Madigan Ends 98th Legislature Without Lame Duck Session

Tax rate will automatically decrease in January

The Illinois House adjourned Wednesday afternoon without going into a lame duck session.  

Speaker of the House Michael Madigan on Wednesday told House members that there had "been some successes and some not successes over the last two years" before uttering the phrase "sine die' which means: without a fixed day to meet again.

Representative Jack Franks (D-Morengo) told the Northwest Herald that he thinks the move is an olive branch to the incoming governor who has asked that no new business be addressed during the lame-duck section.

Without a lame duck session, the next time the House meets would be on January 14 after Bruce Rauner is sworn in as governor and the 99th Illinois General Assembly is sat. 

That means the legislature will allow the individual income tax rate to slide from 5 percent to 3.75 percent. The decrease will leave Rauner with a multi-billion dollar hole in his fiscal budget. 

Legislators will also decline take up minimum wage.

The Chicago City Council on Tuesday voted to raise the city's minimum wage ordinance to $13 per hour by 2019. 

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