Selected State Reports

State Documents

■Collective Bargaining/Labor Relations: A Guide Book for Local Government, Dept. of Local Government Affairs (now within Department of Commerce and Community Affairs), 181pp.

This guide is divided into four sections: Public Employee Organization or Unionization; Present Slams of Collective Bargaining in Illinois; Labor-Management Relations Issues Facing Local Governments; and Simulated Contract Negotiation. It also contains several appendices providing additional information.

■Municipal Bipartisan Voting: Chicago, 1979, State Board of Elections (May 7, 1979), 2pp.

The State Board of Elections accurately predicted the historic Democratic vote plurality in the 1979 Chicago mayoral general election. The prediction was based on recent primary election peaks in the Democratic vote proportion in the last congressional primary election and the 1979 Chicago municipal primary. This accuracy confirms that no fundamental bipartisan change has occurred.

■Legisiative Resolutions to Amend the Illinois Constitution of 1970, Illinois Legislative Council Memorandum File 9-068 (September 1979), 13pp.

Over 270 resolutions proposing amendments to the Illinois Constitution of 1970 have been introduced in the General Assembly. The three proposed amendments that have been put before the voters have not been approved by them at the pools. This booklet describes the proposed amendments in the order of the articles which they would have affected.

■Outdoor Recreation in Illinois: 1979-80 Action Plan, Dept. of Conservation, 605 Stratton Bldg.,400 S. Spring St., Springfield 62706 (October 1979), 42pp.

This is the state's first outdoor recreation action plan; it considers seven issues (trails, natural heritage, handicapped and aging, surface water resources, fishing, cultural heritage, and wildlife habitat), 32 objectives, and 120 actions to be carried out. Each action also includes a set of dates for implementation.

■"Self Service Gasoline Marketing Practices Illinois," by the Illinois Legislative Instigating Commission, 300 W. Washington St., Suite 414, Chicago, 60606. Based on interviews with officials of major oil companies, the executive director of the Illinois Gasoline Dealers Association, and individual service-station owners throughout the state, this report concludes that self-service sales are accepted nationwide and in Illinois and will become more popular as gasoline prices continue to rise. It suggests that individual communities should exercise their home-rule powers to limit the availability of self-service sales when full-service availability is threatened.

Other Reports

■ "State and Federal Impact: The Post Daley Era," (25 pp.) by Samuel K. Gove and "Suburban Politics and the Decline of Illinois' One-City Party," (65 pp.) by Lawrence N. Hansen, The Chicago Politics Papers, available from the Center for Urban Affairs, Northwestern University, 2040 Sheridan Road, Evanston, 60201 ($4.00 per copy).

The publication of these two papers brings to seven the total number of monographs in this new series sponsored jointly by the center at Northwestern and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. Gove indicates some of the ways that Daley exerted influence at both the state and national levels and concludes that without his leadership the legislative delegations may weaken and Chicago's Machine may no longer play an important role in national conventions and party circles. Hansen argues that because of demographic changes in suburbia, city and suburban Democrats will have to form a partnership if they wish to continue to dominate the political scene. Unless city Democrats adjust, they will end up either sharing control of county government with Republicans on a more equal footing or surrendering control of them.

■ "Block Grants and Federal Bucks: Federal Community Development Aid in Illinois Cities," by Heywood T. Sanders, Illinois Government Research (Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, 1201 W. Nevada St., Urbana, 61801), no. 50 (January 1980), 5pp. Available from institute free of charge.

The community development block grant program has proven beneficial to Illinois cities. However, since the program imposes both a ceiling and a floor on federal dollars, and since Illinois started so much later than large urban centers in the East, Illinois communities must now attempt to alleviate long-standing problems with a relatively fixed and inadequate level of funding.

■ "Public Employee Pensions in Illinois," a special joint task force report by the Civic Federation and the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce (August 1979), 16pp. Available from ISCC, 20 North Wacker Dr., Chicago, 60606 or Civic Federation, 29 East Madison St., Chicago, 60602.

Following two years of study, this report presents three sets of recommendations: financial, benefits, and administrative. These are described briefly in the first two pages, and then in greater detail.

Items listed under State Documents have been received by the Documents Unit, Illinois State Library, Springfield, and are usually available from public libraries in the state through interlibrary loan./A.J.M.

July 1980/Illinois Issues/29