Fitch Ratings, one of three credit rating agencies that grade Illinois bonds, last week upgraded its credit outlook for the state from “negative” to “positive.”

Although the state’s overall rating remains at near-junk status at BBB-, the agency said the state’s economic outlook coming out of the pandemic, combined with the recently-enacted budget, are moving the state in the right direction.

A federal freeze on most evictions that was enacted last year is scheduled to expire July 31, after the Biden administration extended the date by a month. The moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, has been the only tool keeping millions of tenants in their homes. Many of them lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and have fallen months behind on their rent.

Landlords successfully challenged the order in court, arguing that they also had bills to pay. They pointed out that tenants could access more than $45 billion in federal money set aside to help pay rents and related expenses.

For decades, right-to-work laws have protected workers’ individual liberties across the states. Last month, Illinois lawmakers passed Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 11, which places a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution on the ballot in November 2022 to ban Illinois from enacting right-to-work in the future, a move that would tie the hands of future elected officials and further cement our status as a state with an anti-business approach.

Right-to-work laws protect the basic rights of employees to choose whether or not it is in their best interest to join a union, without that membership being a condition of their employment.