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STATEHOUSE INSIDER
Governor Blagojevich Proposes Taking a Holiday
On February 18, 2004, during his budget message Governor Rod Blagojevich suggested taking a "holiday" from the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) program in order to save $34 million out of the governor's proposed $53 billion budget for the next fiscal year. Targeting this program for elimination is beyond belief for advocates of conservation and parks and recreation throughout the state. To take such a "holiday" will cripple the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' grant staff and sideline many critically important acquisition projects. Members are encouraged to contact the governor and their legislators about the significant role this program has in their area and the fact that it has a dedicated source of revenue that was established to avoid just the action the governor is proposing. We will continue to keep you apprised of the status of this issue as the budget process works its way to a conclusion this spring. Funding for the protection of Illinois open space is the number one issue for your organization.
Other Key Issues to Watch
A number of bills impacting park districts, forest preserves, conservation districts and recreation agencies have been introduced. Many of those deal with senior citizen property tax exemption levels and assessment limitation proposals, such as that offered by Cook County Assessor James Houlihan in SB 1498 limiting the growth of assessments to 7 percent with a number of caveats. Legislation to increase criminal penalties against individuals assaulting sports officials and coaches at any level of competition has been proposed. Authorization of the sale of liquor on any property owned by a conservation district (HB 4055) has been introduced, as has legislation extending protection to a person riding a bicycle as an "intended and permitted user of any highway in Illinois" (HB 4080). While legislation to require automated external defibrillators at physical fitness facilities faltered in the veto session, it has been reintroduced (HB 4232). The Open Meetings Act also continues to be an area of legislative concern with the introduction of proposals to clarify that the review of closed meetings only include a review of minutes rather than a review of the recording from the meeting as well. In addition, the change would provide that the judge shall rather than may review the closed session recording by an in-camera inspection (HB 4247). One of the questions unanswered by the Open Meetings Act involves the ability of the members of a public body to attend a meeting by electronic means. While it is generally conceded that this is permissible by units of local government, it has never been addressed statutorily. HB 4589 requires minutes of all public bodies to reflect whether members were physically present or present by electronic means and requires that a quorum of the members must be physically present for a public body to vote on the issuance of bonds. It further allows a public body to adopt rules concerning attendance at meetings by electronic means. HB 4469, sponsored by Representative Michael Smith in the House and Senators Larry Walsh and Wendell Jones in the Senate, is a proposal to increase the bid limitation for park districts and forest preserves. The increase would provide that contracts for supplies, materials and work that exceed $20,000 (instead of $10,000) be awarded by a competitive bidding process. The bid limit has not been increased since 1988, and consequently has not kept up with the increased cost of goods and services over the last sixteen years. Clarification of the requirements to do criminal background investigations on park district employees has been introduced in both the House (HB 4488) and Senate (SB 3113) to provide that a park district is required to do a criminal background check only on those applicants for employment who are age 17 years or older. This legislation eliminates the nonsensical expenditure of taxpayer monies on an investigation, which, by law, will not yield results. The General Assembly also proposes to take action to prohibit the use of cell phones in a child care facility, public restroom or health club because of new technology that allows cell phones to take pictures, and to ban their use completely while driving unless they are operated on a hands-free basis. Legislation has also been introduced to create a design-build procurement act 10 | Illinois Parks and Recreation for the State of Illinois. In addition, legislation is pending to permit the Illinois Department of Transportation to enter into a lease agreement with park districts and other units of local government for the use of the vacant land it holds.
Follow the Action Online
The second is the Bill Review database, which provides a listing of all bills that the association is tracking during this session of the General Assembly. These bills are hosted on the State of Illinois Legislative Information System (LIS). By clicking on this section and inputting the IAPD password you will open up a treasure trove of information on these bills. If you click "view" then "preview" you will see a short synopsis and last action on all bills. You can readily expand on this information by clicking on "Report Options." This page will allow you to print out a synopsis report. The synopsis report includes a complete synopsis and last action. Due to the large volume of bills that we track, it will take a few moments to load. March/April 2004 | 11 |
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