Working for Illinois Caucus

The statehouse was already a familiar space for Gregg Johnson from advocacy work when he returned to Springfield in January. 

Back in the day, Johnson said, he would spend days under the dome advocating for health care, higher minimum wage or issues related to the organization he represented at the time. This time around, he was walking into the statehouse as the Democratic Representative for the 72nd House District. 

“I had a pretty good understanding of what I was walking into,” Johnson said. 

The 72nd House District encompasses all or portions of Hampton, East Moline, Silvis, Moline, Rock Island, Milan and Taylor Ridge. Spring session runs from January to May. 

Coming in as a new lawmaker, Johnson said it could be a bit overwhelming, especially that first month or so, because of the amount of new information and the hundreds of pieces legislation to sift through. 

“It took me until the break in April to really kind of get my feet underneath me and really feel like I was going to make an impact,” he said. 

His first bill, House Bill 2448, changes state statute so that incoming conservation police officers must be at least 20 years old, rather than 21, and must have completed an associates degree or 60 hours of college credit. 

“It’s going to help, hopefully, address the shortage that we have of conservation officers across the state,” he said. 

One of the big priorities he has heard from constituents is investing in education. 

Illinois’ $50.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 makes a larger investment toward education. For higher education, the budget includes a $279 million increase from last year, bringing total state higher education spending to $2.5 billion. The Monetary Award Program (MAP) received a $100 million increase; public universities and community colleges received a 7% direct funding increase, coming in at $80.5 million and $19.4 million; and a $15 million increase for AIM High Grants. 

The MAP grants are needs-based grants open to eligible Illinois residents who attend approved colleges or universities in the state. When tuition becomes cheaper, Johnson said, people will stay in Illinois rather than go elsewhere. 

“When kids go to school, college, here in Illinois, they stay here at very high numbers when they graduate college and they build their lives here in Illinois,” Johnson said. 

Evidence-based funding formula for K-12 received a $350 million increase, bringing the total state funding to $8.3 billion. The State Board of Education uses the tiered formula to distribute state funding based on the level of local funding. The budget also includes $45 million for the first year of a three-year pilot to fill teacher vacancies and additional investment in scholarships for future teachers. 

With a daughter about to enter seventh grade and two grandkids, Johnson said he wants the best quality of education for them just like any other parent does for their kids. He wants them to be able to fulfill her potential and achieve anything they set their minds to. 

“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been surrounded by a lot of strong women in my entire life,” he said. “I want her to realize that as long as she works hard, and she plays by the rules, that she can achieve anything and I want all of her peers to feel the same way and that there is no limits.” 

Smart Start Illinois, a new program in the budget, invests $250 million aimed to eliminate preschool deserts, stabilize the child care workforce and expand the early intervention and home visiting programs. The funding creates 5,000 new preschool spots in the first year with the goal of creating 20,000 spots over the next four years. 

Funding in education, Johnson said, must start at the bottom to ensure kids in Illinois are receiving the best education. 

The budget also includes $1.6 million to launch a partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, an initiative that sends free books to children under age 5. 

Recently, Illinois became the first state to ban book bans. The law takes effect next year and prohibits book bans in public schools and libraries. 

When the legislation was proposed, Johnson said he was excited to vote for it and that books are vital to learning about the diversity, history and ways other people live. Multiple languages, he said, are spoken here and that gives people multiple opportunities to listen and learn. 

A few bills he was proud to vote for were ones that helped address food deserts, lowering drug prices, and structural building and residential codes. 

In light of what happened across the river with 324 Main St. collapsing, displacing residents of the building and those surrounding, Johnson said the bill relating to building codes is even more vital to prevent something like that happening in Illinois. 

Senate Bill 2368 establishes the Capital Development Board’s ability, in consultation with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, to put forth minimum requirements for the construction of commercial and residential buildings. Johnson was the chief house sponsor of the legislation. 

The reason the legislation came into play, he said, was due to what happening in Southern Illinois in Edwardsville when the roof of an Amazon building collapsed during a tornado in December 2021, killing six workers who were trying to take cover inside and injury others. As inspection records came to light, inspectors found safety concerns as they checked construction at the facility. 

“We should not want our people put in buildings that are unsafe simply because these companies want to make a buck off our constituents,” he said. 

Earlier this week, a downtown Rock Island building was evacuated due to bricks falling off the building. Three residents have been displaced and a business that was on the ground floor is closed until the issue is fixed by the owner. 

Johnson’s proudest moment was on May 11. He was on House Floor, debate was moving along on a series of bills seeking to further protect access to abortion. In an interview with a Lee Enterprises statehouse reporter, Johnson said he wanted it to be over and felt like retreating into a shell. But as hard as it was, he had a story to tell about his mom.

Shirley Hunter was a single mother of three from Rock Island who was pregnant with her fourth child in 1972. She suffered from severe preeclampsia during her first three pregnancies and was told she would likely not survive a fourth. She sought an abortion. 

It was a year before the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was decided, so Hunter saved money to travel to New York, which was one of the few states where abortion was legal at the time. But she was too far along in her pregnancy and nothing could be done. She returned to Rock Island and died July 13, 1972, at 33, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, 8-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. 

“Shirley Hunter was my mother and these girls are my sisters,” Johnson said, speaking from his desk in the Illinois House chamber. “And our lives were thrown into chaos because our mother had no option other than to die and leave us.”

Getting teary-eyed and a bit choked up reflecting on it on Tuesday, Johnson said every time he tells it, it takes a piece of him. But he knows he is making a difference because he wants to make sure no other family goes through what his sisters and he have gone through. Telling his story and letting people know that Illinois is a place where people can come in which their rights to make their own decisions was important to him. 

“I want to make sure that no family goes through that,” he said.

With spring session wrapped up and veto session not expected until late fall, Johnson is happy to be back home with his family and get some boots-on-the-ground work done. He’s a homebody, he said, and there’s nothing quite like sleeping in his own bed. 

As for his first six months as a lawmaker, the experience was all about learning. 

He was able to see how session unfolds, how the drafting a bill and it going through the process works, how the budget process works and how nothing ever seems to start on time in Springfield. 

“Now, I get to go to the next part of my education, which is veto session,” he said.