The Rostrum

By SAMUEL W. WITWER
President, Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention

The first is the abolition of the personal property tax. For decades the most hated and least equitably administered tax in Illinois was the ad valorem tax on personal property. Intended as a tax on all personalty, from public utility plants to private jewelry, it was almost impossible to assess and collect fairly. Most observers despaired of ever abolishing it or of replacing the revenues which would thereby be lost to local governments.

On January 1, 1979, the constitutional convention's solution to the dilemma became effective. On that date the tax was finally dead in Illinois. The governor and General Assembly quickly formulated a plan to replace the revenues lost to local governments. As of this writing, the plan is still in litigation before the Supreme Court, but I am confident that the local governments will soon receive their much-needed revenues — revenues no longer raised by the worst tax in Illinois history.

Home rule
The second major provision of the new Constitution is local home rule. Before 1971, Illinois counties and cities probably had fewer powers than those of any other state. Today Illinois cities and Cook County probably have the strongest constitutional home-rule provisions of any state. Home-rule units may license, pass ordinances relating to the general welfare, are afforded revenue alternatives to ever-increasing property taxes and may sell bonds to support capital improvements, so long as these pertain to their local government and affairs.

The courts have generally viewed home-rule powers with favor and imposed relatively broad limits upon them. Equally important, most local officials have not abused the new powers but have used them with care and discretion. At a time when many American cities are in financial and social turmoil, it is encouraging that 90 Illinois cities and the mega-county of Cook now have the means to solve many of their own problems with greater self-responsibility.

A third significant provision of the new Constitution is its Bill of Rights, which has already won acclaim as one of the best, if not the best, Bill of Rights in any state constitution. A chief reason for this accolade is the trio of provisions designed to prevent discrimination. Article I, Section 17 prohibits discrimination based upon "race, color, creed, national ancestry and sex in the hiring and promotion practices of any employer or in the sale or rental of property." No other state constitution has such a sweeping provision. The few cases on it to date have made it clear that the rights are self-enforcing and could open new doors for minorities.

'Little E.R.A.'
Article I, Section 18 is Illinois' own "little E.R.A." Although equal protection of the laws on the basis of sex is traditionally a "women's issue," all of the Illinois E.R.A. cases so far have involved men claiming they were the victims of discrimination. The General Assembly has implemented this section by repealing hundreds of discriminatory statutes, many of which affected the lives of millions of Illinoisans.

Article I, Section 19 prohibits discrimination against the mentally and physically handicapped in employment and the sale or rental of property. This is the least-known of the three provisions, but it will undoubtedly be the foundation of significant progress in the future. None of the three antidiscrimination sections existed in the old Constitution. They give us the opportunity to promote equality for all Illinoisans.

Ethics
The ethics provision in Article XIII, Section 2 requires an openness in government unprecedented in Illinois history. In response to public demand even before the Watergate scandal, the convention voted a proposal requiring most public officials to disclose their

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economic interests. If the officeholders do not file statements of economic interest, they lose their offices.

To implement this section, the General Assembly passed the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act, which created procedures for filing and, even more important, extended the requirement of disclosure to local officials as well. The public's "right to know" is now a solid constitutional guarantee, an opportunity for any Illinoisan to discover where his governmental officials obtain their income.

Amendments
The fifth very significant provision of the new Constitution provides for an open process to amend it. Perhaps the worst aspect of the old Constitution was its total inability to respond to the ever-changing constitutional needs of Illinois. After an erratic and discouraging record of amendments, the people voted in 1968 to call a constitutional convention. If the convention had done nothing but propose a more liberal amending article, that alone would have made the whole convention effort worthwhile.

The new Constitution facilitates amending itself in three ways. First, an amendment proposed by the General Assembly now needs approval by only three-fifths of each house and only three-fifths of the citizens voting on that amendment. The old requirement was two-thirds at both stages.

Second, the people will automatically vote on whether to call a constitutional convention at least every 20 years, even if the General Assembly does not want to submit the question of a call for a new "Con-Con." The first automatic call will be in 1992, at which time the people will decide if they want a seventh constitutional convention.

Finally, the new Constitution allows citizens to initiate amendments to the "structural and procedural subjects" of the article on the General Assembly. These are provisions which the legislature itself is unlikely to change. The mere presence of these new provisions should stimulate continued interest and participation in constitutional revision by both legislators and private citizens.

Other provisions
I have chosen five major and rather obvious changes wrought by the 1970 Constitution. I could easily have named a host of other changes in the governmental process which indirectly but clearly affect the lives of all of us:

—  authority to reduce or eliminate the sales tax on food and drugs;

—  right to pay fines in installments if you are financially unable to pay all at once;

— creation of a State Board of Elections to supervise registration and elections;

— establishment of a more workable reapportionment process for the General Assembly to insure fairer representation of all citizens. It will be of considerable importance following the 1980 census;

—  modernization of the constitutional requirements for the passage of bills;

—  granting the governor the added amendatory and reduction vetoes;

— election of the executive officers in even-numbered years when the President is not elected, so that the President cannot carry candidates on his "coattails";

—  election of the governor and lieutenant governor jointly, so that they are always of the same party;

— shortening the executive ballot and modernizing the duties of many executive officers;

—  nomination of judges by primary or petition, instead of party conventions;

—  creation of a Judicial Inquiry Board;

—  right to have a healthful environment and to enforce that right;

—  regulation of classification of real property for tax purposes by counties; and

—  creation of a State Board of Education to supervise education.

Moreover, we should not forget that the constitutional convention gave the people of Illinois their first opportunity in a century to decide whether they wanted to abolish the cumulative voting method of electing the Illinois House and adopt the single-member districts system instead, and to abolish the election of judges, in favor of appointing them. In each case the citizens voted to retain the traditional methods, but advocates of single-members districts and of appointing judges will now find it easier to place their case before the electorate, thanks to the facilitated amending process.

In short, as we "fathers and mothers" of the new Constitution hold our reunion, I think we can celebrate more than just the tenth anniversary of the convening of our nine-month adventure in constitutional revision. We can also celebrate the document itself. □

22/ December 1979/ Illinois Issues