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| Public Act 097-0721
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| HB1882 Enrolled | LRB097 10201 PJG 50396 b |
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AN ACT concerning State government.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 5. The Department of Commerce and Economic |
Opportunity Law of the
Civil Administrative Code of Illinois is |
amended by adding Sections 605-456, 605-460, and 605-465 as |
follows:
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(20 ILCS 605/605-456 new) |
Sec. 605-456. Survey and report on business incentives. |
(a) The Department shall contact businesses that are |
located in the State or have been identified as having left the |
State. The Department shall request that the business complete |
a survey, developed by the Department, that includes |
information regarding (i) why the business left, if applicable, |
and the location to which the business relocated and (ii) any |
incentives that are needed to keep and attract the business. |
(b) The Department shall compile the results of the surveys |
and any other relevant information provided to the Department. |
By each July 1, the Department shall report to the General |
Assembly upon its compilation of the previous year's survey |
responses and any of the other relevant information. The report |
must identify, at a minimum, the most common responses, |
categorized by industry and region, regarding (i) why |
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businesses left Illinois, (ii) what incentives would have |
influenced businesses to remain in Illinois, and (iii) to which |
cities and states the businesses have relocated. |
(c) For the purposes of this Section, a business is defined |
as one that is engaged in interstate or intrastate commerce for |
the purpose of manufacturing, processing, assembling, |
warehousing, or distributing products, conducting research and |
development, providing tourism services, or providing services |
in interstate commerce, office industries, or agricultural |
processing, but excluding retail, retail food, health, or |
professional services. |
(d) The Department shall adopt rules for the implementation |
of this Section.
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(20 ILCS 605/605-460 new) |
Sec. 605-460. Engineering excellence program. |
(a) Coordination between engineering schools and private |
business is an important tool in fostering innovation. |
Universities have eager students, experienced faculty, and |
state-of-the-art research facilities. Businesses have existing |
markets, production capital, and evolving needs. The General |
Assembly believes that universities and businesses should |
share resources to allow students to participate in the |
research and development area of innovative design and to allow |
businesses to benefit from the developing skills of these |
students. |
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(b) In order to facilitate engineering excellence, the |
Department shall develop a program to achieve the goals set |
forth in subsection (a). Under this program, the Department |
must: |
(1) Annually contact the State's major public and |
private universities with engineering schools. |
(2) Request a one-page written summary of the |
internship, externship, or residency programs operated by |
the engineering college of each of the contacted |
universities. |
(3) Identify the manufacturing businesses within 50 |
miles of each university that responded under paragraph (2) |
that could benefit from assistance in the area of |
innovative design. |
(4) Send a letter to each manufacturer identified under |
paragraph (3), informing it of the university's program and |
advising the business to contact the university if it |
wishes to participate in the engineering school's program. |
(c) The Department shall adopt rules for the implementation |
of this Section.
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(20 ILCS 605/605-465 new) |
Sec. 605-465. Comprehensive website information. |
(a) The Department's official website must contain a |
comprehensive list of State, local, and federal economic |
benefits available to businesses in each of the State's |
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counties and municipalities that the Department includes on its |
website. In order to do so: |
(1) The Department annually must request a summary of |
available economic benefits from each of the State's |
counties and municipalities that are linked to the |
Department's website. |
(2) The information obtained under paragraph (1) must |
be published on the related web pages of the Department's |
website. |
(3) The Department's website shall also provide |
information regarding available federal economic benefits |
to the extent possible. |
(b) The Department shall adopt rules for the implementation |
of this Section.
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Section 10. The Corporate Accountability for Tax |
Expenditures Act is amended by changing Section 25 as follows:
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(20 ILCS 715/25)
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Sec. 25. Recapture.
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(a) All development assistance agreements
shall contain, |
at a
minimum, the following recapture provisions:
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(1) The recipient must (i) make the level of capital |
investment in the
economic
development project specified |
in the development assistance agreement; (ii)
create or
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retain, or both, the requisite number of jobs, paying not |
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less than specified
wages for the
created and retained |
jobs, within and for the duration of the time period
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specified in the
legislation authorizing, or the |
administrative rules implementing, the
development
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assistance programs and the development assistance |
agreement.
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(2) If the recipient fails to create or retain the |
requisite number of
jobs within and
for the time period |
specified, in the legislation authorizing, or the
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administrative rules
implementing, the development |
assistance programs and the development
assistance
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agreement, the recipient shall be deemed to no longer |
qualify for the State
economic
assistance and the |
applicable recapture provisions shall take effect.
