Illinois lawmakers head toward final day of spring session still facing issues including budget, ethics and energy policy

From Chicago Tribune –

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers have ensured a hectic windup to the end of their spring session Monday, facing an agenda of high-profile issues that includes putting together a new state budget, toughened ethics rules and the future for the state’s energy policy.

The legislature’s Democratic majority also was looking at moving the March 15, 2022, primary back to June to allow for new congressional boundaries to be redrawn using delayed census data — something that didn’t stop it from adopting new boundaries for the General Assembly for the next decade.

While most of the real legislative action was happening in closed-door negotiating sessions Sunday, there were some notable floor votes in the chambers. The Senate sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker a measure extending for three years a law that expires Wednesday allowing restaurants to serve cocktails to go, first implemented as a way to help restaurant owners who struggled under pandemic customer limitations.

PHOTO CREDIT: AMANDA VINICKY/WTTW