Illinois Senate Democrats voted on Thursday, Feb. 7 to raise minimum wage in Illinois to $15 per hour by 2025. The bill passed on partisan lines, with no Republicans voting to approve the raise.
If approved, the minimum wage in Illinois — currently $8.25 an hour — will rise to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2020 and then to $10 in July of that year. Minimum wage will then increase to $11 on Jan. 1, 2021. After that, it would increase $1 per year until 2025.
A small business tax credit would be available to businesses that pay less than 2,000 employee hours per week. The credit would start at 25 percent of the difference between the current minimum wage and an employee’s wage in the final quarter of the previous calendar year and would decrease by 4 percent each year until it hits 5 percent in the final two years. Employers with 2,000 or fewer employee hours will be able to take advantage of the credit for 7 years, while employees with 200 or fewer employee hours will be able to take advantage of the credit for 8 years.
While Democrats said that Illinois’ current minimum wage is not enough for full-time employees to live above poverty level, Senate Republicans argued that a $15 minimum wage will negatively affect many Illinois employers, including those in Clinton County.
“I’m against the new law,” said Michele Maue, owner of Dairy King restaurants in Breese and Trenton. “When a new employee starts here, they start at minimum wage. As they gain more experience and get more responsibility and willingness to perform, we give them continued increases ... To start a new employee at $15 an hour without having any true responsibilities and dedication, I feel that we’re going to have a hard time maintaining a difference between entry level and management. There’s not going to be many 16-year-olds that are of $15 an hour value to our workforce.”
Maue said that she would have to raise prices and cut opening hours in order to weather a $15 minimum wage. With approximately half of her staff around high-school age, she said she would also have to replace younger employees with more mature workers to maintain the value of her workforce.
“I have no problem increasing pay as they add value,” said Maue. “The new minimum wage law is not giving us that employee value. It’s just giving (the money) to them.”
Up and in — Central sophomore Ella Jansen puts in one of her two buckets in the Cougars’ 45-28 victory over Maddy Schwemmer and Freeburg last Thursday. Jansen scored five points and grabbed two rebounds in the victory. (Photo by Jeremy Chawgo) The Central Cougars girls basketball team continued their dominance of the Cahokia Conference after a 45-28 win over Freeburg last Thursday in Breese.
With the win, the Cougars completed the conference season with a 10-0 record, their seventh perfect season in the past 13 years. They have won the conference title in all of those 13 seasons. In conference play, the Cougars are 125-5 over those 13 seasons.
“I’m really proud of this group of girls,” said Central head coach Nathan Rueter. “In all honesty, people can believe what they want, but I really didn’t see us winning the conference this year with the talent that Freeburg and Columbia had. For us not only to pull it off, but to go 10-0 is tremendous and something that those girls can be proud of.”
Miah Weems set the tone on offense for the Cougars while the entire team took care of things on the defensive end of the floor.
Chloe Book got things started in the first 90 seconds with a conventional 3-point play in front of a layup from Weems who scored nine points in the first quarter as the Cougars controlled early with an 11-2 lead.
Freeburg’s Ellie Eichenlaub had a short jumper and Maddy Schwemmer added a 3-pointer as their only buckets over the first 13 minutes. Central forced five Freeburg turnovers.
Weems and Grace Boeschen each hit 3-pointers in the final minutes of the first quarter as CHS led 19-5 after eight minutes.
Once again, Freeburg managed just two buckets in the second quarter as they trailed by as many as 22 points.
Boeschen, Cassidy Kretschmer, Book, Weems and Ella Jansen all had field goals in the second quarter as their lead grew to 30-10 halfway through the game.
“It was great to see us come out and playing very well in the first half,” said Rueter. “We set the tone and dictated the pace of play on both sides of the floor. I was really pleased with our defensive effort.”
Freeburg was 4-of-19 from the floor in the first half where they turned the ball over seven times.
Book had two early buckets in the third quarter while Weems was 4-of-4 from the line in the frame as Central doubled up the Lady Midgets after three quarters with a 40-20 lead.
“The girls really wanted this win tonight and their effort was just great,” added Rueter. “They wanted this game more than Freeburg did. We dove all over the floor and got to all of the loose balls.”
Emma Wuest came off the bench and drained a fourth quarter 3-pointer wile Kretschmer added another layup as the rout continued.
“As a coach it is really fun to watch your kids throw it all out on the line for their teammates,” added Rueter.
Weems led all players with 15 points as she was 5-of-11 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the line with five rebounds.
Book had nine points and eight rebounds while Boeschen had seven points and four rebounds.
Central was 18-of-41 from the floor despite hitting just 3-of-15 from the arc. They were 6-of-11 from the line with just five turnovers.
Haley Kimes and Schwemmer each scored seven points in the loss for the Lady Midgets. They were 10-of-32 from the floor and 6-of-9 from the line. Freeburg turned the ball over 13 times and they were outrebounded 26-17.
The Cougars entered postseason play with an 18-11 record before playing Mater Dei in the Class 3A Mater Dei Regional semifinal on Wednesday.
2019 is set to be a big year for HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Breese with three major projects underway at the start of February. Construction for an outpatient general surgery practice has already begun, utilizing an existing but unoccupied wing of the hospital. Hospital president and CEO Chris Klay touts the future center as a “state-of-the-art” outpatient general surgery practice that will house the practices of doctors Ulunna MacBean, Renato Rivera and Timothy Ruff.
“(Those doctors) have outgrown their space,” said Klay. “The new practice will have its own entrance and waiting room, a single point of patient registration, clinical exam rooms and treatment rooms.”
Klay said the project is projected to be completed by the end of March 2019.
The second project, set to break ground this May, is an expansion of the Clinton County Rural Health practice, the primary care practice of HSHS in Breese with clinics in Germantown, Carlyle and New Baden. The expansion will add approximately 12,000 square feet onto the existing building and renovate parts of the current space. The project is fully funded by the HSHS organization.
“The expansion will afford us the space to add additional primary care providers that will improve patient access to the communities we serve,” said Brenda Kuhl, practice manager of Clinton County Rural Health.
According to Klay, the project will be completed in phases. Current Breese patients will continue to see their doctors in the old building as the expansion is built. Once completed, doctors will move their practices into the new building during renovations to the old building. And yes, said Klay, the parking lot will be expanded to accommodate more patients.
| Fri., Feb. 8 |
446.72 |
| Sun., Feb. 10 |
447.75 |
| Tues., Feb. 12 | 447.84 |
| Feb. 6 | .60" |
| Feb. 7 | 2.48" |
| Feb. 8 | .55" |
| Feb. 9 | .00" |
| Feb. 10 | .11" |
| Feb. 11 | .15" |
| Feb. 12 | .23" |