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(3) If the recipient receives State economic |
assistance in the form of a
High
Impact Business |
designation pursuant to Section 5.5 of the Illinois |
Enterprise
Zone Act
and the business receives the benefit |
of the exemption authorized under Section
5l of the
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Retailers' Occupation Tax Act (for the sale of building |
materials incorporated
into a High
Impact Business |
location) and the recipient fails to create or retain the
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requisite number
of jobs, as determined by the legislation |
authorizing the development
assistance
programs
or the |
administrative rules implementing such legislation, or |
both, within the
requisite
period of time, the recipient |
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shall be required to pay to the State the full
amount of |
the
State tax exemption that it received as a result of the |
High Impact Business
designation.
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(4) If the recipient receives a grant or loan pursuant |
to the Large
Business
Development Program, the Business |
Development Public Infrastructure Program, or
the
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Industrial Training Program and the recipient fails to |
create or retain the
requisite number
of jobs for the |
requisite time period, as provided in the legislation
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authorizing the
development assistance programs or the |
administrative rules implementing such
legislation, or |
both, or in the development assistance agreement, the |
recipient
shall be
required to repay to the State a pro |
rata amount of the grant; that amount
shall
reflect
the |
percentage of the deficiency between the requisite number |
of jobs to be
created or
retained by the recipient and the |
actual number of such jobs in existence as of
the date the
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Department determines the recipient is in breach of the job |
creation or
retention
covenants contained in the |
development assistance agreement. If the recipient
of
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development assistance under the Large Business |
Development Program, the
Business
Development Public |
Infrastructure Program, or the Industrial Training Program
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ceases
operations at the specific project site, during the |
5-year period commencing on
the date of
assistance, the |
recipient shall be required to repay the entire amount of |
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the
grant or to
accelerate repayment of the loan back to |
the State.
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(5) If the recipient receives a tax credit under the |
Economic
Development for a
Growing Economy tax credit |
program, the development assistance agreement must
provide |
that (i) if the number of new or retained employees falls |
below the
requisite
number set forth in the development |
assistance agreement, the allowance of the
credit
shall be |
automatically suspended until the number of new and |
retained employees
equals
or exceeds the requisite number |
in the development assistance agreement; (ii)
if
the
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recipient discontinues operations at the specific project |
site during the 5-year period after the beginning of the |
first tax year for which the Department issues a tax credit |
certificate, the recipient shall
forfeit all
credits taken |
by the recipient during such 5-year period; and (iii) in |
the
event
of a
revocation or suspension of the credit, the |
Department shall contact the
Director
of Revenue to |
initiate proceedings against the recipient to recover
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wrongfully
exempted Illinois State income taxes and the |
recipient shall promptly repay to
the
Department of Revenue |
any wrongfully exempted Illinois State income taxes.
The |
forfeited amount of credits shall be deemed assessed on the |
date the
Department
contacts the Department of Revenue and |
the recipient shall promptly repay to
the
Department of |
Revenue any wrongfully exempted Illinois State income |
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taxes.
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(b) The Director may elect to waive enforcement of any |
contractual provision
arising out of
the development |
assistance agreement required by this Act based on a finding
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that the waiver is
necessary to avert an imminent and |
demonstrable hardship to the
recipient that may
result in such |
recipient's insolvency or discharge of workers.
If a waiver is
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granted, the recipient must agree to a contractual |
modification, including
recapture provisions,
to the
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development assistance
agreement.
The existence of
any waiver
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granted pursuant to this subsection (c), the date of the |
granting of such
waiver, and a brief
summary of the reasons |
supporting the granting of such waiver shall be
disclosed
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consistent with
the provisions of Section 25 of this Act.
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(b-5) The Department shall post, on its website, (i) the |
identity of each recipient from whom amounts were recaptured |
under this Section on or after the effective date of this |
amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly, (ii) the date of |
the recapture, (iii) a summary of the reasons supporting the |
recapture, and (iv) the amount recaptured from those |
recipients. |
(c) Beginning June 1, 2004, the Department shall annually |
compile a report
on the
outcomes and effectiveness of recapture |
provisions by program, including but
not limited
to: (i) the |
total number of companies that receive development assistance |
as
defined in
this Act; (ii) the total number of recipients in |
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violation of development
agreements with
the Department; (iii) |
the total number of completed recapture efforts; (iv) the
total
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number of recapture efforts initiated; and (v) the number of |
waivers granted.
This report
shall be disclosed consistent with |
the provisions of Section 20 of this Act.
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(d) For the purposes of this Act, recapture provisions do |
not include the
Illinois
Department of Transportation Economic |
Development Program, any grants under the
Industrial Training |
Program that are not given as an incentive to a
recipient |
business organization,
or any successor programs as described |
in the term "development assistance" in
Section 5
of this Act.
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(Source: P.A. 97-2, eff. 5-6-11.)
