NWBOCA April 2022 Report.pdf

1. NWBOCA APRIL 2022 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE by MARGARET VAUGHN
ENERGY CODE RULES
The Illinois State Energy Advisory Council met over the fall and early winter and to
establish recommended revisions to the 2021 ICC Energy Code. These Energy Code
Rules are tentatively set to go before the CDB Board to be voted on at their May 10th
meeting. After that, they will have to be approved by JCAR (Joint Committee on
Administrative Rules) which will take a minimum of 90 days, before going into effect.
ELECTRONIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS BILL STALLS in SENATE
Legislation in the form of HB 3125 sponsored by Rep. Robin Gabel (D-Evanston)
passed the House and would require all new single family homes and newly constructed
or renovated multi-unit residential buildings with parking spaces to have EV charging
stations. “Renovated” was defined as “altered or added where electrical service capacity
is increased by one electrical service panel or more”. There was great push back from
the Home Builders Association of Illinois as well as the Realtors and proponents
promised them, they would work on the bill further in the Senate to address their
concerns. An amendment was proposed in the Senate to eliminate the new residential
requirement and instead apply it to all residential rental units in a manner in which a
renter could not be prohibited from putting in an EV charging station, if they were going
to cover the cost themselves. However, the proposal was still opposed by the Realtors
and no vote was taken.
HB 5412 PITS CARPENTERS UNION AGAINST CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
HB 5412 is an initiative of the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council and
would make the prime contractor responsible for the wages and benefits of a
subcontractor’s employee if the subcontractor fails to pay them. This resulted in a major
battle between the Carpenters Union and an entire coalition of construction groups who
lobbied against it, including the Associated Builders and Contractors, Black Contractors
Owners & Executives, the Chicago & Downstate Roofing Contractors, Federation of
Women Contractors, Hispanic American Construction Industry Association, the Home
Builders Association of IL. Because of the opposition, modifications were made to the
bill to do the following: 1. exempt all union jobs (as long as one contractor in the tier was
union), 2. exempt renovations and repair, 3. exempt projects under $20,000, 4. reduce
the statute of limitations from 10 years to 3 for civil lawsuits (workers have 12 months to
file a claim with the Dept of Labor under the Wage Payment and Collection Act), 4.
establish a Task Force to address the issue of wage bonds in the construction industry,
since this legislation will drive up the cost of wage bonds for smaller companies. The
legislation passed the final day of session. There is still opposition to the bill especially
from the women and minority owned construction firms and they are asking Governor
Pritzker for an amendatory veto to exempt new single family residential construction and
projects under $100,000.

2. GENERAL CONTRACTOR LICENSURE DEFEATED in HOUSE COMMITTEE
Rep. Denyse Stonebeck (D-Skokie) proposed HB 2538 to license general
contractors. The legislation was based partially on a Chicago ordinance and included
some educational requirements from a Wisconsin law. However, the sponsor refused to
meet with the construction industry and accept their input and rejected an amendment
which would have exempted construction professions such as roofing contractors and
plumbing contractors already licensed by the state. The bill was defeated in the House
Labor Committee.
ELEVATOR & FIRE EQUIPMENT DISTRIBUTOR ACT EXTENSIONS
Both the Elevator Safety Regulation Act and the Fire Equipment Distributor and
Employee Regulation Act were set to expire on January 1, 2023, unless legislation was
passed to extend their sunset dates. HB 1449 extended both acts until 2028. While in
the past, sunset extensions always were 10 years, the Speaker of the House and
Senate President decided developed a new policy of only having 5 year sunsets
clauses.
FIRST TIME in 20 YEARS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADJOURNS in APRIL
Since 2022 is an election year and legislators will be running in all new districts
because of the Census results, this year’s Illinois primary was moved from March to
June 28th. The Legislative leaders wanted to give their members more time to
campaign in their new districts plus a multi-year renovation project is starting on the
Capitol complex. As a result, they had a much more intense session that began on
January 4th and went through consecutive week until they adjourned at 6 am on
Saturday morning April 8th after being in session since 10 a.m. the day before.