State Board of Elections Moving Forward with Implementation of Pay to Play; All Employers Seeking Business with State Urged to Review New Reporting Requirements

The State Board of Elections has drafted a new emergency rule to implement the state’s new Pay to Play law set to take effect January 1. The proposed rules, which have not yet been officially filed with JCAR, address some of the Chamber’s repeated concerns with the new law, but some major compliance concerns still remain.

The Chamber has worked closely with the State Board of Elections over the past several weeks to try and ease some of the onerous registration requirements of the new law through the Board’s rulemaking process. The Chamber weighed in at both Board meetings scheduled to address HB 824/P.A. 94-971 on December 5 and December 12, as well as submitting oral and written testimony at a special hearing held by the Board on December 10.

Based on Chamber testimony, the Board backed off their original proposed rules calling for the use of a paper-based registration system until the Board could secure the funding necessary to implement an electronic registration database, as required by the law. The proposed rules now allow for the electronic submission of these registration requirements via e-mail.

The Chamber also made modest gains in securing language that provides the Board will take into account that the proposed system does not exist as envisioned in the law and any filing problems will be viewed in that light and not immediately subjected to stated penalties. The Board, however, did not make any concessions towards the Chamber’s repeated requests to allow for the submission of 10K filings already required by the SEC to fulfill listing of affiliated entities and persons requirements.

According to the new law, business entities required to register with the State Board of Elections must do so no later than February 2, 2009. Once the Board has filed the implementing emergency rules, those rules will go into effect unless JCAR determines the rules do not warrant an “emergency.”

In the meantime, the Chamber is continuing to push legislators to address the outstanding compliance issues in the abbreviated January session.

The Chamber encourages all business entities potentially impacted by this new law to read the proposed emergency rules.

Chamber Videos

Throughout the legislative session, the Illinois Chamber's Vice President of Government Affairs, Todd Maisch, will be interviewing legislators on pertinent issues facing the General Assembly. Also included are special presentations from legislative events.

Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson talks to Todd about the budget, the capital plan and emerging energy projects.

Interview with Representative Gary Hannig on the the House Democrats' budget.

Interview with Senator Christine Radogno regarding this week's budgeteers meeting and the Medicaid audit.

Interview with Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias about the budget and Bright Start program.

May 9, 2008

Interview with Senator Dale Righter regarding redistricting and other Constitutional amendment. May 2, 2008

Highlights of Secretary of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration Mitch Roob's presentation from the Chamber's Healthcare Reform Symposium. April 11, 2008

Interview with Representative Frank Mautino on pending healthcare reform. April 4, 2008

Interview with House Minority Leader Tom Cross regarding economic stimulus and the need for infrastructure investment.

March 14, 2008

Interview with Comptroller Dan Hynes on the fiscal health for Illinois. February 20, 2008