Chamber Members:

As of today, all lending institutions are open to accept the Paycheck Protection Program application for both first and second draws. Last week, the program was open only to community financial institutions and small lenders. If you have not reached out to someone you have a current banking or lending relationship with, click here for our directory listing of financial institutions: http://jolietchamber.chambermaster.com/list/category/banks-mortgages-and-financial-inst-15

This opening to all is good news, but some bad news to be delivered is our region is one of two regions still stuck in mitigation Tier 3. Although our region continues to lower its positivity rate and ICU bed availability looking good, we’re being held back by not meeting the daily decrease in hospital patients as there was a string of days with a zero increase/decrease. Based on current numbers, we’re looking at 1/24 as the soonest to open with Tier 2 mitigations.

See below for a set of questions that we had shared with IDPH and the Governor’s office last week before the announcements on Friday, info on the Biden 100-day plan, and more on the new speaker of the house. Finally, in case you missed it, today is President Trump’s last day in office with the inauguration set to take place tomorrow.


*Daily Coronavirus update brought to you by Silver Cross Hospital

Updated Questions for IDPH / Governor’s Office

1.         When will more information be shared regarding Phase 5? Will the decision be based on vaccination rates and/or will case positivity still play a role in determinations?

2.         As regions begin to be allowed rolling back to Tier 2 mitigations, will there also be a rollback to Tier 1 mitigations? In the past, our region jumped straight to Tier 2 mitigations rather than advancing first to the Tier 1 standards. Or will regions need to meet standards when in Tier 2 to go back to Phase 4 without Tier 1 mitigations?

3.         Going forward, will Tier 1 mitigations continue to be bypassed in regard to moving from regular Phase 4 with no mitigations directly to Tier 2 as in past.

4.         Will the advancement of vaccines in the population alter the restrictions and/or metrics in the various Tier mitigations?

5.         Any chance that before making it to Phase 5 we will see facilities such as banquet halls allowed to go over 50 people with responsible measures followed? It seems as if it would be natural to have a ramped-up capacity under Phase 4 rather than going from 50 to complete openness.

6.         Will at any point separate city or county metrics be viewed vs. an entire region? The Springfield / Sangamon County situation would be an example of a local health department making a local decision. Is there any consideration to transitioning into a model of this kind?

7.         We are hearing a few reports of vaccines going unused / thrown away because of expiration rather than giving to someone who isn’t on list of initial 1A approvals. Are local health departments responsible for planning redistribution or those administering? What is the exact policy and how can we make sure that vaccines are not going unused as outlined on pages 30-31 of the IDPH vaccination guide?

This is the language in the Covid-19 Vaccination Plan: “IDPH will use vaccine wastage reports provided to minimize waste. In situations where there is low COVID-19 vaccine demand, jurisdictions should monitor their supply and adjust strategies to avoid vaccine waste.”

8.         Is there a mass vaccination plan in process following the implementation of plan 1A or 1B? It is critical that we get as many willing individuals vaccinated as soon as possible to aid in the process of a full economy reopening. We feel there needs to be consideration of large-scale vaccination sites similar to what we’re seeing already in other states to ensure a quicker process.

9.         When will the final language be publicized for Phase 1C and 2 of the vaccination plan?

Biden’s First 100-Days Agenda Targets Executive Orders, Fresh Covid Aid
President-elect Joe Biden takes office this week with a far-reaching set of plans for his first 100 days, but he must grapple with narrow Democratic majorities in Congress and an unsettled country as he seeks to roll back some of his Republican predecessor’s policies and curb the pandemic.

Mr. Biden’s agenda includes some moves he can make quickly, like executive orders reversing some of President Trump’s actions and rejoining international agreements. He also has goals that require congressional cooperation, including a $1.9 trillion Covid relief package and getting cabinet nominees confirmed, that will play out as the 50-50 Senate takes up the president’s second impeachment trial over the charge that he incited the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol seeking to keep him in power.

