The Legislative Scene

Legislature Passes Record Number of Bills at Regular Session

By Peter M. Murphy, Director,
Governmental Services, IAPD

The Illinois House and Senate completed action on all bills on July 2nd, 1983, two days after the scheduled Constitutional deadline for regular action. All legislation passed after June 30th required a three-fifths majority vote for approval.

Both the Senate and the House sent a record number of bills to the Governor with 511 coming from the Senate and 707 from the House. This total of 1218 compares with a total of 829 bills passed during the 1981 session of the General Assembly.

This session's major action included an income tax increase, the first in fourteen years, which was passed just hours before the June 30th midnight deadline. After other steps faltered, an effort spearheaded by Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (R-46th District) finally met with the consensus of other legislative leaders. The package will raise $963 million and will be effective retroactively to January 1st, 1983. The measure passed the House 63 to 55 with 23 Republicans and 40 Democrats supporting the proposal and passed the Senate by 30 to 29 with 11 Republicans and 19 Democrats voting aye.

A major increase in the motor fuel tax and related fees also received final action in the Senate shortly before the deadline. Public Act 82-12 provides that the State tax on a gallon of gasoline will increase 3.5cents, from 7.5cents to 11cents, effective thirty days after the bill's approval (July 2nd, 1983) and increase an additional penny thereafter on July 1st, 1984 and 1985. Car license fees will increase from $30 to $48 for large cars beginning with the 1985 registration year. License fees for small cars will rise to $36 from $18 for the 1985 registration year and to the $48 ceiling for 1986 registrations.

S.B. 536, reported on in the July/August issue of IPR, was subsequently amended in the House to make it more palatable to units of local government. The amendments provided in part that:

(a) The Act is inapplicable to units of local governments employing less than twenty-five (25) employees where there is no bargaining unit in existence on the effective date of the Act (July 1, 1984).

(b) The definition of supervisor was clarified by adopting the language used in the National Labor Relations Act. Further, the Act prohibits supervisors from joining supervisory collective bargaining units so that all such personnel will be considered part of the management team.

(c) The Act further provides that the Open Meetings Act does not apply to collective bargaining negotiations.

PARK DISTRICT PLATFORM MEETS WITH SUCCESS

The Legislative Platform of park and recreation issues in Illinois received a tremendous response from the legislature during its 1983 session. All major items were passed by both Houses and are now pending Governor Thompson's approval.

H.B. 1855 amending the Revenue Act to clarify the tax exempt status of park district property, originally was not heard before the House deadline for reporting bills to the Senate. This bill was subsequently amended on to S.B. 919 through a Conference Committee report. S.B. 919, which now includes the provisions of H.B. 1855, is currently awaiting the approval of the Governor.

H.B. 1830, which amended the Open Space Lands Acquisition Act to provide authority to fund capital development projects as well as land acquisition, had earlier this year been referred to a subcommittee of the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Energy Committee. This bill was later amended in its entirety on to the provisions of H.B. 772. We are pleased to report that this bill is now pending before the Governor.

Note as well that a number of measures passed this year which negatively impact local governments. S.B. 99 raises the homestead exemption from $3000 to $3500 for 1983 and subsequent years.

S.B. 982 amends the Prevailing Wage Act to remove the previously existing exclusion of maintenance work from construction covered by the Prevailing Wage law.

H.B. 1838 requires the governing authority of taxing districts to file a certified copy of its budget and appropriation ordinance with the county clerk within 30 days of its adoption as well as an estimate certified by its chief fiscal officer of revenues by source anticipated to be received by the taxing district. Failure of the governing authority to file the required documents will authorize the county clerk to refuse to extend the tax levy imposed until such documents are filed. This bill further provides that notices under the Truth in Taxation Act are invalid if they include information substantially in excess of that specified and required by the Act.

POLICE/PAVING & LIGHTING TAX AMENDMENTS

On September__, 1983, Governor Thompson signed into law H.B. 708 (Public Act 83-___) amending the

Illinois Parks and Recreation   32   September/October 1983

police tax levy authority of the Park District Code and H.B. 709 (Public Act 83-__) amending the paving and lighting tax levy authority of the Park District Code.

This legislation applies to any park district tax levy ordinance adopted on or after September_, 1983.

The Acts permit all park districts to levy these taxes pursuant to a back door referendum. Districts currently levying these taxes without having previously gone to referendum must also go through the back door referendum process.

The requirements of the Acts are as follows:

(1) Prior to the levy and collection of such tax your district must adopt a resolution indicating its intention to levy and collect the tax.

(2) Within 15 days after adoption, the resolution must be published once in a newspaper published and having general circulation in the district and if there is no such newspaper then in a newspaper having general circulation in the county wherein the largest part of the district lies.

(3) The notice must also include—

(a) the specific number of voters required to sign a petition requesting that the question go to referendum. (This is computed as 5% of the votes received by the park commissioner receiving the greatest number of votes at the last park district election but not less than 300 electors of the park district.)

(b) the time in which the petition must be filed (i.e., the date falling 30 days after publication of the notice).

(c) the date of the prospective referendum (the next prospective election date would be March 20, 1984).

If no valid petition is filed within 30 days after publication of the resolution then the park district will be authorized to collect the tax annually thereafter.

All final action taken by the Governor will be reported in the November/December magazine.

Illinois Parks and Recreation   33    September/October 1983