Health maintenance organizations
THE FIRST certificate of authority to a
health maintenance organization
(HMO) was issued under a new law on
January 20. The law is Public Act 78-
1151, sponsored by former Sen. Jack T.
Knuepfer (R., Elmhurst) and which
became effective October 1, 1974. It is
administered jointly by the state
Departments of Public Health and Insurance.
The Roosevelt Health Plan, Roosevelt Memorial Hospital, Chicago, received the certificate. HMO's provide a program of comprehensive health services to enrolled members on a prepaid basis. Existing organizations of this kind (there are 11 in addition to the newly approved group) have until July 1 to be certified. In addition, some 20 new groups are seeking state certification.˛
Treatment of rape victims
LEGISLATION enacted last year, Public
Act 79-564, sponsored by Reps. Aaron Jaffe
(D., Skokie) and Peter P. Peters (R.,
Chicago), mandates that hospitals provide
emergency services and counseling to rape
victims, and if the person is unable to pay for
treatment and ineligible for public
assistance, the state Department of Public Health
is to reimburse the hospital. Three hospitals
were granted provisional approval for their
plans under the new law by Dr. Joyce
Lashof, director of public health, on
February 3: St. James Hospital, Pontiac;
South Chicago Community Hospital,
Chicago; and Victory Memorial Hospital,
Waukegan. Twenty other hospitals have
applied for approval of their plans. "With
this program, rape victims ... will have
access to hospital services as well as financial
support if necessary," Dr. Lashof said. ˛
State employees, payrolls
THERE were 117,550 employees of all state
agencies in December 1975, according to
payroll statistics released by State
Comptroller George W. Lindberg on February 2.
This was 1,024 more than in December 1974,
a gain of 1.6 per cent. Payrolls totaled $115.9
million, up 13.4 per cent from a year
previous. Changes from a year ago by major
groups were:
Constitutional officers and courts, up 679 (8.1 per cent).
Code departments, up 1,024 ( 1.6 percent). Major commissions, down 42 (-0.3 per cent).
Miscellaneous agencies, up 66 (3.9 per
cent).
Higher education institutions, down 230
(-0.6 per cent).˛
Illinois Supreme Court
Air pollution rules
Commonwealth Edison Company v.
Pollution Control Board, decided
January 20, 1976
BECAUSE of new legislation and changing technology, the Illinois Supreme Court has told the state Pollution Control Board (PCB) to reconsider three of its rules on air pollution. But the court affirmed another rule, reversing the appellate court. The three rules overturned would have been effective May 30, 1975, and applied to coal and other solid fuel combustion with standards stricter than the federal ones for paniculate emission and sulfur dioxide emission.
The Environmental Protection Act (Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 111½, sec. 1027) provides that the PCB must consider "the technical feasibility and economic reasonableness of measuring or reducing the particular type of pollution" in promulgating its rules. Commonwealth Edison argued that it couldn't, in the foreseeable future, comply with the three rules "without shutting down many of its generating units resulting in 'vast interruptions of service'; that because of technological deficiencies and the unavailability of reliable sulfur-removal equipment, it is not possible to comply with the rules" and that the costs (between $ 1.9 and $2.7 billion) which would be imposed upon Edison and its customers in attempting to simultaneously comply with the stricter rules are unreasonable in view of the minimal impact on air quality.
The court's opinion, written by Justice Goldenhersh, points out the PCB had acknowledged, since it adopted its rules, that further hearings were needed on sulfur dioxide technology — on removal, court decisions, public health, costs — and hearings have begun.
The court also noted that Public Act 79- 1099, effective September 26, 1975, provides that "intermittent control systems" may be used until December 31, 1985, on existing fuel combustion emission sources in lieu of compliance with sulfur dioxide emission standards. The PCB is to approve and regulate such systems.
"In view of the [Pollution Control] Board's order of March 7, 1974, directing new inquiry hearings on the precise issues we are here asked to consider, the extensive hearings that have been held and the 'wealth of new information' that has been gathered in those hearings, and the recent legislation authorizing the use of intermittent control systems until December 31, 1985, under conditions prescribed by the Board in lieu of compliance with sulfur dioxide emission standards," the court declined to determine the validity of the rules (203 (g) (1), 204 (a) (1) and 204 (c) (1) (A)) based on evidence gathered before 1973.
The PCB rule (303) upheld by the court was determined to be a directive by the board to the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain air quality and not a delegation of power to that agency.
Democratic Convention delegates: state Saw prevails
John P. Touhy, chairman, Illinois Democratic
Central Committee v. State Board of
Elections, decided December 8, 1975,
opinion filed January 26, 1976.
This case was decided by the court on an expedited basis to meet filing deadlines for candidates for delegates to the Democratic National Convention. In it, the court refused to order the State Board of Elections to put into effect a formula for apportionment of delegates to the DNC among congressional districts which had been approved by the party's national machinery but was not in accord with Illinois law.
