Castro announces nearly $70,000 in library grants for local school districts

State Senator Cristina Castro announced four local school districts are receiving nearly $70,000 in state grant funding to provide resources to libraries, including books, e-books, audiobooks, periodicals, multilingual materials, technology and programming.

“Libraries open doors to invaluable new experiences, skills and perspectives for all students,” said Castro (D-Elgin). “Access to high-quality, multilingual library resources begins with investments at the local level which provide a foundation to build on in the future.”

Based on a statutory formula, school districts receive $0.885 per student enrolled at each school with a qualified library. Funding for the Illinois Secretary of State’s School District Library Grant Program is appropriated by the Illinois General Assembly.

The following school districts serving students in Castro’s district received a total of $69,784:

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New Castro law paves the way for increased diversity, efficiency in state contracting

• Procurement

A new law sponsored by State Senator Cristina Castro addresses a number of procurement issues and aims to increase diversity and efficiency throughout the state’s commerce process.

“Ensuring our state agencies, universities, vendors, suppliers and minority contractors can contract and complete projects more efficiently, transparently and sustainably is at the core of this law,” said Castro (D-Elgin). “Streamlining the process and expanding supplier diversity measures opens the door to new opportunities for veteran- and minority-owned contractors — not just the big firms — who have worked for years to secure contracts to work on important projects in our state.”

The law makes a number of changes to streamline the procurement process. It subjects corporations that hold state contracts to additional transparency requirements and enhances transparency in the Business Enterprise Council by requiring the annual small business report to be made public.

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Castro simplifies property assessment appeals timeline, giving homeowners more time to file

• Property taxes

Cook County taxpayers can rely on a standard, 30-business-day period to file property assessment appeals in the coming tax years, thanks to a new law led by State Senator Cristina Castro.

“A uniform filing period ensures clarity and reliability for homeowners in different townships when it comes to the appeals deadline,” said Castro (D-Elgin). “With suburban taxpayers seeing across-the-board increases to the value of their property, it’s an important moment to make sure they have the ability to file, argue and support their appeal to the assessor.”

The Cook County Assessor’s filing deadlines for taxpayer complaints can change from year to year and from one township to another. While the assessor’s office established a deadline of 30 calendar days for filing complaints this year, the available business days for filing varied from 19 to 22 days, depending on the township. Castro’s measure establishes a uniform filing period to ensure all Cook County homeowners have adequate time to address their complaints to the assessor.

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Castro measure puts township residents, mental health services first

• 103rd General Assembly
• Mental health
• Senate Bill 690

Certain township mental health boards – or 708 boards – could soon begin collecting the revenue they need to operate, thanks to a measure sponsored by State Senator Cristina Castro.

“It is clear that residents of Schaumburg and Elgin townships, and others, value mental health services and want to incorporate community input in the form of 708 boards,” said Castro (D-Elgin). “Senate Bill 690 allows those communities to move forward with the mental health boards—ensuring they can begin funding these critical services as their residents intended.”

Senate Bill 690 is in response to a technical error in several township mental health board referendums that occurred in 2022. Existing law dictates that any 708 board approved by voters after May 13, 2022 must adhere to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law and include language in the referendum about the financial impact on homeowners. Boards approved via referendum in the 2022 general election in Addison, Elgin, Lisle, Naperville, Schaumburg and Wheeling townships and Will County did not include the required PTELL language. Without this language, municipalities would not be able to levy taxes for the board until 2025.

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