Legislation has been introduced in Springfield to limit the Governor’s ability to declare a disaster multiple times without approval from the General Assembly. Representative Dan Caulkins of Decatur is the chief co-sponsor of a bill that requires the state legislature to be involved in a continuing disaster declaration.
“It limits the governor’s ability to have a disaster declaration more than one time in a 12 month period for the same disaster. Now there are outs to that. The General Assembly can convene and draw up a continuing disaster declaration and has to be passed with a 2/3rds majority and then passed on to the governor. The General Assembly needs to be involved in this process.”
Caulkins has also introduced legislation in the Illinois House that would freeze the minimum wage increase for the next three years. He says increasing the minimum wage to $15 would harm small businesses that are already hurting due to COVID.