Mr. Biden is planning a rush of executive actions for his first 10 days. On Inauguration Day, that includes rejoining the Paris climate accord; reversing a travel ban from several majority-Muslim and African countries; requiring masks to be worn on federal property and during interstate travel on airlines, trains, and transit systems; and extending restrictions on evictions and foreclosures.

“President-elect Biden will take action—not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration—but also to start moving our country forward,” said his incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, in a memo to future White House staff.

Mr. Biden’s executive actions might not go as far as some in his party’s liberal wing would like, signaling a clash that could continue throughout his presidency. For example, while he plans to extend a suspension of interest-free student-loan payments, some Democrats have pushed for an order to forgive most or all of Americans’ $1.6 trillion in federal student debt.

In the following days, Mr. Biden also plans several moves on the coronavirus crisis and economic relief. And in the subsequent week he is expected to take actions on criminal justice, climate change and immigration, including efforts to reunite families that the Trump administration separated at the border.

President-elect Biden will likely send an immigration bill to Congress on his first day in office. The president-elect has promised legislation outlining broad immigration changes including a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the U.S. who lack permanent legal status. A transition official said Monday that the plan would include an eight-year path to citizenship, confirming details first reported in the Washington Post.

Biden Tax-Hike Proposals Face Bumpy Road
President-elect Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have signaled plans to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, but significant hurdles remain even with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

This month’s Democratic sweep of Senate runoffs in Georgia, giving Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 2014, increases the odds of tax proposals advancing through Congress. However, slim margins in both the House and the Senate mean enacting tax increases will prove challenging.

Biden’s campaign tax proposals included rolling back President Trump’s 2017 tax-cut law for taxpayers with income above $400,000, taxing capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income for people with income above $1 million and raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.

Democrats broadly think that wealthy people and corporations are not paying enough in taxes. A debate over how best to raise taxes on the rich was front and center during the Democratic presidential primary, with some Democratic candidates, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), taking more aggressive positions than Biden and calling for a wealth tax.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the incoming chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said on a call with reporters Wednesday that raising taxes on the wealthy and businesses was among his priorities. Wyden in 2019 released a proposal to tax high-income people’s investment gains annually rather than when the investments are sold. He said he plans to do further work on this proposal. “If you are a nurse in America taking care of COVID patients, you don’t get to defer paying your taxes. But if you’re a billionaire, you can defer, defer, defer some more and then pretty much never pay any taxes at all,” he said. “My plan would put a stop to that.”

Wyden also said he wants to roll back “corporate tax giveaways” in Trump’s 2017 law as well as the cuts for high earners. Additionally, he said he wants to close the carried interest “loophole” that benefits investment-fund managers, and better target a tax deduction for income from noncorporate businesses created by Trump’s law.

Biden, however, does not appear to be in a rush to push through his revenue-raising campaign proposals. Instead, he is focusing on immediate coronavirus relief legislation, with provisions aimed at decreasing taxes for low- and middle-income households.  The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal that Biden unveiled Thursday did not include any tax increases but would provide for direct payments of $1,400 per person and would expand the earned income and child tax credits.

When Democrats do decide to move ahead with tax legislation, they could face difficulties reaching an agreement on a package that would have enough support to pass. Since Democrats will control both the House and the Senate, they will be able to use a process called budget reconciliation that would allow them to pass tax- and budget-related legislation with just a simple majority in the Senate rather than the 60 votes otherwise needed to advance bills. Republicans used the same process to pass the 2017 tax cut law. But the 50-50 split in the Senate means every Democratic senator would need to support a tax-increase bill for it to pass if no Republicans are on board. Democrats also have a razor-thin majority in the House.

If Democrats want to pursue tax increases on the wealthy and businesses, they’ll have to craft a bill that can be supported by progressives such as Warren and Sanders and moderates such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). When Manchin first ran for Senate in 2010, he said he wouldn’t increase taxes during that rough economic time coming on the heels of the Great Recession. A spokesperson for the senator didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Hill on Thursday about Manchin’s current line of thinking on potential tax increases.

