Legislation intended to generate much-needed revenue was signed into law this week, which Senator Dale Risinger said will provide a five-week amnesty period for tax delinquents.

Senate Bill 377 (P.A. 96-1435) allows individuals who have accumulated back taxes between June 30, 2002, and July 1, 2009, to pay those taxes penalty-free from October 1 to November 8 without being fined. Tax delinquents who don’t pay during the amnesty period will see all interest and penalties double.

Officials hope that by providing incentive for tax delinquents to cough up their overdue obligations the program will bring in tardy tax dollars, as opposed to spending state time and energy pursuing the tax delinquents.

Two days after a Republican-initiated panel held its first meeting to investigate a secret and controversial prisoner early-release program, the Governor released a report on the program, according to Senator Dale Risinger, who is serving on that panel.

The Illinois Joint Investigatory Panel on Early Release met August 11 in Peoria. The panel selected that community, in part, because of the murder of a Peoria grandmother in May. The man accused of the crime had been a prisoner and participant in the controversial Meritorious Good Time Push (MGT-Push) program.

The panel first offered a brief review of the history of the controversy, and recounted efforts dating back to January to obtain information about the ill-fated program.

Although Governor Pat Quinn appointed former Judge David Erickson of the Cook County Circuit Court in December 2009 to conduct a review of release practices, a report still had not been released eight months later. However, two days after the panel’s first meeting, the Governor released the report August 13.