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Section 15. The Energy Assistance Act is amended by |
changing Section 6 as follows:
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(305 ILCS 20/6) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 1406)
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Sec. 6. Eligibility, Conditions of Participation, and |
Energy Assistance.
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(a) Any person who is a resident of the State of Illinois |
and whose
household income is not greater than an amount |
determined annually by the
Department, in consultation with the |
Policy Advisory Council, may
apply for assistance pursuant to |
this Act in accordance with regulations
promulgated by the |
Department. In setting the annual eligibility level, the
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Department shall consider the amount of available funding and |
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may not set a
limit higher than 150% of the federal nonfarm |
poverty level as established by
the federal Office of |
Management and Budget; except that for the period ending June |
30, 2013, 2012, or until the expenditure of federal resources |
allocated for energy assistance programs by the American |
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, whichever occurs first, the |
Department may not establish limits higher than 200% of that |
poverty level or the maximum level provided for by federal |
guidelines.
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(b) Applicants who qualify for assistance pursuant to |
subsection (a) of
this Section shall, subject to appropriation |
from the General Assembly and
subject to availability of funds |
to the Department, receive energy
assistance as provided by |
this Act. The Department, upon receipt
of monies authorized |
pursuant to this Act for energy assistance, shall commit
funds |
for each qualified applicant in an amount determined by the
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Department. In determining the amounts of assistance to be |
provided to or
on behalf of a qualified applicant, the |
Department shall ensure that the
highest amounts of assistance |
go to households with the greatest energy
costs in relation to |
household income. The Department shall include
factors such as |
energy costs, household size, household income, and region
of |
the State when determining individual household benefits. In |
setting
assistance levels, the Department shall attempt to |
provide assistance to
approximately the same number of |
households who participated in the 1991
Residential Energy |
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Assistance Partnership Program. Such assistance levels
shall |
be adjusted annually on the basis of funding
availability and |
energy costs. In promulgating rules for the
administration of |
this
Section the Department shall assure that a minimum of 1/3 |
of funds
available for benefits to eligible households with the |
lowest incomes and that elderly and
disabled households are |
offered a priority application
period.
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(c) If the applicant is not a customer of record of an |
energy provider for
energy services or an applicant for such |
service, such applicant shall
receive a direct energy |
assistance payment in an amount established by the
Department |
for all such applicants under this Act; provided, however, that
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such an applicant must have rental expenses for housing greater |
than 30% of
household income.
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(c-1) This subsection shall apply only in cases where: (1) |
the applicant is not a customer of record of an energy provider |
because energy services are provided by the owner of the unit |
as a portion of the rent; (2) the applicant resides in housing |
subsidized or developed with funds provided under the Rental |
Housing Support Program Act or under a similar locally funded |
rent subsidy program, or is the voucher holder who resides in a |
rental unit within the State of Illinois and whose monthly rent |
is subsidized by the tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher |
Program under Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937; and |
(3) the rental expenses for housing are no more than 30% of |
household income. In such cases, the household may apply for an |
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energy assistance payment under this Act and the owner of the |
housing unit shall cooperate with the applicant by providing |
documentation of the energy costs for that unit. Any |
compensation paid to the energy provider who supplied energy |
services to the household shall be paid on behalf of the owner |
of the housing unit providing energy services to the household. |
The Department shall report annually to the General Assembly on |
the number of households receiving energy assistance under this |
subsection and the cost of such assistance. The provisions of |
this subsection (c-1), other than this sentence, are |
inoperative after August 31, 2012. |
(d) If the applicant is a customer of an energy provider, |
such
applicant shall receive energy assistance in an amount |
established by the
Department for all such applicants under |
this Act, such amount to be paid
by the Department to the |
energy provider supplying winter energy service to
such |
applicant. Such applicant shall:
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(i) make all reasonable efforts to apply to any other |
appropriate
source of public energy assistance; and
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(ii) sign a waiver permitting the Department to receive |
income
information from any public or private agency |
providing income or energy
assistance and from any |
employer, whether public or private.
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(e) Any qualified applicant pursuant to this Section may |
receive or have
paid on such applicant's behalf an emergency |
assistance payment to enable
such applicant to obtain access to |
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winter energy services. Any such
payments shall be made in |
accordance with regulations of the Department.
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(f) The Department may, if sufficient funds are available, |
provide
additional benefits to certain qualified applicants:
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(i) for the reduction of past due amounts owed to |
energy providers;
and
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(ii) to assist the household in responding to |
excessively high summer
temperatures or energy costs. |
Households containing elderly members, children,
a person |
with a disability, or a person with a medical need for |
conditioned air
shall receive priority for receipt of such |
benefits.
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(Source: P.A. 96-154, eff. 1-1-10; 96-157, eff. 9-1-09; |
96-1000, eff. 7-2-10.)
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Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon |
becoming law.
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