While there are some differences among Democrats about how best to raise taxes on the rich, the party was united in opposing Trump’s 2017 tax law and could find common ground rolling back those tax cuts for the wealthy.

New Illinois House Speaker Welch Commitments 
Shortly after picking up the speaker’s gavel for the first time, Emanuel “Chris” Welch pledged “a new day” in the Illinois House, one that recognized diversity, autonomy and transparency and a break from the near-autocratic rule of Michael Madigan.

Whether Welch can fulfill that promise will quickly become evident as he puts together a leadership team, writes new rules for how House business is conducted and works on a legislative redistricting plan. Although an ally of Madigan’s, Welch told legislators he intends to take the chamber in a new direction.

“There are some things I would like to continue but there are some things that I would do differently. I think those things that I would do differently are going to show up and I’m going to distinguish myself,” said Welch, 49, a Hillside Democrat.

“I asked my colleagues over the last few days to hold me accountable for what I do over this next two years,” he said. That meant efforts to “empower our members, work with them and give them a voice, look at them as partners and friends, in this effort to fix what’s wrong with Illinois.”

One of the first tests for Welch will be rather mundane and arcane, yet all important — writing the rules under which the chamber will operate. Without offering specifics, he said the rules should provide an initial indication of how he plans to distinguish himself from Madigan’s leadership. “I think the way you show how you would do things differently is in your action. You lead by example, and I do think the rules is a place we’re going to start,” he said.

“Many members have said they want to sit down sooner than later and show me what they believe should be looked at. And so I told them I want to examine the rules and possibly make changes, possibly make a lot of changes.” But, he added, “I don’t know what those changes are until I have these conversations. That’s going to take place pretty quickly.”

Madigan rewrote the House rule book in 1997, the year he came back as speaker after two years of Republican control of the chamber, his only time out of power after gaining the gavel in 1983. The rules gave greater powers to the majority party and were enhanced to give Madigan near sole authority over the chamber.

Under the House rules at one time, the Rules Committee would assign bills filed by lawmakers to a standing committee for a hearing. They would then go on to a full floor vote or be held. But under Madigan, the Rules Committee became a killing ground for legislation he opposed, with many bills sent there never again seeing the light of day. “One of the first things I’m waiting to see is whether the new House rules will loosen the Rules Committee’s and by extension the speaker’s, ability to kill bills from the get-go,” said Charles Wheeler III, a veteran statehouse observer and retired professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Republicans are hoping for rules that will allow more of their legislation to be considered on the floor — as well as more time allotted to reading legislation that comes from the other side before having to vote on it. “I think 45 House Republicans would like nothing better than to, at some point, vote yes on the House Rules because they respect our rights as well,” said Springfield GOP Rep. Tim Butler. “We have a lot of good people who know about the rules and I would hope as we craft the rules for the 102nd General Assembly that we collaborate on those.”

Under Madigan, there also were unofficial rules, such as a limit on how many bills lawmakers could focus on and push for passage among all of the legislation they introduced. Many members felt the limit constricted their abilities and ignored constituents needs.

Another early test for Welch will be in picking the members of his leadership team, which often reflects not just who his closest allies are but also what trade-offs he made to get the votes needed to win the speaker’s post. In addition to offering prestige and power, leadership posts as well as committee chairs get a stipend on top of their regular legislative pay.

“I think our leadership team has to look like our caucus, has to be extremely diverse,” Welch said. “We have 52% women. We have Blacks. We have Latinx. We have Asian Americans. We have people from downstate and upstate. We have to have a leadership team that looks like this great, diverse state.”

Welch said while there’s great value in a diverse caucus, he warned it can also lead to disagreements. “With diversity, you’re going to have a lot of thought. And with a lot of thought you’re going to get a lot of opinions. When you get a lot of opinions, you’re going to get a lot of disagreements. Well, we’re going to learn from each other because we’re all going to be around that table,” he said. “That was an overwhelming theme that I heard from my colleagues and they’re going to be in the room.”

Diversity within the Democratic caucus also will be a key component in the most partisan issue confronting the new speaker this year — redrawing the state’s political boundaries to conform to new population figures from the federal census.

