SB2829 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 17590 TRT 31018 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
SB2829

Introduced 1/13/2026, by Sen. Doris Turner

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

70 ILCS 925/5
70 ILCS 925/10
70 ILCS 925/20
70 ILCS 925/22
70 ILCS 925/25
70 ILCS 925/70

Amends the Mid-Illinois Medical District Act. Expands the boundaries of the Mid-Illinois Medical District. Makes changes to the powers of the Mid-Illinois Medical District Commission. Requires the Commission to hold a regular meeting on the second Thursday of February in even-numbered years for the election of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer from among its members and to hold meetings annually for the adoption of a budget and for other business purposes (rather than holding annual meetings for all purposes). Provides that the Commission may not acquire property between 11th Street on the east, Madison Street on the north, Walnut Street on the west, and South Grand Avenue on the south by exercising the right of eminent domain under the Eminent Domain Act. Authorizes the Commission to construct or cause to be constructed, among other things, housing, educational buildings, and research facilities. Requires the Commission's master plans to be delivered to (rather than approved by) the advisory council and the Springfield city council.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Mid-Illinois Medical District Act is amended by changing Sections 5, 10, 20, 22, 25, and 70 as follows:

(70 ILCS 925/5)

Sec. 5. Creation of District. There is created in the City of Springfield a medical center district, the Mid-Illinois Medical District, whose boundaries are 11th Street on the east, North Grand Avenue on the north, Walnut Street on the west, and South Grand Avenue Madison Street on the south, excluding (i) all local, State, and federal government properties and (ii) all properties within the area bounded by Washington Street on the north, Third Street on the east, Cook Street on the south, and Walnut Street on the west all in the City of Springfield, Illinois. The District is created to improve the city center of Springfield by attracting attract and retaining retain academic centers of excellence, viable health care facilities, medical research facilities, emerging high technology enterprises, and other facilities and uses as permitted by this Act.

(Source: P.A. 95-693, eff. 11-5-07.)

(70 ILCS 925/10)

Sec. 10. Mid-Illinois Medical District Commission.

(a) There is created a body politic and corporate under the corporate name of the Mid-Illinois Medical District Commission whose general purpose, in addition to and not in limitation of those purposes and powers set forth in this Act, is to:

(1) maintain the proper surroundings for a research, innovation, and medical center and a related technology center in order to attract, stabilize, and retain within the District hospitals, clinics, research facilities, educational facilities, or other facilities permitted under this Act;

(2) provide for the orderly creation, maintenance, development, and expansion of (i) research, innovation, and medical health care facilities and other ancillary or related facilities that the Commission may from time to time determine are established and operated (A) for any aspect of the carrying out of the Commission's purposes as set forth in this Act, (B) for the study, diagnosis, and treatment of human ailments and injuries, whether physical or mental, or (C) to promote medical, technological, surgical, and scientific research and knowledge as permitted under this Act; and (ii) medical research and high technology parks, together with the necessary lands, buildings, facilities, equipment, and personal property for those parks; and

(3) convene dialogue among leaders in the public and the private sectors on topics and issues associated with training in the delivery of health care services and related industry in the District's program area.

(b) The Commission has perpetual succession and the power to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued except in actions sounding in tort, to plead and be impleaded, to have and use a common seal, and to alter the same at pleasure. All actions sounding in tort against the Commission shall be prosecuted in the Court of Claims. The principal office of the Commission shall be in the City of Springfield.

(c) The Commission shall consist of the following members: 4 members appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate; 4 members appointed by the Mayor of Springfield, with the advice and consent of the Springfield city council; and one member appointed by the Chairperson of the County Board of Sangamon County. The initial members of the Commission appointed by the Governor shall be appointed for terms ending, respectively on the second, third, fourth, and fifth anniversaries of their appointments. The initial members appointed by the Mayor of Springfield shall be appointed 2 each for terms ending, respectively, on the second and third anniversaries of their appointments. The initial member appointed by the Chairperson of the County Board of Sangamon County shall be appointed for a term ending on the fourth anniversary of the appointment. Thereafter, all the members shall be appointed to hold office for a term of 5 years and until their successors are appointed as provided in this Act.

