Spring Legislative Session
In this year’s Illinois General Assembly Spring Session, CJC advocated for policies that move us closer to an anti-racist workforce development system and employment equity. The Skills for Good Jobs expansive collaborative Agenda has encompassed several key initiatives led by partners and CJC. These include advocating for state funding for workforce training focusing on racial and gender equity and promoting policies to dismantle employment barriers faced by people of color, foreign-born workers, young people, and women in Illinois. We are committed to ensuring economic security for all Illinois residents and enhancing research and data sharing across state agencies to address equity gaps in public investments related to education and workforce training. This year's bills underline that these legislative victories are hard-fought, multi-year efforts. We are grateful for our coalition partners and their persistent advocacy for a prosperous, inclusive economy in Illinois that supports all workers’ career aspirations and unique pathways, creating jobs with family-thriving wages and boosting local businesses.
We celebrate the passage of HB277 within the Skills Agenda Coalition, where we engaged partners in the Transit Table’s advocacy efforts to end driver’s license suspensions for minor traffic offenses related to failure to appear in court. We also celebrate the passage of HB4500, Truth, and Accuracy in Offense Titles, which created truth and accuracy in Illinois’ weapons possession statutes by renaming “use” to “possession.” It made these name changes retroactively so individuals who have faced bias for years because of their records can start to move forward. These misleading offense titles unfairly impact people’s ability to secure housing and employment. Alongside those bills, we saw the passage of $5.25M in appropriations for the Human Service Professional Loan Repayment Program. Securing these appropriations will provide loan repayment assistance to eligible direct service professionals practicing in community-based human service organizations that contract with or are grant-funded by a state agency. Lastly, on the 2024 Skills Agenda, we saw the creation of a state-based child tax credit. A statewide Child Tax Credit is the stimulus Illinois families need to meet basic needs in the face of rising inflation, higher food and housing costs, and lost COVID-boosted benefits.
When the spring legislative session closed, we saw bills supported by the Skills for Good Jobs Agenda Coalition move and stall at different parts of the legislative process, including repealing the subminimum wage for people with disabilities, Cannabis Equity that would allow returning citizens to participate in the industry, financial support to the social equity dispensaries, standardize and streamline the online application and badging process for prospective workers, eliminating the subminimum wage for restaurant workers, and paid family and medical leave.
Our work this year has been a source of valuable lessons and encouragement to be resolute in our long-term advocacy. Achieving legislative goals is long-term, often requiring years of dedicated effort with gradual change punctuated by significant milestones. We will continue the work in partnership toward investments that create family-sustaining jobs and fund inclusive skills training, upskilling, reskilling, subsidized employment, supportive services, and career-focused education. We are eager to continue to do that work alongside you.
