Executive Report

Attorney General Opinions

Tax increase illegal
S-1435: Jo Daviess County does not have the authority to levy taxes for the county health fund at a higher rate than that established by referendum. Previously, voters had approved the maximum rate allowed by sections 2 and 11 of the county public health department act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 1ll 1/2, sec. 20cl). The law was later amended to raise the maximum tax rate, and the Jo Daviess County Board began levying taxes at the higher rate without another referendum. But section 2 does not grant county boards the right to raise taxes; it establishes the means to raise them. "The real grant of authority to levy the tax emanates from an affirmative vote of the electors in a referendum," the attorney general said. Therefore, a new referendum will be required to raise the tax rate above the rate previously set by referendum even though the statutory maximum rate has been raised.

Pay hikes prohibited
S-1441: A county board member elected to fill the unexpired term of a resigning county board member cannot receive a pay increase approved during his predecessor's term of office. Both the Illinois Constitution and the county board act state that the salary of any elected official may neither be raised nor lowered during the term of office for which he is elected (Illinois Constitution, Article VII, sec. 9; and Ill. Rev. Stat.1917, ch. 34, sec. 838). Court opinions have held that this prohibition applies to the term of office and not to the individual. Thus, a person elected to fill out an unexpired term cannot receive an increase or decrease in salary enacted during his predecessor's incumbency, even though the increase was approved before his election to fill out the unexpired term.

Appointment valid
S-1438: The appointment of a county board member to fill a vacancy is valid if the appointment is made within 60 days of the creation of the vacancy by the chairman of the county board with the approval of the county board. The appointee must be a member of the same political party as the person he succeeds and must be qualified to serve on the county board, according to the elections act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 46, sec. 25-11). The fact that the appointment was made after a genera] election to fill a position created before the general election does not affect the legitimacy of the appointment, and the county board member shall serve until the expiration of the term for which he was appointed.

'Policeman' defined
S-1442: Only security personnel who are members of municipal police forces are "policemen" for purposes of exclusion from the Social Security system, according to the attorney general. The Illinois courts have not established a definition of the word "policeman," but courts in other states have generally adopted the definition of a policeman as a member of "an organized civil force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws." Therefore, former Chicago park district policemen who were transferred to the Chicago police department are to be considered policemen, as provided by the Park Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 105, sec. 333.51 et. seq.).

Krishna rights
S-1450: Members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) or other religious groups may not be required to lease space at the Edwards County Fair in order to distribute leaflets, discuss their beliefs and solicit donations. The attorney general said that such a requirement constitutes an infringement of First Amendment rights.

Basing his opinion on previous cases concerning ISKCON members' rights, the attorney general suggested five permissible regulations:

1) requiring members to wear identification cards; 2) prohibiting members from working where there is a "captive audience," for example, at ticket lines and refreshment areas; 3) prohibiting members from working where crowd control is crucial, such as entrances and exits; 4) prohibiting members from touching unconsenting individuals; and 5) limiting members' activities to the normal operating hours of the fair and to areas normally open to the public.

State Stix

The comptroller's monthly report showed the general funds average daily available balance in September to be $529 million; the general funds end-of-month balance was $575 million, and the combined funds end-of-month balance was $728 million. September's record end-of-month balance was helped along by a $40 million influx in receipts from the corporate personal property replacement tax. High general fund balances during the first quarter of fiscal 1980 are due mostly to increased income and sales tax revenues. Since 1970 there has been a sizable "inflation bonus" for the state in income tax receipts because exemptions are not adjusted for inflation. As wages and profits go up, the percentage of taxable income increases. . . . The maximum lawful interest rate for residential real estate in October is 11 percent. . . . The final statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 4.4 percent. Final unemployment rates for July and preliminary unemployment rates for August in the state's major cities were: Bloomington-Normal, final rate in July, 3.2 percent, preliminary August rate, 2.7 percent; Champaign-Urbana, 4.1 percent, 3.7 percent; Chicago, 4.8 percent, 4.4 percent; Davenport, Rock Island, Moline (Illinois section), 3.9 percent, 3.5 percent; Decatur, 5.9 percent, 5.6 percent; Kankakee, 9.1 percent, 7.3 percent; Peoria,4.3 percent; 3.8 percent; Rockford,4.8 percent, 4.5 percent; Springfield, 5.2 percent, 4.5 percent; St. Louis (Illinois section), 6.3 percent, 6.5 percent. . . . Almost 9,700 workers employed by counties, municipalities and the state under the federal Comprehensive Training and Employment Act (CETA) lost their jobs in October. The dismissals resulted from a U.S. Labor Department ruling limiting public service employment under the CETA program to 18 months.

November 1979/ Illinois Issues/ 27