Blog Posts

The Illinois Senate today moved to non-concur to Senate Bill 1 as amended by the House. This was the first step toward an agreed conference committee to resolve the pension crisis. The Illinois House then acted to refuse to recede from their amendment and create the committee on reform. 

The conference committee will be comprised of 10 members. Five will be appointed from the Senate, three appointed by the President and two appointed by the Minority Leader. Five additional members will be appointed by the House. Three will be appointed by the Speaker and two appointed by the Minority Leader.

Read more: Senate moves toward a conference committee on pensions

With the court-imposed July 9 deadline looming, senators are asking the governor to take swift action on a bipartisan concealed-carry legislation that passed both chambers of the General Assembly last month.

Yesterday, several Senate Democrats urged Quinn to act quickly to sign the bill to prevent a public safety crisis should he fail to act. The governor also is facing increasing pressure from state's attorneys in several downstate counties who say they are no longer going to uphold the current ban.

Read more: State's attorneys add twist to concealed-carry issue

As economies around the world and in the U.S. continue to rebound, Chicago is expected to be the second-most competitive U.S. city and ninth worldwide in attracting businesses, capital and talent, according to a report published this week.

Crain’s reported the results today of a study commissioned by Citigroup Inc. based on a number of factors of competitiveness. Chicago is expected to move up three spots on the list to ninth place by 2025 based on economic strength, institutional character, human capitol, global appeal a range of indicators. The city ranked fourth globally, higher than any other U.S. city, on environmental governance and risk of natural disasters. Social and cultural character and infrastructure also ranked high in the study.

Read more in Crain’s article.

Senate President John Cullerton discusses the end of the spring 2013 legislative session.