SPRINGFIELD — Democrats who control the Illinois legislature on Tuesday continued searching for common ground on issues ranging from temporary tax relief to crime as the clock winds down on a truncated spring session.
At the same time, business groups and labor unions have yet to reach an agreement on how to fill the remaining $1.8 billion hole in the state’s pandemic-depleted unemployment insurance trust fund. That’s another issue Democrats would like to resolve before heading home to campaign in newly drawn districts ahead of the June 28 primary election.
Tuesday’s carjacking proposal came in the form of two measures. One, from Sens. Robert Martwick of Chicago and Michael Hastings of south suburban Frankfort, would allow cooperative groups of law enforcement agencies to target carjackings, with additional support from state grants. The other, from progressive Sens. Robert Peters and Omar Aquino, both of Chicago, would relieve carjacking victims of having to pay red-light camera tickets or towing fees racked up on a vehicle after it’s stolen.
But in recent weeks, there’s been a rift between some moderate and progressive Democrats in the General Assembly on crime issues, highlighted by the Senate’s rejection of Pritzker’s choices for the Prisoner Review Board. Some Democrats have sought to get behind the kind of tough-on-crime policies traditionally favored by the GOP.
💩