In its decision, the Illinois court said that the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court a year earlier. Cousins v. Wigoda, 419 U.S. 477 (see April 1975, p. 124) was not controlling. In Cousins, as construed by Touhy, the highest court had held that the delegate selection procedure adopted by a national party convention — and not state
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Supreme Court decisions in brief •Validity of a Chicago ordinance giving a reduced fee to persons 65 and over for owning a motor vehicle under 55 horsepower but affording no reduction to such persons owning a vehicle of 55 horsepower or more was upheld. Head v. Korshak, January 19, 1976.
•Where permits for sewer connections were
issued before imposition of a sewer ban by the
Pollution Control Board, the board cannot forbid
such connections. North Shore Sanitary District
v. Pollution Control Board, February 5, 1976.
• An act of the legislature giving the state
exclusive jurisdiction over the licensing of private
detectives bans Chicago from licensing them
under the guise of security firms. United Private
Detective and Security Association v. Chicago,
January 19, 1976. |
April 1976 / Illinois issues / 27
Judicial Rulings
law-governs the selection of delegates to that convention.
The majority opinion was unsigned. Justice Kluczynski and Chief-Justice Ward 'in dissenting opinions, took sharp issue with the majority- The case was one which involved a split in the Illinois Democratic party between Gov. Dan Walker's supporters on one hand and Mayor Richard J. Daley's on the other. Walker, the Committee on Illinois Government (a Democratic liberal group), and State Rep. John S. Matijevich (D., North Chicago) were allowed to file briefs as friends of the court.
Involved were two different formulas for apportionment of delegates to party national conventions: "Alternative B," set out in state law (Ill. Rev. Stat.. 1973, ch. 46, sec. 7 - 14.1) and the Touhy plan, based on Formula 3 of the Democratic National Committee rules and approved, according to Touhy, by the Compliance Review Commission of the Democratic National Committee.
The majority opinion said there was a "fundamental unfairness" in the Touhy plan in that. in comparison with the state plan, it would shift 19 delegates from congressional districts outside Chicago to Chicago districts. This shift, the majority said, "is the result of an inclusion . . . [in] that proposal of an ingredient that is not authorized by the Democratic National Party formulas or by the State statute . . . the Democratic vote at the 1974 Democratic primary." The majority noted that the national rules allowed use of party registration or enrollment as of January 1, 1976, but objected to "retroactive use of a past primary vote as a factor in determining the future allocation of delegates among congressional districts." Justice Kluczynski in his dissent responded that Alternative B, in the state law, uses the 1972 vole for the Democratic presidential candidate as an ingredient, thus raising the same problem.
The majority and the dissenters also were at issue with respect to the weight to be accorded to House Bill 3052, which provided for the adoption of Formula 3 of the Democratic National Committee. The Touhy brief had referred to this pending legislation, which it said the state committee was supporting, but the majority opinion said that in view of the fact that the bill was not passed "there would seem to be a fact question as to whether or not the Touhy plan remains viable." Justice Kluczynski said he disagreed "with the majority in its interpretation of the failure to enact legislation to implement the Touhy plan . . . .Had legislation... been enacted, plaintiff [Touhy] would have had no reason to seek relief." The majority and the dissenters were in disagreement over the application of the Cousins decision. "The plaintiffs reading . . . would raise serious constitutional issues," the majority said. "We are reluctant to assume, for example, as the plaintiff seems to assume, that the General Assembly could validly delegate to any and every national political party the authority to formulate such delegate apportionment plans as it saw fit, to be implemented at State expense." Justice Kluczynski said he did not believe "a national political party would act in such an irresponsible manner, and the plan now sought to be implemented certainly does not entail a financial burden in excess of that" created by existing law. Chief Justice Ward said in his view the state law "unconstitutionally abridges political associational rights of the plaintiff and [his] associates and interferes with the national party's right to determine the composition of its national convention in accordance with standards set by the party, as opposed to State constructed formulae for use by political parties."
7th Judicial Circuit, Sangamon County
School aid payments
Walker v. Witkowsky et al.
DISTRIBUTIVE state aid to school districts
should be made monthly in amounts
not to exceed one-twelfth of the appropriation
rather than on the basis of entitlement,
Circuit Judge J. Waldo Ackerman ruled in
an opinion February 10.
After the legislature failed in the fall to override Gov. Dan Walker's reduction of the school aid appropriation, the State Board of Education, whose chairman is Jack Witkowsky, directed that monthly state aid payments be made on the basis of the amount to which they are entitled under the school aid formula rather than on the basis of the reduced appropriation. The governor then brought suit against Witkowsky, the board, and Joseph M. Cronin, state superintendent of education, to halt such action. Ackerman's opinion acknowledged that in the past, school aid payments had customarily been made on the basis of entitlement, but he cited Illinois Revised Statutes, ch. 127, sec. 144a, and ch. 122, sec. 18-11, as requiring that distribution be made on the basis of the appropriation. Ackerman noted that House Bill 3197, at passage stage in the Senate at the time of his ruling, would shift the basis of payments to that of entitlement, and said he considered the legislature was "in far better position than this court to determine the amount and timing of distributions of distributive aid to schools."
Cronin, commenting on the decision, said that several hundred school districts will face deficit financing with no short-term relief this winter. "It's bad news for the schools," he said.˛
28 / April 1976 / Illinois Issues