More than a dozen new laws take effect in Illinois on Wednesday, touching everything from transportation and education to prisons and liquor licenses.
Chief among them is the state’s new $55.9 billion spending plan, which covers the budget year running through June 30, 2027. While the new budget won’t raise the state’s sales or income tax rates, it relies on a series of new taxes and tweaks to be balanced, including a six-month pause on an inflation-based increase of a per-gallon gasoline tax that would otherwise jump by 1.3 cents, to 49.6 cents, on Wednesday.
The spending plan also shifts $12.5 million per month for one year from the state’s separate 6.25% sales tax on gasoline — money that normally funds public transit — to the state’s general operating budget. The $150 million windfall is the result of higher gas prices caused by President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.
The budget covers the final six months of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s current term as he seeks reelection to a rare third term while facing questions about a potential 2028 presidential run.
Here are other new laws taking effect Wednesday:
Toward a statewide public defender
A new law could eventually ease the workload for county public defenders’ offices, which represent people who cannot afford to hire private lawyers. The law, dubbed the Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation Act, or FAIR Act, calls for the creation of a statewide public defender’s office to support underfunded county-level offices.
An 11-member public defender commission will be established and choose a statewide public defender to serve a six-year term. The governor will select four commission members, the Illinois Supreme Court three, and the four legislative leaders — the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Illinois House and Senate — one each. Members must have experience defending indigent clients and cannot have worked as a judge, elected official, prosecutor, judicial officer or police official, or for any of those people, within the previous two years.
The state Supreme Court will appoint an initial statewide public defender to a two-year term after the law takes full effect on Jan. 1, while the commission establishes itself and eventually selects subsequent officeholders to full six-year terms. The commission will appoint most county public defenders to 10-year terms, but not Cook County’s, which will continue to be appointed by county officials.
Early childhood agency launches
The state’s new Department of Early Childhood begins operating on Wednesday, part of a series of Pritzker initiatives during his second term to expand childhood services in Illinois. Lawmakers authorized the agency in 2024.
The new department assumes responsibility for early intervention services for children with disabilities and developmental delays from the Department of Human Services, preschool programs from the Illinois State Board of Education and daycare licensing from the Department of Children and Family Services.
Pritzker appointed Teresa Ramos, a top aide in his office, to lead the agency in December 2024. Her salary for the new budget year will be $232,800.
New pathways to in-state tuition
Under a measure signed in 2024, college students will be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities, regardless of immigration status, if they attended an Illinois high school for at least two years and either graduated or earned a GED certificate.
Students also can qualify if they have attended high school and public community college in Illinois for at least three years combined, earned a high school diploma, and either completed an associate degree or 60 hours of transferable community college coursework. Students without legal status must swear they will apply for lawful permanent residency at the earliest opportunity to qualify for the lower rate.
Beginning with the 2027-28 school year, students who meet the requirements will be eligible for an in-state tuition rate even if they have established residency outside Illinois before enrolling at a state university. Pritzker signed that tweak into law Friday.
“If we want Illinois to be the best place to build a life, we cannot block already vulnerable groups from accessing affordable, quality higher education,” state Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the update approved in the legislature in late May, said in a statement.
Age increase for mandatory driving tests
Drivers won’t be required to take mandatory road tests until age 87, up from 79, under another law taking effect Wednesday.
Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias championed the change, which also allows people to report close relatives they believe are no longer capable of driving safely. His office has said Illinois was one of only a handful of states without a policy allowing immediate family members to report concerns about a relative’s driving ability.
Drivers 87 and older will continue to undergo annual vision and behind-the-wheel tests when renewing their licenses. Those ages 79 to 86 will no longer be required to take road tests but must still renew their licenses in person every two years and pass a vision exam.
The law does not apply to commercial driver’s licenses.
Updated cyberbullying definition
A measure pertaining to Illinois’ elementary and high schools further cracks down on cyberbullying to include so-called unauthorized “digital replicas” — fake electronic representations of a person created through computerized software, artificial intelligence or other technology. The change begins with the 2026-27 school year.
The definition of bullying now also includes “posting or distributing sexually explicit images.”
New restrictions on wild animal shows
A 2018 state law that prohibits the use of endangered elephants in traveling shows is being expanded to cover all elephant species, as well as big cats, primates and bears. Cat species that can no longer be used in traveling shows are cougars, jaguars, lions, tigers and leopards, excluding Amur leopards. The law exempts animal performances at permanent facilities licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Wild animals are not trick machines,” Democratic state Sen. Linda Holmes of Aurora, who sponsored the original law and the expansion, said in a statement. “Out-of-state exhibitors can’t profit in Illinois from abusing wild animals anymore. Families planning to enjoy county fair and festival season this summer won’t be confronted by these upsetting acts anymore.”
“Illinois now aligns with what society recognizes to be true: forcing big cats, bears and primates to perform through pain, fear and coercion is cruel and unacceptable,” Marc Ayers, Illinois state director for Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement when Pritzker signed the measure into law Friday.
Prisoner contraband reporting
The Illinois Department of Corrections will begin collecting and publishing, on its website each year, reports on contraband confiscated from its state prisons.
The new law follows reports that people in prisons and staff members in these prisons were in danger of being exposed to harmful chemicals from illegal drugs and other substances being smuggled into the facilities.
Corrections officials had imposed stricter security measures to guard against potential harm, while prison rights advocates decried those measures, concerned that the more stringent rules could deprive people behind bars of regularly receiving mail from friends or loved ones.
Cocktails to go made permanent
Illinois bars and restaurants will permanently be allowed to sell “cocktails to go” for curbside pickup and delivery under a law that makes a temporary measure permanent.
The measure also eliminates the requirement that businesses applying for liquor licenses provide a tax bond. Tax bonds, on average, cost $500 for small craft manufacturers or distributors, which can create another monetary barrier for those trying to start or expand their business, according to Senate Democrats.
The law also creates a “Class 3” craft distiller’s license allowing distilleries to manufacture up to 100,000 gallons of spirits each year. Senate Democrats said those licensees can then apply to self-distribute 2,500 gallons annually.
