The Legislative Scene

Seek To Strengthen State Mandates Act;
Special Districts Dissolution Act Filed

By Peter M. Murphy, Legal/Legislative Counselor

Legislative Action

After a record breaking first session for legislative activity both the House and Senate continue to flood the process with new bill introductions. This action comes in spite of the fact that this is an even-numbered legislative session. Such sessions are abbreviated in duration and by the rules of both legislative bodies are limited solely to appropriations necessary for the operation of state government and for those bills deemed of an emergency nature. All substantive bills introduced during 1984 must first be approved by a majority of the Rules Committee before they can be heard by one of the substantive committees. The House has introduced over 800 new bills since January and the Senate over 600.

Summaries of Pertinent Bills

One of the few bills on the Association's legislative platform that was not considered before the end of the 1983 legislative session was H.B. 1855. This bill, which clarifies the tax exempt status of park and conservation district property, has passed the House Revenue Committee and is currently on third reading in the House. Other bills of interest are:

HOUSE BILLS

H.B. 2388 (Ewing) which amends the Revenue Act to provide that beginning with the 1985 assessment year the increase or decrease in the average equalized assessed value per acre of any farmland shall not exceed 10% of the average equalized value per acre of such farmland for the immediately preceding year.

This bill will limit the decline in farmland assessments which has the potential to seriously jeopardize the assessment base of rural park districts as well as forest preserve and conservation districts. Farmland assessments are expected to continue to decline through 1985 due to weak commodity prices, inflationary production expenses and higher capitalization costs all of which contribute to driving farmland assessments down.

H.B. 2394 (Steczo) amends the Park District Code to provide that a new park district coterminous with the boundaries of a municipality with a population under 500 may be organized out of an existing park district upon petition and approval by the voters of the territory of the new district. The remainder of the existing district shall continue to exist as a separate park district. House Amendment Number 1 specifies that the new subsections added to the Code are only effective until January 1, 1987.

H.B. 2512 (Churchill) amends the Revenue Act to provide that the board of review shall not change an assessment and the Property Tax Appeal Board shall not overturn a decision of the board of review, unless an interested party can show substantial cause why it should do so.

Provides that the board of review and the Property Tax Appeal Board shall give notice to all interested taxing bodies in cases not involving single family residences. Authorizes taxing districts to issue general obligation bonds when an assessment on non-single family residence property is reduced on review. Requires non-single family residence taxpayers to supply the assessor with certain information regarding the value of their property.

H.B. 2561 (Satterthwaite) amends the Revenue Act and the State Mandates Act to repeal the provision that the platting and subdividing of vacant land and the completion of streets and utility lines thereon shall not result in an increase in the assessed value of that land until buildings are erected or a lot is used for residential purposes.

H.B. 2568 (Currie) Amends the Act concerning aquariums and museums in parks and the Act concerning the Chicago Park District. Increases the authorized annual property tax rate from .12% to .15% for the purpose of maintaining aquariums and museums for park districts over 500,000 population.

H.B. 2738 (Richmond) amends the Park District Code. Raises the maximum general tax rate, for park districts which do not levy a recreation tax, from .10% to .175% of the assessed value of property in the district.

H.B. 2794 (Currie) Creates the Special Districts Dissolution Act. Requires special districts to make annual reports to the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs; provides for dissolution procedures for active and inactive special districts; establishes procedures for the payment of debts owed by dissolved special districts.

H.B. 2837 (Madigan - Ronan) Creates the Local Government Infrastructure Assistance Program Act. Grants the Illinois Development Finance Authority the power to (1) pool and package local government bond issues and sell Authority bond issues on the national bond market, (2) establishes a reserve fund to help guarantee the payment of interest or principal of the bonds issued by the Authority and (3) provide, in cooperation with the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, technical assistance to units of local government and school districts with respect to debt management and bond issuance, capital facility planning and programming and infrastructure maintenance.

H.B. 2939 (Homer) Amends the County Treasurer Act, Investment of Public Funds Act and the Revenue Act; provides that taxing districts shall be entitled to all interest on taxes collected by the county treasurer which have not been distributed to the taxing district.

