Our 2025 Lame Duck Session Priorities
1. Fixing Tier 2 pensions for public employees like nurses, firefighters, and teachers:
Illinois faces a major challenge in equitably supporting the public workers who make up the backbone of our communities – our teachers, nurses, firefighters, and many other essential workers – under the current “Tier 2” pension plan. Created in 2010 as as budgetary relief measure, the Tier 2 plan has effectively created a two-tiered system that treats our public employees unequally and discourages many from continuing their service.
Why We Need to Fix Tier 2
Most Tier 2 workers (those who started public service after 2011) must work longer, retire later, and receive fewer retirement benefits than their Tier 1 colleagues. Many Tier 2 workers don’t qualify for Social Security, making their pension all the more essential. Between fewer benefits and a lack of Social Security, many public employees simply can’t afford to stay in the jobs we all rely on.
Here are just a few of the consequences of the Tier 2 system:
-Fewer people entering public service due to limited retirement prospects.
-Growing staffing concerns for our schools, emergency services, and healthcare providers.
-Declining services across Illinois as talented, committed workers are forced to leave for opportunities that offer better financial security.
Fixing Tier 2 Strengthens Illinois For All of Us-We need an equitably pension system that does right by all public employees and ensures financial security for those who protect, educate, and care for our communities. Fixing Tier 2 pensions means supporting a stronger, more stable Illinois where all of us can benefit from reliably public services.
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2. Restoring voting rights for those currently incarcerated: We are proud to be a member of the Unlock Civics Coalition led by Chicago Votes. In 2019, Illinois enacted Civics in Prison, offering peer-taught civics courses during the final year of an individual’s sentence. Written by individuals incarcerated in Stateville C.C., the law fosters civic knowledge and engagement across Illinois’ prisons.
Since its implementation in 2020, over 270 incarcerated people have been trained as peer educators, with over 5,000 course participants. A peer educator incarcerated in Graham Correctional Center explains, “People often come away from the experience with the idea that politics IS about them. And they find a deeper connection to the actual issues. In order for anyone to be a part of anything, they MUST see themselves within the process. To be a part of something, we have to feel we belong.“
The Reintegration and Civic Empowerment Act relocates these courses to the initial year of incarceration and reinstates the right to vote for individuals in custody within 14 days of conviction.
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3. Common sense gun safety measures like safe storage and reporting of lost & stolen firearms.
Safe At Home includes safe storage and lost and stolen firearm reporting requirements to better prevent children, at-risk individuals, and criminals from accessing deadly weapons. Too many tragedies have shown us what can happen when guns fall into the wrong hands.
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4. Make treatment for mental health and substance use more available in Illinois:
HB4475, HA2, the Strengthening Mental Health & Substance Use Parity Act, would improve access to mental health and substance use care through private insurance. Here’s how it would help:
-It would require private insurance to reimburse behavioral healthcare at a reimbursement rate equal to other medical office visits
-It would allow mental health and substance use providers working toward licensure to provider services and bill commercial insurance under the supervision of a fully licensed provider.
-It would prohibit insurance denials when a person sees more than one behavioral health provider on the same day. It would also prohibit insurance companies from steering providers to use 45-minute therapy rather than 60-minute therapy.
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