SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Doris Turner announced an investment of $2 million in community organizations dedicated to combatting homelessness in Central Illinois. These grant investments are part of the state’s interagency Home Illinois Plan, an initiative intended to drive state funding and policy toward preventing and eventually reaching functional zero homelessness  – a goal where the state prevents homelessness whenever possible and ensures that if homelessness does occur, it is brief, rare and singular.

"With this funding, we are fulfilling our responsibility to help our neighbors stay housed and support our communities as they recover from the far-reaching effects of housing instability," said Turner (D-Springfield). "Every family in Illinois deserves a safe, secure place to call home, and this investment is essential to helping more families find stability, hope and a path forward."

SPRINGFIELD ─ State Senator Ram Villivalam spearheaded a new law providing necessary reforms and historic investments to address the public transit fiscal cliff and issues facing the system in Illinois.

“Riders, transit workers, and stakeholders from the business, labor, environmental, and urban planning sectors told my colleagues and I for years about the challenges and opportunities that exist with our public transit systems,” said Villivalam (D-Chicago). “Their concerns were the same ones I see each time I have used public transit myself – delays, ghost buses or lack of service. The status quo wasn’t working. It was time to make a change in order for people to get their school, job, and/or doctor’s appointment in a safe, reliable, and accessible way.”

Senate Bill 2111 creates the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, known as NITA – shifting authority from the Regional Transit Authority to the new entity that will oversee CTA, Metra and Pace.  The NITA board will be comprised of 20 members, with five appointments each from the governor, mayor of Chicago and Cook County Board president, as well as one from each chair or county executive of the collar county boards of DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will.

SPRINGFIELD — As 2025 comes to a close, the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus is looking ahead to measures taking effect Jan. 1.

In the new year, more than 250 new laws in Illinois will go into effect — from one that bans discriminatory AI in the workplace to another that enhances missing persons investigations. These include:

• Senate Bill 8: Increases gun storage safety requirements and reporting requirements for lost and stolen firearms.
• Senate Bill 24: Prohibits law enforcement agencies from observing a waiting period before accepting a missing persons report. It requires information from a missing persons report to be entered into the agencies’ data systems upon receipt of the report.
• Senate Bill 212: Requires employers to provide paid break time to nursing mothers so they may express or “pump” breast milk for their child.
• Senate Bill 314: Requires a physical fitness center to clearly disclose any change in the cost of or reduction in benefits to a customer’s gym membership at least 60 days before the automatic renewal of the membership.
• Senate Bill 710: Allows the Department of Natural Resources to issue two free deer permits to individuals who qualify for the youth-only deer season. Allows IDNR to issue nuisance permits to landowners whose property is being damaged by deer.
• Senate Bill 1274: Allows a sexual assault services voucher provided by a hospital to be used for a taxi or rideshare service to transport a survivor home, to a shelter or to the transfer hospital.
• Senate Bill 1548: Establishes a Golden Search Awareness Program to raise awareness of missing persons with developmental disabilities.
• House Bill 2517: Expands implicit bias training for health care workers in Illinois to include training in potential maternal health risk factors associated with increased mortality rate.
• House Bill 3247: Codifies a child’s right to receive a public education and to participate in public school events and activities regardless of the child’s immigration status or the immigration status of their parents or guardians.
• House Bill 3773: Makes it illegal for employers to use AI that discriminates against workers based on protected characteristics or uses ZIP codes as a stand-in for those traits in areas like hiring, promotion, job training and more.

A full list of laws that take effect Jan. 1, 2026 can be found here.

SPRINGFIELD – To protect employees from unfair retaliation from their workplace, State Senator Javier Loera Cervantes led new legislation to shield immigrant workers from surveillance and discrimination based on their perceived immigration status.

“With the increase in ICE raids and anti-immigrant sentiment at an all-time high, our immigrant workers do not feel safe in the workplace,” said Cervantes (D-Chicago). “This law will help ease their minds by establishing protections against discrimination, regardless of their status.”

SPRINGFIELD – Despite repeated promises from the federal government, high-speed internet access remains a distant goal for many communities — especially in rural Illinois, where service is often spotty, unreliable or altogether unavailable. In response to federal inaction and recent funding withdrawals, State Senator Rachel Ventura championed on a new law that will provide a strategic state-level response to a growing digital divide.

“Access to broadband has become critical for many aspects of daily life, especially in education. This law prioritizes anchor institutions to quickly improve our state’s broadband network in the most cost-effective way possible,” said Ventura (D-Joliet). “By utilizing existing and nearby infrastructure, vulnerable communities can increase access to high-speed internet, allowing them better integration into statewide networks and resources.”

The Illinois Century Network (ICN) delivers wholesale internet services to public entities across the state — including schools, libraries and higher education institutions. However, without sufficient federal investment, the burden of expanding reliable broadband increasingly falls to the state.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. led the charge to insulate Illinois taxpayers from damaging federal policy shifts, ensuring the state's Fiscal Year 2026 budget remains intact despite the federal administration’s cuts to vital programs.

"The federal administration is recklessly cutting programs that Illinois families rely on, but we won't let their irresponsibility destabilize our state budget," said Sims (D-Chicago). "This law protects Illinois taxpayers and preserves our ability to fund schools, health care and essential services.”

SPRINGFIELD — A new law from State Senator Robert Peters will raise the minimum age at which minors can be detained and limit detention in certain situations where the minor is not charged with a violent crime, making it clear the state is prioritizing rehabilitation and addressing the root causes of delinquent behavior.

“We must work together to tackle the underlying issues that are exacerbating delinquency in our neighborhoods – whether those are social, economic, familial or a mix of all,” said Peters (D-Chicago). “We have an obligation to protect the well-being of all individuals, and we do that by breaking the cycles of violence and trauma that are causing young people to engage in any level of criminal activity.”

Peters’ law makes numerous improvements to Illinois’ juvenile justice system. First, it raises the age at which a minor may be detained from 10 years old to 12 years old in 2026 and then to 13 years old – in some situations – in 2027. Under the law, arrest will be used only as a last resort and under strict conditions, and minors will be detained only if there is probable cause to believe they are delinquent and that immediate and urgent detention is necessary, or if they have repeatedly failed to appear at scheduled hearings.

SPRINGFIELD — State Senator Lakesia Collins spearheaded a property tax relief package that was signed into law Friday, increasing property tax exemption thresholds for senior citizens in Illinois.

“Seniors have a lot on their plate to deal with from health care to home care, and property taxes should not be on that list,” said Collins (D-Chicago). “Expanding the number of seniors who qualify for relief ensures seniors in our neighborhoods can stay in our neighborhoods.”

The new law, Senate Bill 642, will deliver critical updates to help seniors on fixed incomes and help families facing economic challenges manage rising property tax costs. Under the measure, the maximum income limit for the Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption will increase substantially over the next several years, beginning at $75,000 for taxable year 2026, increasing to $77,000 for taxable year 2027 and settling at $79,000 for taxable year 2028 and beyond.