After eight months of inaction on legislation to eliminate the $10,000 limit on the trade-in value of vehicles retailed in Illinois, state senators voted unanimously on Jan. 10 to pass the bill and send it to the state House.

But then the 101st session of the General Assembly expired before the House could act on Senate Bill 2481. 

Lawmakers pledged to reintroduce the bill in the new session, which dawned Jan. 13. Sen. Antonio Muñoz, a Chicago Democrat, has said he would take up the matter immediately when his chamber returns beginning Jan. 26.

The trade-in cap, which took effect Jan. 1, 2020, first emerged in the final days of the legislature’s 2019 session, as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and lawmakers sought funding for the governor’s $45 billion capital infrastructure plan. The CATA and other groups backed an alternate path for raising state revenue — increasing the tax on private party vehicle sales — but an abbreviated fall veto session in 2019 and the chaotic atmosphere in 2020 did not enable that argument to gain traction.

Lawmakers rarely gathered during the General Assembly’s regular session in 2020, then the fall veto session was canceled amid a worsening COVID-19 pandemic. The Senate plans to be in session nine days before March 1; the House, 13 days.