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Lame ducks stomp on policy vetoes; governor stomps on Senate Dems IT WAS short and sweet, bittersweet. The 81st General Assembly wound up its session on time, and the 82nd General Assembly appeared to be organizing relatively smoothly, despite the switch from a Democrat to a Republican-controlled House. But in the Senate, where the Democrats held onto a one-vote edge, the political bomb exploded and sent Shockwaves across the state. Gov. James R. Thompson as convener of the new Senate dropped the bomb when he ruled from the chair that only a majority of those present was necessary to elect the president of the Senate. Minutes later, he swung the gavel and left Democrats stunned as the Republican minority with 29 senators elected Dave "Doc" Shapiro as Senate president. The Amboy Republican was Senate minority leader in the 80th and 81st General Assemblies. Senate Democrats, with two members missing, had been split in their support of Phil Rock, the Oak Park Democrat who had been Senate president in the 80th and 81st General Assemblies. The 28 Democrat Senators were caucusing as Thompson pulled the power play to put Republican Shapiro in the Senate president's chair. After the election of Shapiro, Rock and the other Democrats may finally be united. But unless the state Supreme Court (consisting of four Democrats and three Republicans) takes the case Rock said would be filed immediately, and reverses its long-standing tradition of leaving legislative rules and procedures strictly up to the legislature, the Democrats will not get the gavel. If the Democrats could solidly unite and use their 30-vote majority in a series of procedural moves, they could possibly reverse Shapiro's election when the Senate reconvenes in early February. Whatever the result, the Senate will be a mean and tough arena this year. In the House the leadership selection held no surprises. George Ryan, the Kankakee Republican who was House minority leader in the 80th and 81st General Assemblies, effectively became speaker in November when Gov. Thompson announced Jim Edgar would be secretary of state replacing Alan J. Dixon who went to the U.S. Senate. Before the November election, Ryan, as ranking House Republican - - and a downstater, appeared to be the top contender for secretary of state, assuming Dixon won. But Ryan had worked so damned hard to elect a Republican House the Republicans won, and he was no longer leader of a minority. Ryan faced a tough choice: secretary of state or speaker of the House? Thompson made the decision for him. The governor apparently felt he needs Ryan as legislative leader and did not want to gamble on Republicans fighting among themselves for speaker. House Democrats, without a strong statewide party leader and now the minority party, elected Mike Madigan as their leader. They need a Madigan who can wheel and deal and get tough. Three-time Speaker Bill Redmond has never played that role. Overriding vetoes
As to the real work of the 1980 fall veto session, the headlines went to eight pieces of legislation. Six were overrides of Thompson vetoes: The final headliner was a new measure which would require public schools to provide free bus transportation for private school students. The biggest newsmaker was the ban on nonreciprocal storage of nuclear waste. By the time the lame duck veto session met, nuclear waste had become a bipartisan issue, a question of Illinois' right to set its own policy. The General Electric facility at Morris, in northern Grundy County, about 65 miles from the Loop in Chicago, was the only place in the country still accepting spent fuel rods for storage. Congress clearly hoped to claim Morris, at least temporarily, as the national nuclear waste site. And there was considerable pressure from the utilities such as Illinois' Commonwealth Edison, to establish federal policy and federal sites for spent fuel storage. Indeed, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission had just approved special transportation routes, including those through Illinois, roads that cut through many legislative districts. Thompson had vetoed the reciprocity requirement in H.B. 3614, on the grounds that it infringed on interstate commerce and that it threatened state and federal attempts to set a uniform nuclear waste policy. Sen. Jerome Joyce (D., Reddick) and Rep. Ray A. Christensen (D., Morris), with the help of Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch (D., Chicago), Sen. John Knuppel (D., Virginia) and others, argued eloquently that reciprocity is constitutional: Illinois will continue to accept other state's nuclear waste, but only if the other states accept Illinois'. The fairness of the new Illinois policy would, Joyce and Christensen predicted, hold up in court. constitutional questions will obviously be settled in the courts, but the General Assembly wanted to act before Congress did. Yet policy-making power remained the underlying issue. Thompson, by 1980 Executive Order No. 3 had created the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (effective October 1, 1980). The General Assembly followed up on the executive order with H.B. 3614, sponsored by the House Committee on State Government Reorganization, to more clearly define the new agency's jurisdiction. Thompson did not object to that, but he did object to the bill's amendment requiring reciprocity agreements with other states on storage of nuclear wastes. 