A plan that should make it easier to open a business in Illinois has made it through the General Assembly. The legislation would require the state to put all permit and license applications online on one centralized website.

“It's ridiculous that the state has business licensing forms scattered across more than a half dozen websites,” said Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield), the measure’s sponsor. “Some are still even paper-only. If we want to be competitive, we have to move into the 21st century.”

Right now, business owners who need more than one license or permit normally have to visit several different state and local government websites and fill out forms both on paper and online. To see if they qualify for any economic development programs, they have to contact even more state agencies.

Many other states do better, putting all of these forms and all of this information in one place.

A plan to prevent future governors from engaging in last-minute patronage has cleared the Illinois General Assembly.

State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) introduced the proposal after former Gov. Pat Quinn appointed a political operative to a $160,000-per-year state job at the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority a month after he lost his election last year.

Her plan would affect any director appointed to a governor-controlled board or commission after the governor loses an election. They would be limited to 60 days in the position, allowing the newly elected governor to find the best person for the position. Morrison’s legislation extends beyond the ISFA to include similar government organizations.

“The people don’t trust Illinois government specifically because situations like this happen all the time,” Morrison said. “We shouldn’t need this law. Simple morality should be enough to prevent these stunts. But because Illinois governors can’t seem to stop misusing taxpayer money, we do.”

The Illinois Sports Finance Authority – a government entity – owns U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, and provided the majority of the financing for the renovation of the Bears’ Soldier Field. It receives subsidies from the state and the city of Chicago, income from the White Sox rental agreement, and revenue from a 2 percent tax on all hotel rentals in Chicago.

Morrison’s legislation, House Bill 4078, now goes to Governor Bruce Rauner for his review.

When the state’s Department of Natural Resources came to Senator Julie Morrison and asked her to sponsor a ban on using drones for hunting, she agreed, thinking it was a simple idea that would be supported by both hunters and environmentalists as it had in other states.

As far as it went, that much was true: Hunters see using drones as cheating, and environmentalists like that animals get a more sporting chance to escape. What neither Morrison nor the department anticipated is that every group interested in using drones would see the legislation as the first move toward state regulation of the new technology.

“I was honestly shocked by how many people called and wrote to me about drones,” Morrison, a Deerfield Democrat, said. “Most of them weren’t interested in or concerned about the hunting ban. They wanted to have a wider conversation about the role of drones in our society.”

A proposed law sponsored by state Senator Julie Morrison would let the people see who’s really paying for political campaigns, shining a light on those trying to buy influence at the state Capitol.

It would require political organizations that make independent expenditures – buying ads or paying for commercials on candidates’ behalf without their explicit permission – to report how much money they spend and how they spend it.

Any time a political action committee or some other person or organization spends more than $1,000 on a candidate, it would be required to report doing so to the State Board of Elections within five days. In the two months leading up to the election, they would have to report expenses within two days.

“The people have a right to know who’s trying to influence elections,” Morrison said. “We’ve seen an explosion of this independent spending. It shouldn’t be a way to bypass our campaign finance laws.”