Holmes urges extension of redevelopment plan that resurrects historic Aurora hospital

• Aurora St Charles Hospital
• VeriGreen
• Rivers Edge Tax Credit
• RiverEdge Redevelopment Zone program

Senator Holmes attended the groundbreaking of a long-in-development project now coming to fruition in Aurora Thursday.

The old Aurora St. Charles Hospital, built in 1932 and since added to the National Register of Historic Places, had fallen into disuse. With help from the RiverEdge Redevelopment Zone program, developer VeriGreen was able to secure the necessary funding to begin work on rehabilitating the building. When complete, it will feature 60 senior living units.

"The value of preserving this historic structure while also using it to care for our elderly is exactly the kind of development we're hoping out of the RiverEdge program, and the reason I urge an extension to it beyond this year," Holmes said. "This preserves the past while planning for the future in a way that's precisely in keeping with the story of this historic local gem."

The RiverEdge Redevelopment Zone program will sunset at the end of 2016 unless it is extended.

Holmes votes to pass MAP grant funding, urges governor to sign

SPRINGFIELD — State Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, issued the following statement after voting in favor of Senate Bill 2043, which, among other things, funds grants for college students that went unfunded over the past year.

“This should have been done a long time ago,” Holmes said. “Failing to deliver on these grants has been harmful to students who are working toward a better education.”

“I urge Governor Rauner to do the right thing by businesses and the next generation of workers who will make them strong: Sign this funding into law.”

Senate Bill 2043 appropriates $397 million for MAP grants and $324 to the Illinois Community College Board for funds that include operations and adult education and literacy programs.

Having passed both chambers of the General Assembly, it awaits the governor’s signature to become law.

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Holmes: We need compromise in 2016

SPRINGFIELD — State Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, issued the following statement in response to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s State of the State address Wednesday.

“As Governor Rauner spoke about our state’s accomplishments this past year, he left out that it was a disaster for everyone who looks to government for crucial aid, from children who need daycare to seniors who need food,” Holmes said. “I agree with his calls for government consolidation on the local level and even served on the task force that explored those issues, but I’m disappointed that he’s married these ideas to his anti-union agenda. I am ready to make 2016 the year we set aside these politicized issues and do the work of the state.”

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Holmes responds to consolidation task force report

• Unfunded Mandates Task Force
• Evelyn Sanguinetti
• Governor Bruce Rauner

CHICAGO – State Sen. Linda Holmes, a member of the Lt. Governor's Task Force on Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates, issued the following statement regarding Gov. Bruce Rauner's Monday unveiling of the task force's findings.

"It is unfortunate Gov. Rauner has chosen to inject highly politicized items like repealing prevailing wage and making collective bargaining optional for local governments into the discussion of these other common sense approaches to spending reductions," Holmes said. "I worked with Lt. Governor Sanguinetti to put forth a number of other proposals that could benefit taxpayers, such as granting the power to consolidate units of government with careful local input and examining the unfunded mandates state government imposes on local government. These other items reflect the governor's continued insistence on an anti-union and anti-middle class agenda."

Holmes was one of several members of the task force. She has repeatedly voiced her support for more government consolidation powers to be given over to local governments with proper oversight and taxpayer input. She voted against the task force’s recommendations on the prevailing wage repeal and collective bargaining changes. Unfunded mandates are laws or rules that require local units of government to perform services or meet regulatory standards, but do not provide the funding to do so. Holmes, D-Aurora, will file legislation that would review such mandates on local government.

The commission's full report can be read here.