Committee adds community-solar authority and household-hazardous-waste bills to legislative tracker

County staff briefed the committee on two legislative items for the new tracker: (1) community solar: current state law and recent bills allow park districts and school districts to sign long-term subscription contracts (8–20 years) that underpin community-solar financing, but counties were not included in the language. Staff said solar developers require longer subscriber commitments for project financing and that the county cannot currently sign the long-term contracts that would secure a roughly 10% savings in electric costs; staff will engage the legislative committee and the countys lobbyist to explore statutory change.

(2) Household hazardous waste (HHW): staff reviewed a failed extended-producer-responsibility bill from the prior session and said the Illinois EPA produced alternative language that excludes collection costs—an outcome local governments oppose. Staff and county lobbyists are working with IEPA to try to restore local collection-cost language and a reasonable convenience standard for service. Staff stressed that Kane County currently pays about $10,000 to support the Naperville HHW site and about $90,000 annually for northern-county collection events, which motivated the countys interest in legislative reform.