24/February 1981/Illinois Issues The House had voted to override the governor's veto of the provision with the minimum required votes, 107-24. But the Senate was not expected to, and unless the Senate did, the entire bill would have died. But the Senate overrode surprisingly with two votes to spare, 38-18 (P.A. 81-1516). Legislating policy Lawmakers prompted more headlines when they overrode Thompson on another state energy policy. This time the General Assembly wanted to bolster gasohol sales and stimulate the state's fledgling alcohol fuels industry. Lawmakers were evidently convinced that the state should subsidize gasohol sales by tax exemption as some other states have done (see "Illinois: the Land of Ethanol," January 1981). Under the new measure, S.B. 1518 (P.A. 81-1513) the four-cents-per-gallon state sales tax on gasohol was eliminated effective December 3, 1980, but it will be phased back in at the rate of one cent per gallon per year beginning July 1, 1982. What was surprising about the gasohol override was that it was led by a Republican Sen. Max Coffey (R., Charleston), sponsor of the bill. That was the clearest sign yet that Big Jim may not necessarily be calling all the shots for the Republicans next spring. Coffey argued that the tax incentive was only temporary and won. The Senate overwhelmingly overrode, 42-7, and the House followed suit, 128-27. Thompson's veto of another gasohol incentive bill was not challenged. S.B. 1810, sponsored by Sen. John A. Davidson (R., Springfield), would have exempted machinery and equipment used by farmers and others who manufacture gasohol for private use. Thompson, who supports gasohol to the extent he has converted the state fleet, said he had reluctantly vetoed the gasohol bills on the grounds that the market will pick up when the product improves. And Thompson has made it clear he does not want state government to subsidize private industry via piecemeal tax exemptions, credits or deductions. And on the S.B. 1518 exemption, Thompson argued that the state could ill afford the lost revenue, which the Illinois Department of Revenue estimates will run between $4.5 and $4.8 million in fiscal 1981 and from $13.1 to $14.2 million in fiscal 1982. Chicago Democrats gave up fuel grants for park taxes. The deal became apparent when House sponsors of the vetoed fuel grants provision suddenly found themselves without enough votes to override as several legislators, including some Chicago Democrats, walked off the floor and the vote fell seven short. The vetoed fuel grants provision was part of the circuit breaker bill, H.B. 3204, sponsored by Rep. Edmund E. Kornowicz (D., Chicago). Under the provision, grants would have offset increases in fuel costs. Thompson called the fuel grants duplicative and said they would interfer with federal energy policy. He deleted the provision via the amendatory veto. February 1981/Illinois Issues/25 To salvage the circuit breaker bill, the House quickly voted 160-0 to accept the governor's amendatory veto, as did the Senate, 55-0. Under the new circuit breaker law (P.A. 81-1530), property tax relief for senior citizens and disabled persons was expanded effective January 1, 1981, by: (1) reducing the qualifying amount by which property taxes or rent must exceed income, (2) increasing the qualifying income from $10,000 a year to $12,000 and (3) increasing the maximum grant from $650 less 5 percent of income to $700 less 5 percent. The deal gave the Democrats the votes to override the parks taxes veto. The Chicago Park District now has the power to raise property taxes without a referendum, a clearance which the Chicago City Council, could, but would not, grant. Specifically, under the new statute (P.A. 81-1515), the district can raise the general corporate tax rate from .60 percent to .66 and the tax rate for aquarium and museum purposes from .09 percent to .12, effective December 8, 1980. Thompson had vetoed the parks taxes bill, H.B. 3542, sponsored by Rep. Bruce A. Farley (D., Chicago), as excessive: if the district raises taxes to the new limit, the price tag will run to $11 million. But as Democrats reminded Republicans, it is Chicagoans who will pay. Consequently, the override vote was more than adequate: 110-47 in the House and 40-14 in the Senate. The deal, in effect, gives the Republicans the opportunity to gain the political credit for the fuel grants, which are sure to pass this year or next as a Republican bill. The deal sets the stage for the new Republican phenomenon: tax relief. Reagan rode into the presidency on a promise of cutting federal taxes, while Thompson has always pushed to control spending. If Illininois Republican legislators decide to work to cut taxes, Thompson may be arguing with Republicans to protect the general funds' reserve. Flexing legislative power The rules and regs override was a question of more legislative power over the executive. The General Assembly had created its Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR), with advisory powers, five years ago. The new law, effective immediately, gives the JCAR the power to suspend for 180 days any rules and regs the committee feels do not follow legislative intent. Within the 180 days, the General Assembly must pass a resolution to permanently expel the rules and regs or they will take effect. (P.A. 81-1514) Predictably, Thompson had vetoed the bill, H.B. 2351, sponsored by Rep. Thomas A. Ewing (R., Pontiac), as a violation of separation of powers in the Constitution. But the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbies supported the override, hoping the stronger legislative power would check unnecessary regulatory red tape. The General Assembly overrode in an obvious bipartisan vote: 143-24 in the House and 57-0 in the Senate. The county salaries override was another surprise. Many observers wouldn't have been surprised if legislators had tried to raise their own pay or pensions, but no one expected county pay raises. Apparently county officials who had trouble squeezing pay raises out of their own county boards had discovered two very helpful state statutes. One sets minimum salaries for county officials; the other, effective this year, requires state government to reimburse local government for the cost of any new state-mandated programs. One new county "pay raise" law (P.A. 81-1511), effective December 1, 1980, increases minimum salaries for clerks, recorders, treasurers, auditors and sheriffs in counties with populations of 60,000 or less, according to the following schedule:
from $12,000 to $13,000 for counties with less than 14,000 population; Thompson had vetoed both bills, H.B. 3166 (clerks, etc.) and H.B. 3167 (coroners), sponsored by Rep. Charles M. Campbell (R., Danville), because the measures did not require the state to reimburse the counties for increases. That reason was apparently why the county officials' lobby was so successful: if lawmakers wanted to pass along a pay raise to county officials they had to do it during the veto session; because after January 1, 1981, state reimbursement would be required. The General Assembly overrode on the clerks', etc. salaries by 109-39 in the House and 39-5 in the Senate and on the coroners' salaries by 113-40 in the House and 36-9 in the Senate. Mandating reimbursement
The new state reimbursement requirement is precisely the reason the parochial busing bill passed, having stalled in conference committee at the end of the regular session. Under the measure, S.B. 1812, sponsored by Sen. Adeline J. Geo-Karis (R., Zion), public schools (except Chicago) would be required to provide free bus transportation for students attending private schools located within five miles of the public school district's boundaries, effective July 1, 1981, if signed by the governor. The state, however, would be required to reimburse the schools for the total cost, making one prorated payment in the fall and another in the spring. If the spring payment would not cover the cost through the end of the school year, the school would be allowed to stop the busing. Even though the Chicago schools would be excluded, the price tag for reimbursing the 1,000 school districts downstate would run from $9-15 million, according to estimates from the Illinois Board of Education, which urged Thompson to veto the bill. Thompson may not sign the bill because of the cost to the state, even though he reportedly favors parochial busing. It will be interesting to see what Republicans do if Thompson vetoes this bill. In all, the overrides of substantive bills will claim another $4.8 million from the state coffers. Approval of dozens of supplemental appropriations bills, however, will draw Thompson's hoarded reserve down deeper (see "The state of the State," p. 2). The General Assembly sent Thompson 200 substantive bills in 1980 and he signed 160, vetoed 25 and amendatorily vetoed 22. Four of the total vetoes were overridden (gasohol, Chicago parks, county salaries) and two of the amendatory vetoes were overridden (nuclear waste, rules and regs). Vetoed bills become law only if the legislature overrides. Amendatorily vetoed bills become law in their original form if the legislature overrides or they become law in their amended form if the legislature concurs. If no action is taken on the amendatory vetoes, the bills die. The 82nd General Assembly was set to convene January 14 to hear Gov. Thompson's annual State of the State address. Reapportionment, the issue of the decade, will be the No. 1 issue of 1981. But with a Republican-dominated General Assembly, business will bring considerable pressure to bear on other issues to reform worker's compensation and to refinance employer contributions to unemployment insurance. And Thompson has already announced he wants a new road program, but it's very likely that the Regional Transportation Authority will figure prominently in the political deals of road funding. The Democrats will be under extreme pressure to maintain a united front at all costs. And they still have no leader on a par with the late mayor, Richard J. Daley. February 1981/Illinois Issues/27 |
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