By DIANE ROSS

Legislative Action

CRITICS who say Illinois has a do-nothing legislature got their comeuppance during the fall session. This was no ordinary fall veto session: The legislature went far beyond veto overrides and passed what may be a record number of bills for the governor to sign. Lawmakers deftly disposed of two of the biggest issues, prison crowding and reform of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) (see "The state of the State," January 1984, p. 4, and "Legislative Action," January 1984, p. 37), and went on to deal with other major substantive issues — economic development, nuclear waste, hazardous waste, no-fault divorce, abortion. There was also special interest legislation passed and sent to the governor.

All in all, the vetoes overridden during the 1983 fall session paled in comparison to the bills passed and sent to the governor. The most significant of these new bills would: remove controversial pension funds as backing for revenue bonds financing loans for small business; amend a new regional compact of Midwest states for the disposal of low level radioactive waste; raise fees for disposing of hazardous waste; create the "no-fault" ground for divorce; set the procedure for waiving parental notification rights before minor daughters have abortions; and cover the start-up costs for the 1992 Chicago World's Fair.

In all, the General Assembly this fall sent Gov. James R. Thompson 45 bills: 36 that had stalled in the spring session (including 15 hung up in conference committee) and nine that were introduced after the spring session ended. (In 1983 lawmakers may have set a record for the number of conference committee reports they adopted in the fall after failing to compromise on them in June or July.)

That lawmakers moved so much new legislation this fall was astounding considering their veto calendar was the longest in the history of the modern-day fall session: 173 total vetoes and 161 amendatory vetoes of substantive bills.

The Democrat-controlled General Assembly let Thompson have his way with his changes in collective bargaining, the most hotly contested legislation — aside from tax increases — of the spring session (S.B. 536 and H.B. 1530). Thompson's changes were also accepted for the state's first "freedom of information" law (H.B. 234). Thompson also got his way in complete vetoes of bills to set up public financing for gubernatorial campaigns (H.B. 2012 and S.B. 938) and to allow recounts of gubernatorial elections (H.B. 731 and 2013).

The most important overrides of total vetoes, detailed below, put laws on the books to create a new council to coordinate state export policy; finance loans for exporters; create four new civic center authorities, including one in Cook County; and regulate new franchises for car dealerships. Overrides of amendatory vetoes, also detailed below, included the extension of state immunity to local government from federal antitrust laws.

The legislature and the governor barely disagreed on funding in the fall session. Of the $9 billion in general funds appropriated by the General Assembly during the spring session, Thompson had vetoed only $16 million. During the fall session, the legislature approved $50 million in supplemental appropriations; most supplementals, such as the one for prisons, had Thompson's blessing.

There were two substantive bills vetoed by the governor to save about $23 million, but the legislature overrode both. One concerned state employees health insurance benefits (S.B. 1256, sponsored by Sen. Glenn V. Dawson, D-18, Chicago) and the other services to approximately 30,000 teenagers who are unmarried and pregnant.

For the record in 1983, the General Assembly passed 1,207 substantive bills by the end of the spring session; Thompson signed 873. Of the 173 he totally vetoed, the General Assembly overrode 26 and let 147 stand; of the 161 he amendatorily vetoed, the legislature overrode 20, let 126 stand — and let 15 die, neither accepting nor rejecting his changes.

One of those "dead" amendatory vetoes appeared to die by accident. It was S.B. 1001 which provided that the General Assembly, not the governor, would control some $117 million Illinois expects to receive in fiscal 1984 under the new U.S. Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). S.B. 1001 had originally been part of a 40-bill package that represented Senate President Philip J. Rock's master plan for economic development (see "The state of the State," December 1983, p. 4). Did it die because of the confusion that reigned as lawmakers struggled to clear the veto calendar during the final days of the fall session or had a deal gone sour? Democrats apparently had no time to draft a replacement bill when the override of Thompson's amendatory veto failed in the House after it had sailed through the Senate. Democrats were sure they had talked House Republicans into overriding, but the deal fell through at the last minute. Rock, who is now a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, has no intention of letting the issue die by default. A spokesman said he was considering the appointment of a joint House/Senate committee to assert what he feels is the General Assembly's right to control the new federal JTPA money.

There were no such snags in the deal behind one of the more significant of the bills the legislature sent to the governor during the fall session; this deal involved House Speaker Michael J. Madigan's master plan for economic development (see "The state of the State," December 1983, p. 4). Prior to the fall session, Madigan had agreed to drop the most controversial part of his

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economic plan: the use of $40 million in state pension funds over three years to "insure" the financing of new loans and venture capital for small business. In exchange, Thompson had agreed to support the use of $7 million in general funds to back the financing of those loans and venture capital in fiscal 1984. In the deal, Thompson had agreed to sign H.B. 2290, the bill that contained Madigan's original plan, and Madigan agreed to introduce the new bill, H.B. 2309, to replace the pension funds with general funds. The general funds were appropriated in S.B. 375, one of the 11 appropriations bills for fiscal 1984.

