Springfield Update

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”
~Theodore Roosevelt



Quorum Call is distributed Fridays when the Illinois General Assembly is in session. For more information, contact Greg St. Aubin, Director of IAR Governmental Affairs, gstaubin@iar.org, or Julie Sullivan, Assistant Director, Legislative and Political Affairs, jsullivan@iar.org. Full text of legislation cited in this newsletter can be found at www.ilga.gov.



- The Illinois House of Representatives held a day-long “Committee of the Whole” hearing on Monday to allow public testimony from those negatively affected by the dramatic budget cuts of the Governor. Later in the week the House overrode nearly all of the $463 million cut from the budget and sent the budget bill to the Senate for their consideration of the cuts. While the Senate President, Senator Emil Jones, had earlier indicated that he would not support efforts to override any of the reductions there may be some movement on that position. Any action would have to occur next week in the Senate.

- Limited action this week on the legislation dealing with mass transit funding as the Senate sponsor filed an additional amendment to House Bill 3667 but did not call the bill for a hearing or vote. The House Mass Transit Committee has scheduled yet another hearing next Tuesday, October 9th in Chicago. The IAR will participate in this hearing which is expected to focus on the capital projects proposal and funding options. While discussion continues at the Statehouse for other funding alternatives none of those alternatives has been drafted as amendments to either of the pending bills. As a reminder, there are two nearly duplicate bills pending on the mass transit package- SB 572 (in the House) and HB 3667 (in the Senate) which include both a regional sales tax increase and the authority for a real estate transfer tax increase in the city of Chicago. BOTH bills contain the identical language STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE IAR creating the glaring exception in existing law for the city of Chicago to increase its real estate transfer tax without a public hearing and without voter approval. THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE TO OUR CALLS TO ACTION ON THIS CRITICAL ISSUE. WE NEED TO KEEP THE MESSAGE LOUD AND CLEAR TO MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AS WELL AS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR DALEY THAT AN INCREASE IN THE REAL ESTATE TRANSFER TAX SHOULD BE REJECTED!

- The House and the Senate took alternate paths this week on the property tax exemptions package, which included the so called “7% solution” provisions for Cook County. As we reported last week, the Governor had used his amendatory veto power to modify language in House Bill 664 that had been negotiated between the chambers earlier to increase the assessment cap and to make it permanent (rather than a 3-year phase out). Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, the Majority Leader successfully pursued an override of these changes on Wednesday afternoon and the House approved the motion to override on a roll call vote of 92-19-0 (71 votes were needed for passage). This override effort was SUPPORTED by the broad coalition originally opposed to the bill (including IAR) because of the objection to the Governor’s changes making the 7% solution permanent and increasing the cap amount. The following link is the roll call vote on the override motion:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/house/09500HB0664_10032007_016000M.pdf The Senate, however, embraced the Governor’s changes and codified the changes in an amendment to House Bill 315. On Tuesday afternoon the Senate Executive Committee voted to send House Bill 315 to the full Senate for their consideration by a vote of 8-4-1. The General Assembly adjourned for the week with the issue unresolved. The Senate did NOT move their version of the bill and it is unclear if they will consider the override motion on HB 664 next week.

- The Senate OVERWHELMINGLY voted to override the Governor’s amendatory changes to Senate Bill 1201 on a roll call vote of 53-1-0 (http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/senate/09500SB1201_10032007_009000M.pdf). As you recall, this legislation contained language necessitated by the legislation from 2005 that combined two planning entities (the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission and the Chicago Area Transportation Study) in the Chicago metropolitan area that created a special unit of local government- the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). This special district is now charged with many of the functions carried out by the former entities dealing with the establishment and implementation of an integrated policy for development and transportation planning. The Governor opted to remove an important provision of SB 1201 that was essential to our support of the measure; i.e. the creation of a Wastewater Committee to deal with facility planning areas (FPAs). In order for this bill to become law over the objections of the Governor the override motion must also be approved in the House which is expected to occur next week.

- Another bill vetoed by the Governor was House Bill 3729. This bill amends the Private Sewage Disposal Licensing Act to authorize the Illinois Department of Public Health to allow the use of alternative private sewage disposal systems under specific circumstances. The Governor did not specify his reasons for the veto beyond that he did not agree with “some aspects” of the legislation. The House unanimously overrode the Governor on a roll call vote of 113-0-0. The override motion must be acted upon by the Senate next week. The IAR was NEUTRAL on this legislation.

- There was also legislative action on override motions of the Governor’s TOTAL veto of two bills that extended the life of two specific Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIFs). This action was taken by the Governor despite the fact that he had signed into law similar legislation for other communities. The veto of House Bill 2036, sponsored by Representative Chapin Rose and Senator Dale Righter, which would extend the life of a TIF in the city of Villa Grove was overridden on Tuesday by the House on a roll call vote of 110-3-0. The motion now must be considered by the Senate. The veto of Senate Bill 247, sponsored by Senator Frank Watson and Representative Bob Flider, for the extension of a TIF in the village of Mt. Zion was overridden by the Senate on Wednesday on a roll call vote of 54-0-0. This motion must now be acted upon by the House. The IAR was NEUTRAL on these bills.

- The General Assembly will reconvene next week on Wednesday, October 10th and are scheduled to be in session the remainder of the week.


For more information, contact Greg St. Aubin, Director of IAR Governmental Affairs, gstaubin@iar.org, or Julie Sullivan, Assistant Director, Legislative and Political Affairs, jsullivan@iar.org.