PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Meetings and More Meetings . . By BOB ANSTINE, Mayor, Macomb President, Illinois Municipal League

On March 29, 1989 we assembled approximately thirty people at the League office on short notice. Present were Mayors, Township and County officials, Chamber of Commerce officials and the Director of Commerce and Community Affairs and his staff.

The purpose of this meeting was to indicate our opposition to a proposed change to the recapture of CDAP funds by those in the program. Meaning, according to the DCCA proposal, that recaptured funds would not remain with the municipalities, but would be attributed back to the State for their use elsewhere.

This was not just an idea of the State Agency, but urging from Federal Housing and Urban Development. Director Hedges of the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, as a result of the meeting in the League office, has withdrawn the proposal and business will be as usual. Recapture of funds will remain with those municipalities that are in the program.

I think a good turn out at this meeting, and more importantly, the testimony and arguments presented by the various municipal officials present made the difference in Director Hedges' decision.

I am pleased that the efforts of the Illinois Municipal League and their established relationship with Commerce and Community Affairs resulted in this favorable decision.

You may wish to refer to the League's recent Legislative Bulletin for further explanation of the results of this meeting.

MEETINGS AND MORE MEETINGS . . . Sales Tax distribution, Impact Fees, Collective Bargaining and who knows what else.

Please read your Legislative Bulletin; take action. The Bulletin is not just for information alone. •

April 1989 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 5