Originally published in News India Times, January 7, 2020. 

Illinois State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), who represents the 8th District, has been appointed Chair of the Special Committee on Supplier Diversity in the Illinois Senate.

Villivalam is the first Indian-American elected to the Illinois General Assembly, and first Asian-American elected to the Illinois State Senate.

In his new appointment, Villivalam will work with members of the committee, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, and stakeholders to evaluate and propose solutions to improve the diversity of the transportation and infrastructure work that is done in the state of Illinois, a Jan. 3, 2020 press release from the Indian-American State Senator’s office said.

The Special Committee on Supplier Diversity is primarily responsible for overseeing public and private sector organizations and ensuring that they offer diverse opportunities to small businesses and job growth for minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses.

“I look forward to expanding opportunities for women, minority, and veteran owned businesses around the state,” Villivalam said in a statement. “Supplier diversity is an issue I’ve been working on in the legislature and in my district. My work will prioritize equity while strengthening our economy, two critically important jobs of our state government,” he added.

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SKOKIE - Governor JB Pritzker and State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) announced a $503,000 grant to Skokie School District 73.5 at a press conference on Monday. This grant is intended to offset district costs, allowing the administration to levy less in property taxes from residents.

“With this grant, the state and the district are working together to provide critical property tax relief to residents,” Villivalam said. “Governor Pritzker, myself, and my colleagues recognize that our residents are facing burdensome property taxes. Illinois is on a path to providing more equitable funding to our schools through state resources, which will take pressure off of property taxes in the long-term. In the meantime, it is our duty to provide short-term, fiscally responsible property tax relief to residents whenever possible.”

Senator Villivalam was appointed to the Property Tax Relief Task Force in August 2019. The Task Force was charged with utilizing a racial and economic equity lens to identify the causes of increasingly burdensome property taxes across Illinois, reviewing best practices for relief, and making recommendations to assist in short-term and long-term reform.

“While this is a one-time grant, my colleagues and I are committed to finding and funding sustainable property tax relief measures,” Villivalam said. “The final recommendations of the Property Tax Relief Task Force will be reported out shortly, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the recommendations we’ve provided.”

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) issued the following statement today in response to Governor Pritzker’s State of the State address:

“I commend Governor Pritzker on his commitment to enact sweeping ethics reforms in this legislative session. I am encouraged by his bold reform agenda and fully support his efforts to end the self-dealing practices of corrupt politicians and to start holding elected officials in Illinois accountable. We have a significant amount of work to do to restore public faith in their state government but I pledge to work with the Pritzker administration and members on both sides of the aisle to get these reforms done. The people of Illinois deserve to have lawmakers who are held to the highest ethical standards and rid the cloud of corruption that has hung over Springfield for too long. I’m ready to tackle this issue which is long overdue.”

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) has been appointed Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee by Senate President Don Harmon.

“I will work with Vice-Chairperson Hunter, Minority Spokesperson DeWitte, my other Senate and House colleagues, and Governor Pritzker to create and implement an open, transparent, and accountable process for legislation that will maintain and improve our transportation and infrastructure system in an equitable way,” Villivalam said.

Senator Villivalam’s priorities include:
• Creating and implementing an open, transparent, and accountable process in which the Transportation Committee will operate
• Moving toward a data- and equity-driven model of allocating transportation funds
• Vigilant implementation of last year’s historic $45 billion capital construction plan to ensure we raise the state’s infrastructure rating for the safety of Illinoisans and to maintain the state’s reputation as a transportation hub
• Ensuring systems facilitate inclusion and diversity in state- and local-contracting for the entire industry, not any one company
• Improving and expanding Illinois’ public transportation

The committee is responsible for working on transportation and infrastructure related issues and is expected to meet in February.