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H.B. 2967 (Braun) Amends act relating to Chicago Park District; makes the Chicago City Council the corporate authorities and the Mayor of Chicago the chief executive officer of the district.

H.B. 2968 (Braun) Amends the State Revenue Sharing Act; creates a Park, Recreation and Open Space Distributive Fund in an amount equal to one/forty-eighth of the revenue realized from the Illinois income tax, with monthly distribution to park districts, forest preserve districts and conservation districts based on population.

H.B. 3002 (Kirkland) Amends Open Meeting Act to provide that a meeting in which the acquisition or sale of real estate is considered may be closed to the public.

H.B. 3105 (Tuerk) Amends Public Labor Relations Act; deletes provision requiring employers to bargain collectively with regard to policy matters directly affecting wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment; makes it unfair labor practice for a labor organization to engage in secondary boycotting.

SENATE BILLS

S.B. 1408 (Egan - Lechowicz) Amends Revenue Act to provide that equalization factors issued by the Department of Revenue for assessment year 1984 and subsequent assessment years shall not exceed the equalization factor for assessment year 1983.

S.B. 1462 (Maitland - Bruce) Amends the Revenue Act to provide that beginning with the 1984 assessment year the increase or decrease in the aggregate equalized assessed value of all farmland in a county shall not exceed 10% of the aggregate equalized assessed value of such farmland for the immediately preceding year and, to attain such limitation, to provide for the certification of the annual equalization factor by the Department.

S.B. 1471 (Rock) Amends the Civil Administrative Code. Creates the Illinois Youth Conservation Corps to be administered by the Department of Conservation to provide temporary summer employment for the youth of this State for the purpose of rehabilitation, protection and enhancement of the State and unit of local government public land for recreation, environmental protection, and preservation of natural and cultural heritage.

S.B. 1478 (Philip) Creates the Local Government Tax Collection Act and amends an Act concerning county treasurers. Provides that the county treasurer must pay interest on all distributions of taxes collected on behalf of units of local government which are made more than 15 days after they are received. Provides that a unit of local government may elect to receive the interest earned on the first 15 days or have the interest credited to the county for the maintenance of the county jail. Requires the county treasurer to publish a notice on the use of interest earned on public funds.

S.B. 1916 (Lechowicz) Amends Revenue Act; provides a taxing district shall enact an ordinance reducing its tax levy by the amount of any interest earned on collected taxes that is paid to the district by a county collector.

S.B. 1917 (Lechowicz) Amends Revenue Act; provides that county collector shall not be required to pay to taxing districts any interest earned on taxes held by the collector for less than 30 days.

(Continued on p. 41)

Illinois Parks and Recreation 39 May/June 1984

(Cont. from p. 39)

Constitutional Amendments — State Mandates Act

The State Mandates Act provides that State initiated statutory or executive action that requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities and as a result necessitates additional expenditures from local revenue may be reimbursable as provided in the Act. The Act took effect in January of 1981 and temporarily stemmed the flow of the number of bills having mandated costs. In 1983, however, the General Assembly almost uniformly circumvented the Act through the addition to bills of bootstrap sections excluding reimbursement under the Act.

The Illinois Association of Park Districts is working in support of the following Constitutional Amendments in coalition with the Illinois Municipal League, Illinois School Board Association, Urban Counties Council and others to stop further state mandated costs from being passed on to local governments.

HJR 0022 (Yourell)/SJR 0098 (Bloom) proposes to amend the Illinois Constitution to provide that a bill which requires a unit of local government or school district to establish, expand or modify its activities, duties or programs in such a way as to necessitate expenditures from local revenues shall not be enforceable unless either (1) the General Assembly passes the bill by at least a 3/5 vote of the members elected to each house or (2) until the General Assembly provides by law for reimbursement to the unit of local government or school district for the cost of implementing the activities, duties or programs imposed on the unit of local government or school district.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 41 May/June 1984