By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 4736 into law Tuesday, May 10, in Peoria, one of the four communities that will be part of a co-responder pilot program that aims to send social workers and mental health professionals on law enforcement calls. The others are Waukegan, Springfield and East St. Louis.

The program would send social workers along with law enforcement on certain calls with a primary focus on victim assistance, as well as diversion from the criminal justice system.

Responsibilities would include connecting victims with social services, providing guidance for receiving orders of protection and filing police reports, working with police investigators within confidentiality laws, and providing guidance to families of juveniles who have been arrested.

The budget provides $10 million for the pilot programs this year. It would need a reallocation of funding each year and would expire in 2029.

While Republicans have criticized Democrats for leniency in sentencing and attacked the majority party as soft on crime, Pritzker pointed to investments in two Illinois State Police crime labs and other technologies to aid investigations, such as expressway cameras.

“You’ve got to give police the tools that they need to go arrest the right people, and make sure that we can put them in prison,” he said.

HB 4736 also renames an existing program as the Violent Crime Witness Protection Act, expanding it to fund emergency relocation expenses, lost wage assistance, security deposits for rent and utilities and more. The budget included $30 million to implement the program.

HB 4736 also created a tip hotline grant program for anonymous tip hotlines that provide cash rewards for tips that lead to an arrest. The budget included $1 million for that purpose.

The measure would also require homicide investigators to be trained in victim-centered, trauma-informed investigation. It also creates a crime reduction task force to study violence prevention measures and report back to the governor and General Assembly.

Pritzker also signed House Bill 3863, which would direct grants to local governments, public higher education institutions and qualified nonprofits for the purpose of hiring and retaining officers. Lawmakers dedicated $10 million to for the grants.

He also signed House Bill 2895 which would allow the Department of Human Services to directly pay funeral expenses of children murdered due to gun violence, rather than having their families wait for reimbursement.

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RATINGS UPGRADE: Fitch Ratings on Thursday, May 5, raised the state of Illinois’ rating for general obligation bonds two notches, to BBB+, while S&P Global Ratings on Friday upgraded state bonds by one notch.

That means all three major credit rating agencies have updated Illinois credit by two notches in the past year.

“The upgrade to ‘BBB+’ reflects fundamental improvements in Illinois’ fiscal resilience including full unwinding of pandemic-era and certain pre-pandemic non-recurring fiscal measures, meaningful contributions to reserves and sustained evidence of more normal fiscal decision-making,” Fitch said in its announcement.

Fitch is one of three major credit rating agencies that grade government-issued debt. Moody’s Investors Service raised Illinois’ rating on April 21 this year after giving the state its first upgrade in 20 years in July 2021. S&P’s Friday upgrade came after it previously raised Illinois’ rating one week after Moody’s did in July 2021.

“The upgrade reflects what we view as improvement in the state’s financial flexibility and monthly revenue reporting transparency, continued timely budget adoption and elimination of the bill backlog, as well as recent surplus revenues being used to promote what we view as longer-term financial stability, although credit pressures remain,” S&P Global stated.

Before those changes, Illinois had suffered multiple credit downgrades, many of which were driven by the two-year budget impasse from July 2015 to August 2017, leading the state to the lowest investment-grade rating available.

The move by Fitch puts Illinois’ bond rating three notches above “speculative grade,” or what is commonly known as “junk” status. Bonds in that category generally cannot be held by institutional investors such as mutual funds or pension systems and, therefore, are subject to higher interest rates.

In its analysis, Fitch noted that Illinois’ financial performance has improved recently but remains weaker than other U.S. states. It gave the state credit for shoring up its cash reserves, reducing its backlog of past-due bills, retiring some outstanding debt and “smoother fiscal decision-making.”

But it also noted that the state continues to face large unfunded pension liabilities, currently estimated at more than $130 billion.

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PENSION BUYOUT: Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday, May 5, signed House Bill 4292, which authorizes $1 billion in borrowing to extend a program that allows workers in the state’s five pension systems to take early buyouts of their benefits.

That program, first launched under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, was set to expire in 2024. The new legislation extends that to 2026.

Pritzker said recent credit rating upgrades were the result of passing four consecutive balanced budgets, including the one just passed for the upcoming fiscal year that dedicates $1 billion to the state’s so-called “rainy day fund” and another $500 million above what’s required by law to reduce the state’s pension liability.

He said the buyout program so far has reduced that liability by more than $1.4 billion and extending the program for an additional two years will reduce it even further.

The bill passed with bipartisan support, 108-2 in the House and 52-1 in the Senate.

Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, who is stepping down from the General Assembly this year, was a cosponsor of the bill and one of the chief sponsors of the original legislation.

“I said back in 2018 when the ‘Batinick Buyout’ first passed through the General Assembly that we had to make changes to our pension system if we were going to solve our long-term fiscal problems in Illinois,” he said in a statement. “I am delighted to see this program extended after successful implementation that has saved the state over $1 billion on our unfunded pension liability. I look forward to seeing how much more we can save to finally overcome and move past our state’s longtime pension crisis.”

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza also praised the legislation as another move to stabilize the state’s fiscal situation.

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LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMORIAL: As rain steadily fell in Springfield Thursday, May 5, there was a somber feeling among the law enforcement officers and elected officials that gathered at the Illinois State Library to honor 11 fallen officers killed in the line of duty in 2021.

The 11 officers honored were officer Joseph T. Cappello III of Melrose Park Police Department; officer Gary Steven Hibbs of Chicago Heights Police Department; trooper Todd A. Hanneken of Illinois State Police; Lt. James J. Kouski Jr. of Hometown Police Department; officer Allen Serta Giacchetti of Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department; officer Christopher Neil Oberheim of Champaign Police Department; officer Brian Russell Pierce Jr of Brooklyn Police Department; officer Ella Grace French of Chicago Police Department; officer Tyler Nathaniel Timmins of Pontoon Beach Police Department; Deputy Sean Ian Riley of Wayne County Sheriff’s Office; and Sgt. Marlene R. Rittmanic of Bradley Police Department.

The names of the fallen officers will be engraved on the memorial statue that sits on the west lawn of the State Capitol. Family members of the fallen officers were presented with plaques from Gov. JB Pritzker and received a wreath to commemorate their loved one.

Amber Oberheim, widow of Officer Neil Oberheim, said in a follow-up interview that the event speaks volumes to lawmakers and elected leaders because when someone loses a loved one while on duty, they all feel it.

Officer Oberheim was shot and killed on May 19, 2021, at 3:20 a.m. while responding to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex in Champaign.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza said the law enforcement is too often a thankless job and the individuals “willingly choose to take an oath to protect and serve” people who they have never met and are willing to give their life to protect others.

She shared the story of her brother, who worked at the Chicago Police Department for more than 20 years, didn’t always make the healthiest lifestyle choices and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

In November 2020, Mendoza said her brother was hospitalized for more than 17 days with COVID-19 and struggled with life-threatening conditions, such as a stroke and losing both kidneys. She said he survived and is slowly recovering but that his life will never be the same.

Mendoza said she wants every officer to understand that “you’re human and it’s okay” to ask for help.

Pritzker also recognized Knox County Deputy Nicholas Weist who was killed in the line of duty April 29, 2022, while responding to an emergency call.

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