate spending limits and strategies that work, and it also provides accountability to taxpayers.

The information collected by the agencies would also make it easier to obtain federal monies set aside to combat nutrient loss, said Maxwell Webster, Midwest Policy Manager for America Farmland Trust, a proponent of the bill.

The Illinois Farm Bureau voiced opposition to the bill in committee hearing because they say it is duplicative, complicated and bureaucratic.

The Farm Bureau said the bill put various state and federal agencies, authorities, and programs under one umbrella, making it difficult to implement. Adding provisions to already existing laws, like the Soil and Water Conservation Act, would make the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategies less confusing and eliminate bureaucracy, said Lauren Lurkins, Director of Environmental Policy for the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Advocates for the bill said they are hopeful it will be able to move when the Senate returns next week, as the deadline for its passage was extended to March 11.

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APPELLATE BACKLOG ‘SOLVED:’ A backlog of cases before the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender that the agency’s leader once described as a “crisis in the criminal justice system” has largely been resolved, State Appellate Defender James Chadd told a state Senate committee Tuesday.

Chadd told a Senate judiciary appropriations subcommittee that the backlog of cases at one time reached 3,759 amid a two-year budget impasse and extensive periods of underfunding. There are now fewer than 500 cases with complete records before the office, he said.  

The Office of the State Appellate Defender represents the state’s most disadvantaged individuals as they appeal criminal charges.

Chadd, who was appointed state appellate defender in 2017 and seated in January 2018, attributed the success in reducing the backlog to the agency being fully funded and fully staffed for the previous four years.

“Fully funded” equates to a budget of roughly $26 million, a number he has requested from the General Assembly for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. It’s roughly flat from the current year with a decrease of about $70,000.

It’s an increase from just under $24 million that was budgeted for the agency in Gov. JB Pritzker’s first year in office. It also marks about a 30 percent increase from OSAD’s budget at the height of the budget impasse which occurred from 2015 to 2017.

Chadd said another contributing factor to the decrease in the backlog was that OSAD was able to work effectively throughout the pandemic as the pace of court cases slowed at the trial court level. The agency expects to see an unspecified increase in cases as trial courts return to a normal pace following slowdowns attributable to the pandemic.

The $26 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which still needs approval from the General Assembly and the governor, should allow OSAD to handle any influx of claims, Chadd said. The funding will support 255 employees at the agency, including 195 attorneys.

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REVENUE WINDFALL: A House revenue committee on Thursday heard projections of an Illinois economy that is steadily moving back toward a level of pre-pandemic normalcy, which means revenue spikes realized due to temporary changes in consumer spending habits and federal stimulus packages are expected to subside. 

Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris characterized the COVID-19 pandemic as a “black swan event” which sent state revenues tumbling by $400 million in 2020.

But in response to that so-called black swan event, consumers nationwide shifted to purchasing more goods than services, and the federal government provided direct financial payments to Americans and expanded unemployment insurance benefits.

That sparked a near two-year period of substantial state revenue growth, partially because Illinois taxes goods, but not most services, so the redistribution of spending correlated directly to a rise in sales tax revenue. As well, unemployment benefits are taxable by the state, and many individuals who collected enhanced federal benefits saw greater income levels than before the pandemic.

The windfalls in the big three revenue sources – individual and corporate income tax and sales tax – created unprecedented, at least in modern times, flexibility for Gov. JB Pritzker to craft a budget for the upcoming year that dedicates surpluses to paying down old debts. Negotiations on a final budget continue in the General Assembly.  

The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability expects state coffers will have taken in $48.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year, up from a $44.4 billion projection in the budget that lawmakers approved in May. The base state revenue sources actually grew by $4.6 billion, however, because the governor’s office amended its planned use of federal funds to offset General Revenue Fund spending downward by $500 million due to the surplus.

The updated FY 22 estimates include a $1.6 billion increase in personal income tax from initial expected levels, a $1.2 billion increase in corporate income tax, and a $926 million increase in sales tax revenue.

The revenues for January alone were $1.2 billion greater than the prior year, according to COGFA.

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FY 2023 PROJECTIONS: Illinois Department of Revenue Director David Harris and other fiscal prognosticators projected that Fiscal Year 2023, which begins July 1, will continue to see a solid revenue performance, but it will also begin a period of leveling, where the last two years of fiscal breathing room trend back to normal.

COGFA’s FY 23 revenue estimate is $671 million lower than its updated FY 22 estimate, not including federal funding. Federal American Rescue Plan Act funding accounts for $1.5 billion of the FY 22 budget but no such expenditures are anticipated for FY 23 in terms of GRF replacement funding.

But representatives of IDOR, COGFA and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget noted the picture for the upcoming fiscal year could change quickly as tensions continue amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was escalating quickly at the time of the Thursday morning hearing. Sustained Russian sanctions could impact anything from energy prices to the cost of wheat, so projections will be updated as needed, according to IDOR.  

Republican lawmakers also inquired about inflation, and the budgeteers said projections generally anticipated “several months” of continued upward inflation before the trend reverses, and their current projections anticipate the inflation rate to be 7.9 percent.