On economic development policy with a local angle, lawmakers used a vehicle bill last fall when Chapman and Cutler, the Chicago bond attorneys, came up with a creative idea for boosting housing development across the state. The Illinois Housing Development Authority is authorized to consolidate the revenue bonding powers individual municipalities have — if the municipalities agree to form such a pool. The authority is provided in H.B. 1613, sponsored by Rep. Ralph C. Capparelli (D-13, Chicago).

A voluntary new state program for "work sharing" surfaced when lawmakers adopted another conference committee report, this time on S.B. 25, sponsored by Sen. Leroy Lemke (D-24, Chicago). Designed to help business hang onto skilled labor, work sharing encourages employers to cut hours employees work rather than lay them off.

Environmental front

As for environmental issues, lawmakers dealt with two of the biggest: nuclear waste and hazardous waste.

On nuclear waste, the legislature sent the governor two bills that stalled in the Senate last spring after the House approved them. The one on the disposal of low level radioactive waste may be a step forward — or it may be one backward, perhaps even sideways.

Illinois is eligible to join a Midwest regional compact for the disposal of low level radioactive waste and came close to ratifying the compact last spring. This fall, however, the General Assembly amended the compact, which five states have ratified in the original form. The Illinois version is H.B. 2106, sponsored by Rep. Diana Nelson (R-44, Western Springs). Regardless of the regional compact, the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety is given the green light to write the rules and regs for disposal of low level radioactive waste, including fees for transportation, under H.B. 2234, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-26, Chicago), and signed by the governor in December. (Also see "The state of the State," p. 4.)

Although the legislature would have accepted most of the governor's amendments to a hazardous waste bill passed in the spring session, a replacement bill was necessary because the governor's amendatory veto message evidently contained many technical mistakes. Lawmakers used a vehicle bill (S.B. 143) to replace the amendatorily vetoed bill (H.B. 1257) in the fall session. Thus, the replacement bill represents the latest adjustment to state policy on disposing of hazardous waste. That policy encourages treatment and other alternatives to landfill.

Perhaps the most controversial provision of S.B. 143, sponsored by Sen. Patrick D. Welch (D-38, Peru), is the new schedule of fees which is expected to generate more than $1 million a year. With the new schedule, the General Assembly tripled the old fees for disposal, from 1 cent to 3 cents per gallon and $2.02 to $6.06 per cubic yard; created a new fee for treatment of 1 cent per gallon and $2.02 per cubic yard (overriding Thompson's argument that new fees would discourage treatment as an alternative to landfills); and went on to create a new fee for disposal by "deep well injection" of $2,000, $5,000 or $9,000, depending on the volume. The legislature had also considered creating a new fee for recycling, reuse and reclamation, but the governor successfully argued that that type of fee would discourage these alternatives to landfills.

Another provision of the hazardous waste bill sets strict standards for liability in case of an accident. The original bill had referred to less strict federal standards; Thompson wanted the legislation to provide that state standards would prevail, and the legislature agreed. The General Assembly, however, did create over the governor's objections a Hazardous Waste Advisory Council. Thompson said the new legislative group was duplicative of the existing Hazardous Waste Task Force, Abortion, a perennial issue in the legislature, was there in the fall. The General Assembly overrode Thompson's total veto of a bill passed last spring (S.B. 521) and went on to pass H.B. 720, a bill that was hung up in conference committee last spring. The end result is a legislative attempt to put a new and constitutional parental notification law on the books.

Under S.B. 521, doctors must notify parents 24 hours before minors have abortions, and under H.B. 720, a minor is guaranteed the right to petition the court to waive those parental rights when she can demonstrate maturity or when notification is not in her best interest. S.B. 521 is sponsored by Lemke, and H.B. 720 by Rep. John T. O'Connell (D-47, Western Springs).

To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld only one parental notification state law: that is Indiana's, which guarantees a minor's right to confidentiality and expeditious appeal. Under H.B. 720, Illinois would follow Indiana's lead with the Illinois Supreme Court writing the rules for waiving parental rights.

In the final analysis, some observers still question the constitutionality of the waiver provided in H.B. 720 because it may not adequately cover incompetent adults and others for whom the state assumes guardianship.

Chicago issues

Issues aside, the city of Chicago accounts for three bills the legislature sent to the governor in the fall — despite the feud between Mayor Harold Washington and Alderman Edward Vrdolyak. Perhaps the most significant is a bill introduced over the summer to provide initial financing for the 1992 Chicago World's Fair.

To generate $2 million in start-up funds, the fair authority would be authorized to levy a new hotel and motel tax at the rate of 1 percent from January 1 through June 30, 1984, in Cook County, under H.B. 2313, sponsored by Currie. For subsequent financing the fair authority is expected to evenually seek revenue bonding power as well as a statewide hotel-motel tax or a share of state sales tax collections.

