Rejecting a move that would have severely weakened the standing of grieving families in the face of misbehavior by insurance companies, the Illinois Senate voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of legislation by Senator Jacqueline Collins Wednesday.

The measure, House Bill 302, would further strengthen the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act by requiring insurance companies to search their records back to the year 2000 if they have electronically searchable files to determine if life insurance policyholders have died, and to take steps to get money to beneficiaries. Rauner’s veto would have shortened the required search period to just five years prior, and would also have disallowed the use of third-party auditors to help in such searches. Under that change, Illinois would have been the only state in the country with such a prohibition.

“I worked closely with Treasurer Frerichs and Representative Martwick to improve this law because grieving families across Illinois did not know about $550 million in unclaimed life insurance benefits, all returned to them through the efforts of auditors that the governor’s veto would have disallowed,” Collins said. “It is easy to lose track of life insurance policies – for our elderly loved ones to lose paperwork in a move or to forget they exist because of the passage of time of the ravages of dementia. I’m glad my colleagues saw, as I did, that the right thing to do is to stand on the side of families who don’t have a small army of financial advisors to handle these issues in the darkest of times. This is not about politics, partisanship, or profit. It’s about doing the right thing.”

The Illinois House voted to override last month. The Senate voted 38-16 to override the governor’s veto. The bill becomes law in 2018.

On the 54th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, the governor signed a new law co-sponsored by State Sen. Jacqueline Collins ensuring Illinoisans who are eligible to vote will be automatically registered when they conduct business at state facilities.

Collins worked with representatives of Common Cause Illinois and numerous other activists, advocates and Springfield lawmakers to craft legislation that creates the optional, opt-out system.

“Let us not forget that today marks the 54th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, when more than 250,000 gathered at the nation's capital to demand civil and voting rights for African Americans,” Collins said Monday. “In light of their struggle and sacrifice, I view this legislation as the harvest from the seeds of hope they planted beneath that hot summer sun on August 28, 1963.”

Collins said removing barriers to voting is the first step in encouraging more people to exercise their power at the ballot box.

“Your vote is your voice, and now more than ever, that voice matters,” Collins said. “This automatic voter registration system will save the state money and save voters time, and it arose from a bipartisan, democratic process. I want to thank all advocates for their tireless work on this issue and the governor for signing this bill. And I call on all of them to start the next conversation: Challenging potential voters to move beyond apathy.”

Photograph courtesy of Common Cause Illinois.

To better understand the scope and effects of truancy and absences so officials can address them, a new law will require schools to collect and review chronic absence data. Sponsored in the Illinois Senate by State Senator Jacqueline Collins, the measure was signed into law Friday.

“There are many complex causes behind absences or chronic truancy,” Collins said. “We need to identify those factors and how widespread they are so we can work directly with schools and families to address the root causes of why so many of our children are not making it to class. And I want to thank the bill’s House sponsor, Representative Linda Chapa LaVia for sponsoring this legislation.”

The legislation also encourages schools to provide support to students who are chronically absent. The legislation was House Bill 3139, and takes effect in July of 2018.

It has again come down to a deadline. After two years of harsh fighting over a budget, I share the exhaustion, the worry and the outrage my constituents and their teachers feel as the governor has declared he will veto school funding. As with the budget impasse, this avoidable fight appears to be largely over marginal details.

At issue now is Senate Bill 1 – a long-in-demand reform of school funding that is the result of years of study, bipartisan negotiation and legislative trial-and-error in the General Assembly. I am a proud chief co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1 because it’s the closest we’ve gotten in more than 20 years to sending a bill to the governor’s desk to fix our abysmal funding model here in Illinois. Part of the budget agreement reached earlier this month hinged on such reform becoming law.

Senate Bill 1 ensures no school districts lose any funding, while also smoothing out the unfairness that has existed in the state’s formula for decades. That inequity has led to massive student achievement gaps and gross disparities in funding for school districts. It has led to students mere miles away from one another attending schools with facilities that seem like they are in different countries. How we can look students in the eye and tell them we value education under the status quo is a mystery.

Crain’s has declared Senate Bill 1 a necessary reform for Illinois schools. School superintendents across the state have given it their vocal support. And even Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he supports 90 percent of the plan, and publicly stated in a recent press conference that with only minor tweaks, it would be acceptable. Why he chooses to veto it rather than accept it as a compromise – arrived at after numerous rounds of bipartisan negotiation and with broad public support – is deeply frustrating.

I became chief co-sponsor of this legislation because I believe in fair funding for Chicago and for all Illinois schools. I urge you to learn more about the plan by visiting fundingilfuture.org, the website for the independent coalition of more than 200 superintendents and advocates who support school funding reform. And I also urge you to call Gov. Rauner’s office at 217-782-0244 and tell him to sign Senate Bill 1 when he receives it.