Blog Posts

If you drive a vehicle, you pull into a gas station every few days and watch the numbers roll up in the sale price window of the pump as the gallons slowly roll up while you put gas in your tank. A portion of the price of gas you buy is state and local sales tax which – as a consumer and taxpayer – you would assume is going to those taxing bodies.

But all of it isn’t. According to a state audit, 27 percent of gas-station owners collected those taxes from you but did not report and return those sales to the state. Today, sales tax evasion is difficult to prosecute and has only moderate consequences. When gas station under-report their sales, Illinois is deprived of needed millions of dollars in revenue it is owed.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jeff Schoenberg is sponsoring a measure promoted by Attorney General Lisa Madigan that would address that situation and bring some aid to our state’s financial situation.  Amendment 2 to House Bill 5289 proposes a new offense of Sales Tax Evasion to prosecute serious offenders who evade paying Illinois sales tax. Designed to pursue those who knowingly and willfully take action to conceal, misrepresent, falsify or manipulate sales-tax returns or practices that under-report and reduce their tax revenue collections documents or payments.

Read more: Schoenberg sales-tax fraud measure would recover millions, prosecute offenders

Legislation providing for increased funding for sexual assault organizations passed the Senate this afternoon and now heads to the Illinois House for further debate. 

Contained in the legislation, under House Bill 1645, is an increase in funding for sexual assault organizations from adult entertainment facilities across the state.  Club operators would have the option under this legislation to institute either a $3 per person fee for every person admitted to their facility or an annual fee determined by the gross receipts of the club, typically composed of alcohol sales.  

House Bill 1645 passed today on a 53-0 vote.

Read more: UPDATE: Strip club surcharge measure passes Senate, heads to the House for concurrence vote

Ten of Illinois’ twelve metropolitan regions saw declines in their unemployment rates in April, a recently released report by the Illinois Department of Employment Security found.  Compared to April 2011, several regions made significant strides in lowering unemployment figures, with Rockford’s unemployment decline leading the pack, falling 1.4% since April of last year. 

Other regions showing large unemployment declines included Kankakee (1.3% decline), Peoria (1.1% decline), and Chicago (0.5% decline).  Job growth helped lower the statewide unemployment figure in April as well, falling to 8.7%, marking the eighth consecutive month unemployment has fallen in Illinois.

Read more: Illinois' metro areas show continued unemployment declines

Faced with a reduction of $2.7 billion in Medicaid funding next fiscal year, Senate and House Black Caucus members publicly met yesterday and expressed concern with the effects of potential Medicaid cuts. Medicaid, a jointly funded health care program for the poor and disabled, provides care for nearly 2.7 million Illinoisans, more than 60% of whom are children.

While the cost of providing Medicaid has increased dramatically over the last several years, proposals to reduce expenditures have included reducing eligibility for several programs and services relied upon by children and their families, including AllKids, FamilyCare, and Breast & Cervical Cancer Treatment for women.

During yesterday’s press conference, Senate and House Black Caucus members expressed their willingness to seek additional revenues to offset potential reductions in Medicaid. One solution included an expansion of gaming facilities, a measure that passed the Illinois House yesterday and will soon be heard in the Senate.