Legislative Action

Unemployment compensation
and Class X compromise

MIDWAY through the special and fall veto sessions, the legislature appeared ready to compromise and avoid confrontation with the governor on the most important proposed new laws — dealing with criminal justice reform, restructuring of the new State Board of Elections and bringing Illinois unemployment compensation laws into agreement with federal statutes. Meanwhile it appeared absolutely certain that the most controversial of the governor's vetoes would be overridden. Vetoes of bills on legalization of laetrile use and on a public aid funding ban for abortions received early and convincing overrides in the House and seemed for similar votes in the Senate.

As of November 8, the last day for action on all vetoed bills in their originating chamber, the House had reaffirmed its ban on abortion funds (H.B. 333) by a vote of 126-42 and revived its bill to legalize laetrile use (H.B. 1200) 123-43.

A compromise criminal justice bill, reviving the original House Bill number 1500 under the name "Class X," was on the brink of acceptance by both Gov. James Thomson and House and Senate Democrats. In a joint statement acceeding to the name "Class X" issued November 5, Senate President Thomas C. Hynes and Speaker of the House William A. Redmond said, "House Bill 1500 must become law!" Insiders said the bill would be revived in the Senate Judiciary II Committee through special dispensation from the Senate Rules Commitee. A single amendment incorporating much of the Class X substance will be added and the bill, which has already passed the House (last spring it passed 153 to 6 in the House and stalled in the Senate), will be voted out of committee and presumably passed into law by the Senate.

The only obstacle still to overcome was the form of the amendment. The governor sent a letter to key Democrats in the House and Senate November 8, in which he quibbled with the amendment as drafted. He said that he still had six points of disagreement with it. Basically, he appeared concerned with what he saw as the possibility under the amendment that the most serious criminals would be eligible for early release or furloughs. Thompson said in the letter that he would accept a 30-year limit on sentences rather than a maximum of life, as originally proposed under Class X. However Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch (D., Chicago), who chairs the Judiciary II Committee where the Phoenix-like bill will be reborn, was angered by the letter.

In a discussion with a liaison from the governor's office outside Senate chambers, Netsch was heard to question the governor's serious intentions on criminal justice reform. "He [Thompson] keeps expanding his demands," Netsch said. "It can't help but make me wonder if he's as serious about criminal justice reform as we are."

Nevertheless H.B. 1500 appeared close to passage. Among the highlights of the bill no longer under contention were: establishment of a system of determinate sentences for all felony convictions, abolishment of parole, establishment of new prison terms for all classes of felonies and adoption of a Class X felony classification for 10 specific offenses. Under the new range

December 1977/ Illinois Issues /25


of sentences, murder will mean 20 to 40 years or natural life imprisonment. (At present murder gets a 14-year minimum sentence with no maximum.)

Class X convictions will mean a sentence of from 6 to 30 years for the crimes of:

(1) aggravated kidnapping or ransom,
(2) rape,
(3) deviate sexual assault,
(4) heinous battery,
(5) armed robbery,
(6) aggravated arson,
(7) treason,
(8) armed violence with most handguns or knives,
(9) making or selling certain controlled substances, and
(10) calculated criminal drug conspiracy.

Under present law such offenses carry sentences with a 4-year minimum and no maximum length.

Another significant bill — aimed at avoiding heavy penalties to Illinois private employers by bringing state unemployment compensation laws into compliance with federal laws — became a political football in Special Session 2. Democrats tried to add amendments in the Senate that would, in effect, have greatly increased state spending this fiscal year for state assistance to local governments for unemployment pay costs, thus weighing down the governor's delicately balanced budget.

However, Senate Democrats were five votes shy of the 36 necessary to make the amendment effective this fiscal year. Senate Republicans threatened to kill the bill, S.B. 6, after Democrats successfully added an amendment to make the state pick up the full $6.7 million tab next fiscal year. So the Democrats finally worked out a compromise that will make the state pay half the cost this fiscal year and half in fiscal 1979. It passed 55 to 2 in the Senate and immediately was sent to the House Labor and Commerce Committee, where it was passed 18-0 November 8. (The changes in state unemployment law had to be enacted by November 10, or Illinois would have had to pay up to $60 million in federal penalties.) The bill passed the House by a vote of 133 to 13 November 9.

Coverage of action on vetoed bills and special session legislation will continue in the January Illinois Issues.

26/December 1977/ Illinois Issues


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