Galesburg Reporter

In a June 9 Facebook post, Sen. Win Stoller (R-Germantown Hills) cheered the signing of a bill he sponsored.

"Just found out that the Governor has officially signed Senate Bill 1127!" Stroller wrote. "I filed this piece of legislation in order to protect the preexisting Lee-Ogle Counties’ Enterprise Zone from wind and solar farm projects. After the controversial state renewable siting rules, which stripped local zoning authority for renewable projects, passed during lame-duck session, this Enterprise Zone faced the real and potential threat of having years of planning and millions of dollars of investment being uprooted and undone."

Senate Bill 1127 is a reaction to changes adopted by House Bill 4412, which became Public Act 102-1123 on Jan. 27, when it passed the House. Senate Bill 1127 exempted wind energy and commercial solar energy facilities within an enterprise zone located within 4 miles of the intersection of Interstate 88 and Interstate 39. It basically undoes the actions of Public Act 102-1123 for that section of the Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone. 

On May 10, Stoller shared an update about Senate Bill 1127. It passed both the House and Senate at that point and was headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for his signature.

“The Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone is a 2,000-arce designated area along I-39 and I-88 that local, state and federal officials have invested more than $70 million in power, water, sewer, road, rail, fiber and bridge infrastructure over the last 25 years," Stoller wrote. "The Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone was created to attract thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new EAV. Local leaders and officials have spent years and millions of dollars creating and building an Enterprise Zone in Lee and Ogle Counties. All of their years of hard work and investment faced the serious threat of being undone because of new and controversial statewide siting standards for renewable projects that ignored preexisting enterprise zoning.”     

 The Center Square reported on June 9 that Senate Bill 1127 was one of 90 bills that  Pritzker was expected to sign that day.  These bills span a variety of topics. In addition to SB 1127, Pritzker signed bills that say “any person with the intent of obstructing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with a picket line commits a Class A misdemeanor and a minimum fine of $500;” that schools must inform parents of bullying incidents within 24 hours; and requiring insurance companies to cover “an annual prostate screening, cervical smear, or Pap smear test for insureds.”               

Stoller is CEO of Widmer Interiors in Peoria, where he has worked for 23 years. He represents the 37th Senate District, and has been in the Senate since 2021.