Springfield Update

Illinois Association of REALTORS
State Capitol Report
Friday October 31, 2008

“Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?” ~Robert Orben
- Our legislative newsletter has a new name! “Quorum Call-Week in Review” is now the “State Capitol Report”.

State Capitol Report 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.

- After months of campaigning, hard-hitting campaign ads and an incredible amount of work Election Day is a few days away. If you have not already voted through the State’s Early Voting Program or by absentee ballot PLEASE exercise your right and VOTE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH! RPAC was involved in several key races donating contributions and conducting Opportunity Races throughout the State. A summary of the election results will be provided in the next issue.
- The Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to conducts its annual fall veto session on November 12-14 and November 19-21. . While the primary purpose of the six-day fall session is the consideration of gubernatorial vetoes from the spring session, the General Assembly typically considers other initiatives. It should be noted that the House of Representatives cancelled its session days for the first week of the veto session indicating that they had already taken action on the Governor’s vetoes on previous session days this summer/fall. As of today, the Senate is still scheduled to return to Springfield on November 12th.
- Since the last issue of the newsletter final action occurred on a few issues of interest to REALTORS.

--On October 7, 2008 the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 790 (Public Act 95-1000) to authorize the sweep of over $221 million from dedicated funds, including $5 million from the Real Estate License Administration Fund and $250,000 from the Real Estate Recovery Fund. You will recall that this bill creates the Budget Relief Fund to hold authorized swept funds to shore up the State’s General Revenue Fund. While legislators understand all the arguments against the sweep of dedicated funds most will point to the fact that this has been a budget solution used by previous governors. The IAR may have an opportunity for a hearing on the legal merits of this issue in Sangamon County Circuit Court based on our 2006 lawsuit filed in Sangamon County, challenging the constitutionality of such a sweep of the Real Estate License Administration Fund (RELAF). The State of Illinois entered into a stipulation in that case that precludes the State from transferring any funds from the RELAF to be used for any purpose other than those specified in the Real Estate License Act without giving IAR 21 days notice.

--On October 6, 2008 the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 2287 (Public Act 95-999). This legislation, sponsored by Senator Kwame Raoul and Representative Pat Lindner, initially sought to expand the existing Safe Homes Act to allow tenants to recover a minimum of $2,000 plus attorney’s fees from a landlord if the landlord shares “any information provided by the tenant” in exercising his/her rights under the Act to a prospective landlord. The IAR had pointed to a number of concerns with the original legislation including the fact that a tenant would not have to actually incur any damages in order to recover the $2,000. Representative Pat Lindner, amended the bill to hold the landlord liable for actual damages up to $2,000 resulting from the disclosure- instead of liable for any damages resulting from the disclosure or $2,000, whichever is greater. This new language is now in effect-becoming law on the day it was signed by the Governor.


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.