Working for Illinois Caucus

84th District State Representative Stephanie Kifowit is reminding residents to be aware of bicyclists and motorcyclists on the roadways.

She said she is working with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) on an intersection in her district following constituent complaints and an incident where a young man was hit while on his bicycle.

Kifowit said she is hoping IDOT will release results of their findings in the next few weeks, and the goal is to find a way to make the intersection safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. The intersection is located at Eola Road and Route 34 in Oswego.

Key votes

Bills sponsored

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Disappointments from session

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – Patriotic sounds and songs returned to Rock Valley College’s Starlight Theatre with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra’s (RSO) annual performance.

The night celebrated America’s “greatest” composers, including pieces from John Williams and Stephen Sondheim. Appearances from State Representative Maurice West and vocalist Bethany Thomas also arrived with the spectacle.

Kevin Stites conducted and directed for the RSO’s Rock Valley performance. The Rockford area returned to the Starlight stage for the first time since college.

“I was actually in a show on the Starlight stage, so it’s a little bit of a… it screws with my head a little bit,” says Kevin. “To sort of be here and then be in charge as opposed to in the chorus of something.”

While the Star Spangled Spectacular is wrapped, future RSO events can be found through its website.

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Illinois has over $5 billion in unclaimed property waiting to be claimed, and some of it could be yours. The I-Cash program, run by State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, has returned over $2 billion to Illinois residents since 2015, including a recent claim for an area church.

Plainfield State Representative Harry Benton recently spoke about helping this church get $20,000 returned to them from a mature CD that was forgotten about and went to the I-Cash system. He said he has also tried contacting one person regarding $68,000 from a stock split.

Benton said it can pay to check the system because you never know what you might have waiting for you.

You can find a link to Treasurer Frerichs’ website and I-Cash here.

97th District Democratic State Representative Harry Benton has received some feedback fro his recent announcement of two bills that would ban flying the American flag upside down on government property. While there has been words of support, Benton said he has received a fair amount of negative responses, mostly from angry constituents and Republican officials.

Benton said that revisions to the bills are possible.

Benton said the bills are in response to a Homer Township official ordering that the flag outside the Homer Township offices be flown upside down in response to the conviction of former President Donald Trump last month.

A wide variety of bills aimed towards helping veterans, active duty military, and their families passed during the state’s spring legislative session. 84th District State Representative Stephanie Kifowit, who is one of a handful of veterans in the Illinois State Legislature, said she is proud of the work they were able to accomplish this session for veterans.

Some of the bills passed this session include building permit fee waivers for disabled veterans, allowing National Guard and reservists with make-up work for higher education, and House Bill 612, which reworks a previously approved property tax exemption for veterans.

The cliff for property tax exemption for veterans was set at $250,000, with homes valued higher than that having to pay the tax above that amount. Included in the bill was 100 percent property tax exemption for World War II veterans.

(The Center Square) – On the governor’s desk and ready to be signed is Senate Bill 1400, which seeks to improve discipline procedures by creating statewide guidelines for school districts.

On the House floor, state Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, explained how his bill, which is an initiative of the Illinois Education Association, tasks the Illinois State Board of Education to team up with experts to create standards surrounding disciplinary actions like expulsion and suspension. 

“This bill came forward because the districts are seeking out further guidance to deal with issues they are having within their districts,” said West. “That’s why [in this bill] we are focused on the guidance piece that we can provide to the districts.” 

The bill removes a current provision within the law that allows districts to immediately transfer a student to an alternative school, if that student has been suspended for 20 days or more. State Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, said he’s concerned the guidelines will eventually be used to usurp local control. 

“I don’t know why we need to put this into statute in order to do this,” said Ugaste. “While I am not terribly opposed to this, I will likely not support this.” 

State Rep. David Friess, R-Red Bud, shared a story on the House floor about his wife, a teacher, being swung at by a student. Friess said because the student had an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) the district policy says that particular students couldn’t be expelled. Friess supported the legislation. 

“Another, very bizarre situation at this school, they had a kid masturbating in school. This happened repeatedly before they could get rid of him. This individual should not have been in a regular education classroom, he should have been relocated,” said Friess. “My hope is that ISBE comes down and makes rule changes so we can remove these individuals from a regular-ed classroom.” 

West was asked by state Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, if his legislation was crafted in response to prior policy that aimed to address disciplinary actions that were taken unfairly and disproportionately impacting students of color. Senate Bill 100 was introduced and passed in the 99th General Assembly by state Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood. 

“The objective [of Senate Bill 100] was to make sure that instead of kids being arbitrarily suspended and kicked out of school for however long it was, is that we did everything possible to make sure that before you got to an exclusionary situation that you did everything possible to keep the child in the school building to make sure they continue to be educated,” said Davis. “And this is a situation where we appreciate the fact that after having Senate Bill 100 in place for a few years, we’ve recognized that maybe there’s a little more that we need to do.” 

Senate Bill 100 says suspension and expulsion are only acceptable if all appropriate and available behavioral and disciplinary interventions were exhausted.