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Perhaps the best evidence in the fall session of the continuing political feud in Chicago came when Washington blocked — for the fourth time in 1983 — the key provisions of a bill Vrdolyak wanted passed to expand the patronage base of the Chicago Park District. The General Assembly finally passed the bill, H.B. 1780, sponsored by Rep. Bruce A. Farley (D-6, Chicago), but in a form that would merely authorize the district to sell another $40 million in working cash bonds. Under additional pressure from a coalition of Democrats aligned with Washington and Republicans backed by Thompson, plus the Chicago Civic Federation, the legislature deleted the key provision which would have given the district what it had wanted for years: the power to sell an unlimited amount of general obligation bonds and the power to levy an unlimited amount of property taxes — all without referendum.

The bonding power and taxing power would have financed the construction and operation of new facilities, which would have employed hundreds. Vrdolyak had renewed efforts to create more park jobs last spring after Washington began to cut patronage elsewhere. When H.B. 1780 passed the House but not the Senate last spring, Vrdolyak had tried to get it amended onto conference committees twice.

The next time you attend an event at the Chicago Civic Center, don't be surprised if you hear vendors hawking "cold beer, here." Liquor can now be sold at the center, assuming the governor signs H.B. 1130, sponsored by Rep. Steven G. Nash (D-ll, Chicago).

Other significant bills passed during the fall session for the governor to sign would:

• redefine the 1983-84 state aid formula for adult education, which had favored programs offered by community colleges over those offered by local school districts (H.B. 320);

• give legislative amnesty (of questionable validity) to some 80 of the state's 1,000 school districts which have illegally levied a new property tax to retire new working cash bonds when they had already levied a tax for working cash (H.B. 2316);

• and, in an omnibus bill for veterans, recreate the Agent Orange Study Commission, create a new Illinois National Guard Study Commission to reevaluate the location of Illinois armories and transfer controversial veterans' job services from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA) to the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (H.B. 617).

Economic development

As for significant overrides of bills totally vetoed, the dominant issue was again economic development.

In regard to state services to exporters, the General Assembly overrode two vetoes, putting its export booster plan into effect. But since Thompson had already put his own plan into effect, bureaucracy is duplicated, not streamlined when it comes to state export services.

From the legislature, there is now a new, 19-member Illinois Export Council headed by Lt. Gov. George H. Ryan and set within DCCA to coordinate state export policy (H.B. 1259, sponsored by Rep. Larry R. Stuffle, D-105, Danville). From the governor, the state has a "reactivated" International Trade and Export Promotion Advisory Committee (originally created in 1980) within DCCA, also headed by Ryan and charged with the same mission as the council.

How to boost exports and therefore jobs? To guarantee low-interest, longterm loans for exporters who create jobs in Illinois, a new nine-member Illinois Export Authority, also headed by Ryan but independent of DCCA, is created under H.B. 1260, also overridden by the legislature and sponsored by Stuffle. The General Assembly provided the new authority with $100 million in bonding power to finance its economic development thrust in exports. At the same time, Thompson has created a new Office of Export Development Finance within DCCA, but it is specifically designed to capture more federal funds to assist exports.

Overrides of two other bills which were vetoed completely involve economic development but with a local angle: state aid to new civic centers.

A four-year ban on state aid to civic center authorities is repealed — allowing creation of six new ones, five downstate and one in Cook County — under H.B. 488, sponsored by Rep. James F. "Jim" Rea (D-117, Christopher), and S.B. 726, sponsored by Lemke. Thompson had argued repeal was premature since DCCA is due to report February 1 on its reevaluation of state aid to civic centers.

Under the new program, which was originally created in 1970 to spur the creation of civic centers mainly in ravaged downtowns, the state will grant each authority financial assistance to help retire the bonds they sell to finance construction. The grants will provide whichever is least of three options: $20 million, 75 percent of total construction costs or 3.1 percent of the authority's equalized assessed valuation.

Illinois had nine civic centers in 1979 when the General Assembly decided to cease all state aid to these authorities (authorities have local taxing power). Three new authorities are created in Herrin, Mount Vernon and Quincy under H.B. 488, and another is created in Cook County under S.B. 726. (Ogle and Knox counties have created their own authorities, bringing the number of civic centers in Illinois to 15.)

Cook County wants a new civic center authority for the proposed Illinois-Michigan Canal area which Congress is considering designating as a "national corridor."

In the area of business regulation, car dealers won their override. To protect established dealers from competition from newcomers, location of a new franchise or relocation of an old one within the market of an established dealer selling the same make is generally prohibited under H.B. 1753, sponsored by Rep. Robert C. "Bob" Winchester (R-118, Rosiclare). Thompson had said consumers will suffer from the lack of competition in prices and service.

As for overrides of amendatory vetoes, perhaps the most significant involves H.B. 1208 that extends the state's immunity from federal antitrust laws to municipalities. Of great concern to local government, the bill evidently clarifies the power of local governments to award franchises for services such as cable television and taxi cabs regardless of the effect a franchise has on competition within the industry. H.B. 1208 was sponsored by Rep. O'Connell. Thompson's suggested rewrite would have denied any new powers to non-home-rule municipalities.

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