As the projections stand now, according to House Majority Leader Greg Harris, who is a chief budgeteer in the chamber, the governor and the General Assembly will have the flexibility to pay down old debt and prepare the state for future fiscal downturns.

Included in the governor’s plan is an infusion of $600 million to the “rainy day” fund from the surplus in the current fiscal year, as well as $279 million from the upcoming fiscal year. That fund had been spent down to almost nothing during the budget impasse of 2015 to 2017.

The governor also proposed dedicating $898 million to pay down overdue health insurance bills. His proposal also includes spending $300 million of the surplus to pay down pension debt, with $200 million added to the statutory payment in the upcoming budget. 

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ARPA FUNDING: Illinois directly received $8.1 billion from President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan, known as the American Rescue Plan Act, and about $3.5 billion remains unspent, according to House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago.

He added that a working group made up of both parties as well as business and labor interests is currently discussing the plan for retiring $4.5 billion in debt to the federal government that the state incurred to keep its unemployment system running at the height of the pandemic. That borrowing has accrued $36 million of interest due by Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Treasury.

Republicans at the Thursday hearing suggested the governor reapportion his planned $1.5 billion in ARPA spending for FY 22, using it to pay down trust fund debt instead of replenishing state coffers for COVID-19-related spending.

Rep. Harris said the working group is coming up with a “menu of options” for paying down the backlog which could include ARPA funds. Generally, such a solution includes some combination of decreases to benefits, increases to employer premiums or some infusion of state, federal or private funding.

While Pritzker’s proposed FY 23 budget is largely not reliant on ARPA funds, one major proposed expenditure – $250 million for violence intervention funding – would be funded primarily by a $235 million lump sum from ARPA.

Rep. Harris said the intervention funding is often “short-term,” but the state will monitor the violence prevention program’s efficacy over the next few years as ARPA funding remains available and consider future expenditures in future budget years.

The governor’s plan to pay down debt with the one-time surplus this year could free up funds in the future, he said.

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INSPECTOR GENERAL: When Michael McCuskey walked into his new office at the Stratton Building that overlooks the Illinois State Capitol which he is charged with investigating, he had two complaints in his inbox, some empty desks and no staff.

“I’ve got nothing. No staff. No investigator. No nothing,” McCuskey said Wednesday in an interview with Capitol News Illinois.

The new legislative inspector general is primarily tasked with investigating complaints, violations, abuse of authority or other forms of misconduct by members of the General Assembly and the employees who work for them.

He’ll have a budget of $920,000 to fill out a staff that currently has a head count of zero. Those working for former LIG Carol Pope vacated the office when she did earlier this year.

McCuskey was appointed by lawmakers last week to serve the balance of Pope’s unfulfilled term. That ends on June 30, 2023 – McCuskey’s 74th birthday.  

Pope called the office a “paper tiger.” McCuskey said he needs the essentials, like someone to answer the phone, before he can surmise how to improve the technical workings of the office.

“I keep telling the press come back next year just before it becomes retention time or retirement time and ask me,” McCuskey said. “How would I know how the job is going to function when I don’t even have staff? I don’t have an investigator. I am starting from ground zero. Absolutely.”

When he faces lawmakers to make his budget request in the coming days, he said, he’ll state his intent to hire an investigator and seek to determine whether the office is up to date on its bills.

McCuskey has his own hiring authority, so filling in staff should go faster than typical state employment hiring.

One of the first positions on his list of new hires will be a secretary, he said.

Because McCuskey doesn’t type.

If anyone asks about the status of the two complaints pending in McCuskey’s office, he said, he may have to respond in a written longhand letter.

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GAS TAX FREEZE: Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan for pausing a scheduled automatic increase in the state’s motor fuel tax is facing opposition from several quarters, including engineering companies that design road and bridge projects.

On Thursday, officials from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois said pausing the scheduled increase could have long-term consequences that could endanger funding for future transportation projects.

“We’re open to working with all parties to find options for relief,” ACEC Illinois president Kevin Artl said during a news conference. “But I think the history here in Illinois is that when you skip payments, it only makes things worse. And in this instance, skipping this adjustment will lead to a half a billion dollars in lost funds for infrastructure projects over five years.”

The automatic, inflation-adjusted increase in the tax was part of the funding package for the $45 billion “Rebuild Illinois” capital improvements plan that lawmakers approved in 2019. Proceeds of the tax are used for transportation projects such as road and bridge repairs.

Administration officials have estimated this year’s increase would be a little more than 2 cents per gallon. But in his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, Pritzker called for a one-year pause in that increase, which would save consumers about $135 million over the year.

That was part of a nearly $1 billion package of tax relief measures that Pritzker offered to help soften some of the impact of inflation on Illinois consumers. Administration officials have said the one-year pause in the tax increase would not affect funding of any future projects or the state’s ability to repay bonds that are backed by motor fuel tax revenues.

Other groups that benefit from state transportation funding have come out against the proposed tax freeze as well, including road construction companies and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, which represents road construction workers.

State lawmakers are still working on a budget package for the upcoming fiscal year, and they have not yet acted on Pritzker’s proposed one-year pause on the gas tax hike.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.