Rauner signs bill creating ‘Barack Obama Day’

The bill makes Aug. 4 an honorary holiday for former President Barack Obama.

Gov. Bruce Rauner today signed into law a bill declaring Aug. 4 “Barack Obama Day,” effective in 2018.

Senate Bill 55 passed through both chambers of the General Assembly without a single dissenting vote. The bill would only make Aug. 4 an honorary holiday and not a legal holiday, unlike an earlier proposal.

The first attempt to create Obama Day in the state failed in March by six votes in the House. That plan, which would have made the day a legal holiday, was estimated to cost Illinois taxpayers nearly $20 million in lost productivity and state employee personnel costs given that state employees would have had the day off. Under that bill, had Obama Day fallen on a Sunday, state workers would’ve been given the following Monday off, as well.

Aug. 4, 2018, will mark the first Barack Obama Day in Illinois.