IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues 06/24/2026

LEGISLATURE FINISHED FOR THE SUMMER – UNLESS

The Illinois General Assembly is on recess between now and November when lawmakers return to Springfield for the Veto Session. That is unless there is a special session called to deal with the Chicago Bears and where the team will ultimately call home; Chicago, Arlington Heights, or somewhere in the swamps of Indiana.

Chicago Bears still looking to piece together stadium legislation in Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker says. Tribune…

• The Chicago Bears are looking to piece together legislation in Illinois that might pass the General Assembly in Springfield, Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday, as the team continues to weigh whether to stay or move across the border to Indiana.
• Pritzker said his office has been a player in the ongoing Illinois negotiations with the NFL franchise, which has been considering elements of two bills that each passed one chamber of the Illinois General Assembly this spring.
• The state still needs the Bears to put together specific provisions of a bill, Pritzker said. Once the team is able to put together a proposal, he said, “they need to begin conversations with members of the legislature that they weren’t able to win over before, and again, we’ve been advising and trying to help out wherever we could.”

Governor Pritzker has signed the FY27 state budget which begins July 1 and the accompanying bills which keep state government in operation.

DATA CENTERS IN THE VISE

Not long-ago data centers were welcome additions to the state’s economic development plans with a tax credit program and community competition to host a location. Today data centers poll with the public about as poorly as anything can and policy makers are eager to slow or stop their proliferation. In Illinois the construction trade unions which build things such as data centers are faced off against a host of opponents who argue the facilities use too much water and energy and make too much noise. This issue will be the subject of considerable conversation over the summer and fall leading up to a possible solution in November.

* Crain’s | Pritzker wants legislators to take up data centers in the fall: Opponents have questioned whether Pritzker has the authority to administratively suspend or slow the applications for the incentives under a program that dates back to 2019. “We’re going to address the issue, I hope, in the veto session,” Pritzker said at a press conference today. “We have authority to decide what process we’re going to use in order to go through those tax credits.