CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A state budget focused on affordability is now law thanks to state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, who helped pass a balanced budget prioritizing direct relief for Illinoisans and investing in the resources Washington is trying to slash.

“We’ve seen extreme funding cuts at the federal level, and that heavily impacts how our state budget allocates funds,” said Ammons. “I’m proud that this balanced budget will preserve the services and programs we rely on, without the financial support of the federal government and without extreme new taxes on working families.”

Ammons’ work this legislative session concluded in passing a fiscally and socially responsible budget that relieves the cost-of-living crisis while making key investments in food security and other state services at risk of federal funding losses or total elimination.

The budget takes a number of smart steps to help families make ends meet, including:

• Nearly $100 million to help families afford groceries and put food on the table after Washington slashes nutrition assistance for more than over 100,000 Illinoisans.
  • • Creating the new FRESH Program, which provides a one-time $400 credit, giving families a lifeline while they work with providers to reactivate benefits,
    • Expanding free and reduced-cost school lunches ensuring children affected by SNAP cuts have a sustainable meal, and
    • Funding the Illinois Grocery Initiative to expand access to fresh food in food deserts.
• Making back-to-school shopping more affordable by cutting the state sales tax on clothes, supplies, and other essentials for students, families, and teachers beginning in August.
• Freezing the gas tax to give families a break at the pump.
• Restoring property tax relief grants for schools so communities statewide can see property tax relief.
• $500 million focused on affordable homes for working families sometimes known as the “missing middle” who do not qualify for traditional assistance but struggle to find quality homes in their price range.
• Fully funding safety net hospitals and $10 million dedicated to support Federally Qualified Health Centers for the most vulnerable families.
• Strengthening public safety initiatives including homelessness prevention and community-based violence prevention.

“This budget preserves our needs and allows for improvement, but there is still plenty of work left to do,” said Ammons. “We made great strides with our legislation and with this balanced budget, but we must continue to fight for equitable education funding, social justice and civil liberties.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Champaign, helped pass another fiscally smart budget, working to make life easier and lower costs for Illinois families. 

“Every year, we debate long and hard for a budget with the intention of making every day easier for everyone in Illinois. It’s not an easy process, and it’s one we leave knowing we can’t make everyone happy,” said Ammons. “With that said, we’re passing a balanced budget that doesn’t require any additional taxes on working families, and I think we all consider that a win.”

Because of the chaos and destruction of the Trump Administration, Illinois families are struggling to keep their heads above water. With high costs and more social hardships, Ammons advocates for a budget that will make life easier and more affordable for everyone in Champaign and Urbana, and across Illinois.

This year’s budget fully funds:

• Homelessness prevention programs,
• Safety net hospitals, providing care regardless of health insurance status, and
• Community-based violence prevention programs.

Highlights of the budget include investments in:

• School lunch programs,
• More than $300 million in new funding for elementary and secondary education,
• Afterschool programs for young people, and
• Working class people by temporarily freezing the gas tax, beginning in July.

“While this budget may not be perfect, we will never have a perfect budget— especially with such devastating cuts coming from Washington,” said Ammons. “This budget takes steps to make life in Illinois a bit easier, and I’m committed to continuing the work to fight for the high-quality state we all deserve to call home.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Fighting to restore affordability for Illinois households, state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, is advancing a series of bills to the governor’s desk cutting costs on everyday purchases and utilities, banning gimmicks that raise prices, and requiring businesses to fairly compensate consumers.

“Leaders in Washington seem to be taking every measure possible to make our lives more expensive— the opposite of their campaign promises,” said Ammons. “I’m committed to doing as much as we can at the state level to work to offset federal price hikes.”

While federal policies and international instability are making everything more expensive, Ammons is taking charge of what Illinois can control, and championing policy to provide some immediate relief. 