Within 60 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 95th General Assembly, the Governor shall appoint 2 additional members to the Commission. One member shall serve for a term of 4 years and one member shall serve for a term of 5 years. Their successors shall be appointed for 5-year terms. Those additional members and their successors shall be limited to residents of the following counties in Illinois: Cass, Christian, Logan, Macoupin, Mason, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, or Scott.

(d) Any vacancy in the membership of the Commission occurring by reason of the death, resignation, disqualification, removal, or inability or refusal to act of any of the members of the Commission shall be filled by the authority that had appointed the particular member, and for the unexpired term of office of that particular member. A vacancy caused by the expiration of the period for which the member was appointed shall be filled by a new appointment for a term of 5 years from the date of the expiration of the prior 5-year term notwithstanding when the appointment is actually made. The Commission shall obtain, under the provisions of the Personnel Code, such personnel as to the Commission shall deem advisable to carry out the purposes of this Act and the work of the Commission.

(e) The Commission shall hold a regular meeting on the second Thursday of February in even-numbered years meetings annually for the election of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer from among its members. The Commission shall hold meetings annually , for the adoption of a budget, and for such other business as may properly come before it. The Commission shall elect as the President a member of the Commission appointed by the Mayor of Springfield and as the Vice-President a member of the Commission appointed by the Governor. The Commission shall establish the duties and responsibilities of its officers by rule. The President or any 4 members of the Commission may call special meetings of the Commission. Each Commissioner shall take an oath of office for the faithful performance of his or her duties. The Commission may not transact business at a meeting of the Commission unless there is present at the meeting a quorum consisting of at least 6 Commissioners. Meetings may be held by telephone conference or other communications equipment by means of which all persons participating in the meeting can communicate with each other.

(f) The Commission shall submit to the General Assembly, not later than March 1 of each odd-numbered year, a detailed report covering its operations for the 2 preceding calendar years and a statement of its program for the next 2 years.

The requirement for reporting to the General Assembly shall be satisfied by filing copies of the report as required by Section 3.1 of the General Assembly Organization Act, and by filing such additional copies with the State Government Report Distribution Center for the General Assembly as is required under paragraph (t) of Section 7 of the State Library Act.

(g) The Auditor General shall conduct audits of the Commission in the same manner as the Auditor General conducts audits of State agencies under the Illinois State Auditing Act.

(h) Neither the Commission nor the District have any power to tax.

(i) The Commission is a public body and subject to the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

(Source: P.A. 100-1148, eff. 12-10-18.)

(70 ILCS 925/20)

Sec. 20. Property; acquisition. The Commission is authorized to acquire the fee simple title to real property lying within the District and personal property required for its purposes, by gift, purchase, or otherwise. Title shall be taken in the corporate name of the Commission. The Commission may acquire by lease any real property lying within the District and personal property found by the Commission to be necessary for its purposes and to which the Commission finds that it need not acquire the fee simple title for carrying out of those purposes. All real and personal property within the District, except that owned and used for purposes authorized under this Act by medical institutions or allied educational institutions, hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, dormitories or homes for the nurses, doctors, students, instructors, or other officers or employees of those institutions located in the District, or any real property that is used for offices or for recreational purposes in connection with those institutions, or any improved residential property within a currently effective historical district properly designated under a federal statute or a State or local statute that has been certified by the Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of the Treasury as containing criteria that will substantially achieve the purpose of preserving and rehabilitating buildings of historical significance to the district, may be acquired by the Commission in its corporate name under the provisions for the exercise of the right of eminent domain under the Eminent Domain Act. The Commission may not acquire property between 11th Street on the east, Madison Street on the north, Walnut Street on the west, and South Grand Avenue on the south by exercising the right of eminent domain under the Eminent Domain Act. The Commission has no quick-take powers, no zoning powers, and no power to establish or enforce building codes. The Commission may not acquire any property pursuant to this Section before a comprehensive master plan has been approved under Section 70.