For his part, Welch said that he’s “always supported fair maps,” a process aimed at removing much of the partisanship from the mapmaking process. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker also has said he would veto a map that he doesn’t view as “fair.”

“I’m going to reach out to the governor. I’m going to reach out to the Senate president and the other leaders and we’re going to work on this collaboratively and try to do the best we can and try to be as transparent as we can. I think that’s how you build trust is by doing it in a transparent way,” Welch said. But since Democrats control both legislative chambers and the governor’s office, they don’t need any Republican input to draw new boundaries for them to become law — subject to federal voting rights standards. And internal pressure could quickly lead Democratic mapmakers to nudge fairness pledges aside.

Another huge challenge is the state’s a $4 billion deficit, about half of that due to shortfalls blamed on lower tax receipts as a result of the pandemic. Republicans in Washington have opposed pandemic-tax relief aid, contending it is a bailout to largely Democratic states. But with Democrats gaining control of the Senate and the incoming administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, Pritzker and Welch are confident of federal aid arriving.

The Pritzker administration has forecast a loss of up to $1 billion if the state doesn’t decouple its income tax formula from federal tax law changes that accelerate some business deductions. A lame duck legislative attempt to make the move in state income tax law was rejected by lawmakers, in part due to criticism that the administration waited to notify the legislature about the revenue loss and over fears that it would be painted as a business tax hike.

Welch said he expects the legislature to take up the decoupling issue again shortly after it reconvenes next month. “We’re going to work with the governor and the Senate president and the minority leaders in both chambers and roll up our sleeves and get to work to do the serious work that lies ahead,” he said. “We’ve got some real budget issues to tackle … and a whole lot of other issues in front of us.”

It will be an active legislative session for Welch, who also will take over the fundraising operation for House Democrats, as well as dealing with allies in organized labor and civil trial attorneys. It’s all a prelude to 2022, when the focus will be on elections that could reflect his handling of the House and the commitments he made.

“I didn’t sign up to be the speaker. I didn’t seek this job out. It kinda found me and I don’t know if in two years I’ll be the speaker,” Welch said. “If I put my name forward in two years, I think they’ll be happy to reelect me. If I don’t have the support, I’ll remove my name from consideration.”

Updated PPP Loan Applications
First draw app: https://www.sba.gov/document/sba-form-2483-paycheck-protection-program-borrower-application-form?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Second draw app: https://www.sba.gov/document/sba-form-2483-sd-ppp-second-draw-borrower-application-form?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Program Notices & Reminders
SBA Page Links for Direction and Questions on PPP
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program

1st draw info: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program/first-draw-ppp-loans

2nd draw info: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program/second-draw-ppp-loans

SBDC at JJC Update
Advanced Business Data Research (with Shorewood Library)  January 21st at 6pm

  • Already familiar with Reference Solutions (formerly Reference USA)? Learn how to utilize this data even more! In this session, learn higher level search techniques, how to use the additional functionality (like the mapping, summary, and chart options), and how to combine searches within modules to get a more in-depth level of data.
  • https://ilsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/33678

Government Certification Process (with Rita Haake at COD)  January 28th at 9am

  • Certifications: Interpreting the alphabet to pursue profits! Which small business certification is the best one for you?
    Your options:
    • Federal: 8(a), EDWOSB, HUBZone, SDB, SDVOSB, WOSB, VOSB
    • State: DBE, FBE, FMBE, MBE, PBE, VBE
    • Local: DBE, MBE, WBE, VBE
    You will learn the details of the application process, documentation requirements, certification options, and how to market and leverage certifications for the growth of your business.
  • https://ilsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/33909

Finally, look for more information to be announced soon for the first virtual programming in the new year and don’t forget about the Annual Awards taking place this Friday, January 22. You can sign up at www.jolietchamber.com to see the big announcements.

Stay well,

Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry Staff and Board of Directors

Mike Paone
Vice President – Government Affairs
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
mpaone@jolietchamber.com
815.727.5371 main
815.727.5373 direct