Ammons worked to pass the following cost-cutting measures:

• House Bill 45: Expands access to savings by requiring retailers to honor all advertised sales or coupons, even if customers cannot access an app or operate digital coupons.
• House Bill 228: Cracks down on junk fees and hidden costs by requiring businesses to disclose all mandatory fees and charges added on top of an advertised purchase price.
• House Bill 4044: Strengthening consumer rights by banning no-return policies that limit customers to store credit for unused, unopened items for most purchases. 
• House Bill 4514: Allowing residents to voice opposition to general rate increases by requiring public utility companies fully inform residents of their rights prior to a rate proposal. 
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All four measures successfully advanced through House and Senate chambers. They await governor consideration before being signed into law. 

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, passed a resolution condemning the unjust history of the Benin Bronzes, a collection of Nigerian plaques and sculptures created in the 1700s and illegally sold and transported across the world.

“African culture across the planet has been decimated, both intentionally and unintentionally, for centuries,” said Ammons. “This collection of artifacts is just one more thing that was stolen from our ancestors, and we’re simply imploring African history be returned to its proper home through collaboration with all involved parties.”

House Resolution 211 develops a Repatriation Committee to log the inventory of and develop a standardized process to return the Benin Bronzes. This will include the development of a sharing framework, gathering resale royalties, and developing a program to bring heirs of the enslaved and the Benin Kingdom together for reconciliation, healing, and cooperation.

“A return and proper plan to share the Benin Bronzes will mark centuries of growth, acknowledging the wrong done in maintaining and hoarding of these cherished artifacts,” said Ammons. “I’m committed to doing the work necessary to rectify the unjust and illegal history of the possession of the Benin Bronzes.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, led a resolution on the House floor in favor of workplaces transitioning to a four-day workweek, allowing for staff at all levels to develop a more sustainable work-life balance.

“A five-day workweek is completely excessive in a time where we’re seeing impressive rates of employee efficiency across the board,” said Ammons. “We live in a country where we’re expected to live to work, but we need to transition to working to live. We are so much more than our professional lives, and more personal time can actually fuel our professional success.”

Ammons championed House Resolution 635, which calls on the state of Illinois to invest in its workplaces and support the Illinois workforce in transitioning to a four-day workweek to increase work productivity and quality across the state. 

The resolution also recommends beginning this transition with pilot programs across the state and across different professional fields for the purpose of studying the benefits and effects of switching from a five-day workweek to a four-day workweek.

“The way our workforce is structured is changing, from fully remote positions to pre-planned work-from-home schedules. We should be embracing this change, ensuring our quality of life,” said Ammons. “A four-day workweek is a step in the right direction to both preserve productivity and improve our livelihoods.”

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, aided in hosting yet another successful Expungement Summit last month. These events are designed to provide legal assistance, advice and guidance to individuals looking to expunge their criminal records.

“I’m so proud to host an event that can make such a life-altering change for so many people in our community,” said Ammons. “Expunging or sealing records opens up countless opportunities for individuals seeking to work and return to being a contributing member of society.”

This spring’s Expungement Summit was hosted at Parkland College and sponsored by Ammons in collaboration with Land of Lincoln, Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, state Senator Paul Faraci, First Followers and Champaign Circuit Clerk Susan McGrath.

Expungement Summits in Champaign have helped 519 individuals since fall of 2023, expunging 612 individual records and sealing 715 records. In order to modernize the automatic sealing and expungement process, Ammons supported House Bill 1836, known as the Clean Slate Act, which was signed into law earlier this year.

“The Expungement Summit is unique in that it helps actualize the Constitutionally mandated opportunity to, after serving their time, restore citizenship rights to those who were incarcerated, allowing them to advance their lives,” said Ammons. “I look forward to holding another Expungement Summit later this year to ensure more people in our community who meet the specific requirements can move forward in their lives despite their past.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A staunch advocate for equity, reparations and righting the historic oppression of Black and other people of color, state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, has passed legislation to create a committee to study forensic and historical accountability to consider the implementation of a permanent Illinois Office of Genealogical Affairs.

“Illinois may have been in the Union, but our state still played a role in our nation’s history of forced, coerced labor, family separation, racial violence and more,” said Ammons. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made to become a state that embraces and respects everyone, despite race or gender or sexual orientation, and we can take things a step further by working to actually right our historic wrongs.”

