The Illinois General Assembly is in full swing with over 6,700 bills being introduced over the last several weeks. I have identified some key pieces of legislation that is on the NACC Business Works Committee radar taht could potentially impact our Chamber Members.
9% Prejudgment Interest Bill | HB 3360
This bill would require payment of prejudgment interest (at a rate of 9% a year) in civil cases, including medical malpractice cases. It passed during lame duck and currently on the Governor’s desk. We learned that Edward-Elmhurst Health has calculated that this bill if passed would cost them 30.9 million in injury-related litigation payments. The Business Works Committee requested that we oppose this legislation at the February 2021 meeting. We are assessing our best advocacy plan and potential coalition partners to persuade the Governor to veto this bill.
Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) Reform Bills | HB 559, 560
BIPA guards against the unlawful collection and storing of biometric information. BIPA is often associated with technologies such as a fingerprint recognition for shift sign-in or access to facilities within companies. Please reach out to me if your business or organization currently uses such technologies. Your feedback will assist us in calibrating the impact of BIPA litigation risk on our area businesses.
Business Interruption Grant (BIG) Program, Federal Funds | HB 2424
This bill provides that of the federal funds received by the State for purposes related to the COVID-19 public health emergency – 25% of any such funds received on or after March 1, 2021 shall be allocated for use by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Grant Program (BIG Program). We will be watching this bill closely and weighing in where appropriate. Many of our area businesses received BIG grants earlier in the pandemic. We would appreciate hearing any feedback our businesses have with the application process for this grant. Additional funds would serve our businesses, but we want to make sure any wrinkles in the application and allocating of these funds are worked out in the process of replenishing BIG funds.
Corporate Loopholes
The Governor in his State of the State Budget Address called for the reinstatement of the corporate franchise tax, elimination of the tax credit for construction payroll, and removal of production-related tangible personal property from the manufacturing, machinery, and equipment (MME) sales tax exemption. Below is a list of potential tax incentives at risk in the “closing corporate loophole” discussions:
- Cap NOL deductions at $100m/year. ($314 million)
- Align treatment of foreign-source dividends to treatment of domestic source dividends ($107 million)
- Roll back federal TJCA 100% accelerated depreciation ($214 million)
- Accelerate expiration of exemption for biodiesel ($107 million)
- Reinstate the corporate franchise tax ($30 million)
- Reset tax credit for private school scholarships at 40% ($14 million)
- Eliminate tax credit for construction payroll ($16 million)
- Remove production related tangible personal property from the MME sales tax exemption ($56 million)
Board Member and Business Works Committee Member, Sean LaFortune (of WIPFLI) has reviewed the potential financial impact to our business community, and we will be discussing this at length in our upcoming Business Works Committee.
If you have questions or comments regarding a policy currently in play at the local, state, or federal level please – or – if you are interested in being a part of our Business Works Committee, pleease reach out to me at rosborne@naperville.net.
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