Legislative Update -- February 8, 2024
February 8, 2024
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The 103rd General Assembly session began on January 16 but we don’t expect a lot to happen before the March 19 primary election. Most of the work of this session will happen in April and May.
The ILA Public Policy Committee (PPC) will be monitoring legislation throughout the session and has established a bill monitoring page on the ILA website. We will be adding more information as we move through the session so be sure to check in occasionally.
Here are the bills that represent ILA’s legislation agenda for 2024:
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Raise the Current Competitive Bidding Threshold
SB2787 & HB4111
The Illinois Local Library Act and the Public Library District Act of 1991 currently set the 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.
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Amend the Acquisition of Treasurer Bonds for Libraries
HB4224
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.
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Equitable Access to Electronic Literary Materials Act
SB2419
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.
ILA Public Policy Committee Survey
PPC wants to know more about your use of newspapers, specifically when it comes to required legal postings. This short 10-question survey will help ILA understand your costs, publication frequency, service area, and more. If applicable, please fill out a separate survey for each newspaper you use for all required legal postings. Thank you to RAILS for developing this survey.
ALA Update
ALA put out an alert last Thursday on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). One in six households in the U.S. was notified that the ACP is ending, which means nearly 23 million families will be forced to choose between broadband connection and other necessities.
With less than three months until this program ends, ALA is asking everyone to contact their member of Congress and tell them to fund the ACP before it’s too late.
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