Ammons’ House Bill 5486 establishes the Office of Genealogical Affairs Study Committee to explore the potential cost, feasibility, and impact of a permanent Office of Genealogical Affairs in Illinois. Specifically, the study committee will explore in what ways a permanent office could aid in historical and forensic research, reparative operations and how the office could support administrative genealogical determinations. This office would allow for exploration of state archives and other offices to ensure our residents have equitable access to what is ours, from accessing familial property to our family’s remains.

“As the country prepares to celebrate 250 years of existence, part of the celebration must include the significant contributions of African-Americans,” said Ammons. “Many Afro-descendants struggle to build their family trees due to the deliberate separation of people who were enslaved in the United States. We have a duty to help those families who have been lost over time to access records to help fill the gaps, and restore family histories. It’s about healing and alignment. ”

House Bill 5486 passed in the House and heads to the Senate for consideration.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, is cracking down on junk fees that cost consumers an estimated $3,000 every year, with a new measure that holds businesses accountable for charges added on top of advertised purchase prices.

“Consumers shouldn’t be paying needless fees to pad the pockets of corporations,” said Ammons. “Cutting down on these exuberant, unnecessary fees is just one small step in fighting to make our lives more affordable.”

The Ammons-backed House Bill 228 would require businesses to display all mandatory fees and charges they are adding on top of a purchase price. Studies show that consumers pay up to 20% more than the advertised price once all fees are included—not only deterring consumer trust in the marketplace, but significantly making it harder for families to budget and make informed shopping decisions.

The bill also gives the attorney general’s office more authority to hold businesses accountable for not disclosing surprise fees—cracking down on these “convenience” or “processing” fees that many businesses use to charge more for everyday retail purchases and services including hotels and rental cars.

House Bill 228 advanced off the House floor Thursday and now moves to the Senate chamber for consideration.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, has passed legislation aimed at improving care for individuals living with dementia. The bill requires all service workers and affiliates of the Department of Human Services (DHS) to complete dementia training at the beginning of their employment.

“Between Carle, OSF and other healthcare providers in our community, we have some of the best healthcare workers supporting our neighbors, friends, and families,” said Ammons. “Our healthcare workers are highly trained and capable, and this training requirement ensures they have the tools necessary to aid and assist seniors and others in our district with memory difficulties.”

House Bill 4584 requires Home Services Program rehabilitation counselors and homemaker agency employees who provide direct care to participants to complete at least two hours of dementia training upon their hiring, and annually thereafter.

The training will cover key topics such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia-related safety risks and effective communication strategies, as well as approaches for responding to behavioral challenges. Any similar existing training can be used to meet the new two hour minimum.

“Watching our loved ones experience memory loss is heartbreaking, but knowing the caretakers attending to them can be so reassuring,” said Ammons. “Working with patients with dementia, Alzheimer’s or any other memory issues is a heavy mental work load, and this much needed training will support them and their patients.”

House Bill 4584 passed the House unanimously and now heads to the Senate.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As the prices of everyday essentials continue to rise across the country, state Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, is working to provide some immediate relief to Illinois customers by passing a new measure to ensure the price people see is the price people pay.

“We are in an affordability crisis– from the price of gas and groceries to housing and utilities. We have to do something here in Illinois, despite the lack of change from Washington,” said Ammons. “This is just the beginning of finding creative solutions to decrease consumer prices.”

Grocery stores, drug stores, and other businesses increasingly entice customers with advertised savings that require apps and digital coupons, which are often unreliable and require smartphone access. In some cases, customers have faced difficulty locating and “clipping” advertised deals on the app, connectivity issues in large stores, and technological barriers for consumers without smartphone access.

In order to reduce these barriers to savings, Ammons passed House Bill 45, which requires retailers to honor all advertised savings, even if customers cannot access their app or operate their digital coupons.

“A sale is a sale, whether it’s listed in a newspaper or sent through emails,” said Ammons. “This bill will ensure that customers are getting the best price without having to cut out coupons or download grocery stores’ and other retailer’s apps.”

House Bill 45 now moves to the Senate.