Legislative Action WHEN the General Assembly adjourned on July 1, many people were
surprised. Few would have predicted a
finish so close to the self-imposed June
30 deadline after the lengthy fight for
speaker of the House, the relative inaction until mid-February, and the
record 4600-plus bills introduced during
the session. If the legislature had responded to
Gov. Dan Walker's June 11 request by
cutting 6 per cent from all general
revenue fund appropriations, it would
have been impossible for work to have
been completed when it was. Instead the
General Assembly passed the appropriations bills in the approximate
amounts requested by the governor and
also passed an impoundment bill introduced by House Majority Leader
Gerald Shea (D., Berwyn). This was
House Bill 3118. It would have placed 8
per cent of appropriations from general
revenues into a contingency fund to be
used only if certified by the appropriate
state officer and approved by a special
legislative sub-committee. On July 14, the governor vetoed H.B.
3118. He asserted it was unconstitutional and that he was opposed to impoundment. Other early vetoes were exercised
on bills that would have taken funds
from general revenue through minor
forms of tax relief. These included
three bills that would have increased
inheritance tax exemptions: S.B. 506
(Knuppel — D., Virginia), H. B. 182
(Friedrich — R., Centralia), and H. B.
364 (Londrigan — D., Springfield).
Much substantive legislation remains to
be acted on in the fall session that opens
October 22. But, a number of significant bills
have already passed—in addition to
those summarized in August Illinois
Issues. S.B. 162 (Rock—D., Chicago)
creates a Municipal Financing Agency
as a means of aiding local units of government to raise funds. This state
agency would issue bonds or notes and
use the proceeds to purchase general
obligation bonds from local governments and school districts. Local areas would also be aided by
H.B. 396 (Younge—D., East St. Louis,
and Catania—R., Chicago) which
creates a special authority to aid in the
development of depressed areas. S.B.
211 (Davidson—R., Springfield) allows
the use of surplus town funds for the
road and bridge funds. Two pieces of legislation which
passed the 79th General Assembly seem
likely to face early court tests. H.B.
1732 (Meyer—R., Chicago) provides
for the loan of secular textbooks to
students in nonpublic schools. Opponents question the constitutionality
of such a grant under the First Amendment to the federal Constitution. H.B.
1851 amends the abortion law to require the consent of the husband in the
case of a married woman seeking an
abortion and of parents when the
woman is a minor. This raises questions as to what limitations can be
placed on guidelines for seeking abortions under the U.S. Supreme Court
decision which overrode abortion laws
of most of the states including Illinois. One bill in Gov. Walker's "privacy"
package was passed (see July, p. 218).
H. B. 1884 (J. M. Houlihan — D.,
Chicago) deals with the right of students
and parents to have access to school
student records. It is designed to protect individuals by allowing them, on
request, to see their records to insure
that incorrect, damaging information is
not in the record under the cloak of confidentiality. Among bills dealing with employment and labor that passed are those
that prohibit the use of strikebreakers
(S.B. 410; Knuppel—D., Virginia) and
prohibit discrimination against mentally or physically handicapped people
that is unrelated to their ability to perform specific jobs (H.B. 250; Rayson—D., Tinley Park); and declare
that discrimination in employment
against an individual who has received
an other than honorable (excluding dishonorable) discharge from military service is an "unfair labor practice" (H.B.
345; E.M. Barnes—D., Chicago). Gov.
Walker signed H.B. 250 on July 14. In the area of education, H.B. 534
(G. L. Hoffman—R., Elmhurst) is
aimed at allowing school districts to get
early credit in the computation of the
operating tax rate for increases in local
school taxes approved by referendum.
Currently, there is a lengthy period
from the time of local action until its incorporation in the formula utilized by
the state for payments to school districts. The General Assembly also took action to recognize the possible use of
solar energy as a means of heating and
cooling homes to help ease the energy
crisis. S.B. 1066 (Berning—R., Deerfield) establishes "economic productivity to the owner" as a basis for assessing
property equipped with solar heating or
cooling systems for property taxes. H.B. 1103 (Holewinski—D.,
Chicago), which requires financial institutions to publish specific data, is
aimed at stopping the practice known as
"redlining," whereby specific neighborhoods are reportedly excluded from
mortgages. Additional authority to aid abused
and neglected children is provided in the
Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (S.B. 525; Rock—D., Chicago).
Among its provisions is one that
protects—from legal action—an individual who reports a possible abuse
case but is mistaken—as long as the
report was made in good faith. It also
permits doctors to retain custody of
children in a medical care facility if
there is reason to believe that there
would be imminent danger to the
children if sent home. Finally, Illinois will join other states
in establishing "911" as a statewide
emergency phone number. It will be
several years before the bill takes full
effect, but H.B. 911 (Katz—D., Glencoe) does establish the framework for
administering and enforcing the
system's operation. Other legislation passed by the 79th
General Assembly is summarized on
pages 280 and 282. / L.S.C. September 1975 / Illinois Issues / 279