Legislative Update -- September 21, 2023

September 21, 2023

The Illinois General Assembly will convene its fall veto session as the ILA Annual Conference begins in Springfield on Tuesday, October 24. The veto session is scheduled for six session days and will conclude on Thursday, November 9.

Although legislative leadership has not set the full veto session agenda as of now, the ILA Executive Board has voted to support our 2024 initiatives for veto session introduction and in preparation for our fall Legislative Meet-Ups:

  • The Illinois Local Library Act and the Public Library District Act of 1991 currently set our competitive bidding threshold at $25,000. The association will support legislation seeking an inflationary adjustment to today’s statutory competitive bid threshold dollar amount for administrative burden relief and taxpayer savings;
     
  • Illinois libraries are required to acquire treasurer bonds at 50% of the total funds received by a library in the most previous fiscal year. Other units of local government, however, are required to acquire treasurer bonds between 10-25% of yearly collected revenue.  

ILA will introduce legislation seeking parity between libraries and other governmental units to require library treasurers to hold a bond of 10-25% of total revenue collections from the previous fiscal year; and

  • Restrictions placed on libraries accessing digital content have posed a challenge in acquiring and providing access to eBooks, as publishers often impose restrictive licensing and contractual terms.  Most publishers and eBook aggregators force libraries to acquire eBooks with licensing terms that make it impossible to meet library standard access and preservation missions. 

ILA will propose legislation seeking to change this through a new state law based on consumer protection, contract law, and contract preemption to regulate library eBook contracts with publishers.

As the fall veto session approaches, we will receive appropriate updates.

Comment Period on Book Banning Legislation, Public Act 103-0100
The Illinois Secretary of State Office has proposed administrative rules to implement the law, Public Act 103-0100. A comment period for is available to October 25. The 

If you wish to comment on the administrative rules contact:

Pamela Wright, Office of the General Counsel
298 Howlett Building
Springfield, IL 62756
pwright@ilsos.gov

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