(Source: P.A. 94-1055, eff. 1-1-07.)

(70 ILCS 925/22)

Sec. 22. Eminent domain. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, any power granted under this Act to acquire property by condemnation or eminent domain is subject to, and shall be exercised in accordance with, the Eminent Domain Act, except that the Commission may not acquire property between 11th Street on the east, Madison Street on the north, Walnut Street on the west, and South Grand Avenue on the south by exercising the right of eminent domain under the Eminent Domain Act.

(Source: P.A. 94-1055, eff. 1-1-07.)

(70 ILCS 925/25)

Sec. 25. Construction. The Commission may, in its corporate capacity, construct or cause to be constructed within the District, hospitals, housing, educational buildings, research facilities, sanitariums, clinics, laboratories, or any other institution, building, or structure or other ancillary or related facilities that the Commission may, from time to time, determine are established and operated (i) for the carrying out of any aspect of the Commission's purposes as set forth in this Act, for the study, diagnosis, and treatment of human ailments and injuries, whether physical or mental, or to promote medical, surgical, technological, and scientific research and knowledge, for any uses the Commission shall determine will support and nurture facilities and uses permitted by this Act, or for such nursing, extended care, or other facilities as the Commission shall find useful in the study of, research in, or treatment of illnesses or infirmities peculiar to aged people, after a public hearing to be held by any Commissioner or other person authorized by the Commission to conduct the hearing, which Commissioner or other person has the power to administer oaths and affirmations and take the testimony of witnesses and receive such documentary evidence as shall be pertinent, the record of which hearing he or she shall certify to the Commission, which record shall become part of the records of the Commission, notice of the time, place, and purpose of the hearings to be given by a single publication notice in a news outlet secular newspaper of general circulation in the City of Springfield at least 10 days before the date of the hearing, or (ii) for such institutions as shall engage in the training, education, or rehabilitation of persons who by reason of illness or physical infirmity are wholly or partially deprived of their powers of vision or hearing or of the use of such other part or parts of their bodies as prevent them from pursuing normal activities of life, for office buildings for physicians or dealers in medical accessories, for dormitories, homes, or residences for the medical profession, including interns, nurses, students, or other officers or employees of the institutions within the District, for the use of relatives of patients in the hospitals or other institutions within the District, for the rehabilitation or establishment of residential structures within a historic district properly designated under a federal statute or a State or local statute that has been certified by the Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of the Treasury as containing criteria that will substantially achieve the purpose of preserving and rehabilitating buildings of historic significance to the district, or such other areas of the District as the Commission shall designate, for research, development, and resultant production in any of the fields of medicine, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, physics, and genetically engineered products, for biotechnology, information technology, medical technology, or environmental technology, for the research and development of engineering, or for computer technology related to any of the purposes for which the Commission may construct structures and improvements within the District. All such structures and improvements shall be erected and constructed in accordance with the provisions of the Illinois Procurement Code that apply to State agencies. No construction may be undertaken pursuant to this Section before a comprehensive master plan has been approved under Section 70.

(Source: P.A. 92-870, eff. 1-3-03.)

(70 ILCS 925/70)

Sec. 70. Master plan; improvement and management of District. The Commission shall prepare and approve a comprehensive master plan for the orderly development and management of all property within the District. The master plan, and any amendment to the master plan, shall not take effect, however, until it has been delivered to approved by the advisory council and the Springfield city council. The Commission shall take the actions permitted to be taken by it under this Act as it may determine are appropriate to provide conditions most favorable for the special care and treatment of the sick and injured and for the study of disease and for any other purpose in Section 25 of this Act. In the master plan, the Commission may provide for shared services and facilities within the District for the accredited higher education institutions schools of medicine and the licensed non-profit acute care hospitals within the District.

(Source: P.A. 92-870, eff. 1-3-03.)