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Legislative By DIANE ROSS and SHELLEY DAVIS Reapportionment LEGISLATIVE leaders met the first of the Constitution's post-session deadlines for legislative reapportionment, naming an eight-member commission by July 10. As anticipated, however, the Illinois Legislative Redistricting Commission didn't meet the second deadline; it failed to file a new map of legislative districts by August 10. But the Illinois Supreme Court easily met its September 1 deadline for nominating two candidates for the ninth and tie-breaking member of the commission. On August 12, the court nominated former Democratic Gov. Samuel H. Shapiro and former Republican Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie. By September 5, Secy. of State Jim Edgar must draw one of the nominees at random to be the ninth member. The nine-member commission must file a new map by October 5 or the Supreme Court will have to draw the map. PUBLIC AID Workfare for public aid recipients ALTHOUGH the idea of working for welfare is almost as old as the program itself, only in recent years has the so-called "workfare" concept enjoyed a resurgence. At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Paul Findley (R., Pittsfield), is leading the movement to pass legislation to give state and local governments the option of running work-fare programs for one kind of welfare recipient — those on food stamps. Under Findley's proposal, the federal government would split the administrative costs with state and local governments. Under a related proposal Findley made, the federal government would sponsor 12 pilot work-fare programs across the country. At the state level, some local governments such as Chicago have already set up pilot workfare programs. This year the General Assembly passed S.B. 848, sponsored by Sen. Steven Nash (D., Chicago), which would authorize counties to administer workfare programs for the largest group of Illinois welfare recipients — those who receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). (The Illinois Department of Public Aid administers three other major welfare programs: General Assistance, Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, and Energy Assistance.) Under Nash's proposal AFDC recipients over age 15 would be required to register with the county for work. Assigned to jobs on the basis of their ability and interest, AFDC recipients would work by the month, working only the number of days necessary to pay for their benefits each month. They would not work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week; nor would they earn more than the minimum wage. S.B. 848 passed the Senate 56-0 May 27, the House 152-3 June 19, and went to the governor July 27. Welfare reform deferred LONG-AWAITED legislation to overhaul state welfare laws failed to make any headway in the General Assembly this year, due in large part to its half-billion-dollar price tag. H.B. 79, sponsored by Rep. Susan Catania (R., Chicago), would have made major reforms in the Illinois Public Aid Code, raising the standards by which the Illinois Department of Public Aid determines eligibility and awards benefits. The House Public Institutions and Social Services Committee had given the bill a 12-0 endorsement. And the bill was amended on the floor of the House to postpone the most costly provisions for five years. Although H.B. 79 reached third reading, it was eventually held until next spring. PROPERTY Mortgage foreclosure AMONG BILLS passed this session to revise the state's mortgage foreclosure laws was H.B. 455, sponsored by Rep. Sam Vinson (R., Clinton), which would shorten the time a person has to redeem property sold under foreclosure from 12 to six months. Also the bill would shorten the time a creditor must wait to take possession of property on which the debtor has not made payments from four to three months. It passed the House 94-59 May 14 and the Senate 35-14 June 23. S.B. 209, sponsored by Sen. John Friedland (R., South Elgin), would raise the interest rate on redemption of property on which a lien has been foreclosed from 6 to 10 percent. It passed the Senate 57-0 May 22, the House 132-14 June 17, and went to the governor July 27. CIVIL JUDICIARY Two-step divorces A DISCREPANCY concerning 5,000 so-called "two-step" divorces granted since the state's marriage and divorce law went on the books in 1977 would be clarified under another bill passed this session. The focus of the two-step divorce issue sharpened in February when the Second District Appellate Court ruled that two-step divorces are not legal; that divorces cannot be granted until all other relevant issues have been resolved: child custody, child support, division of property and maintenance of property. S.B. 377, sponsored by Sen. William Marovitz (D., Chicago), would legalize two-step divorces, allowing judges to grant divorces before other issues have been resolved. It passed the Senate 53-0 May 20, the House 136-4 June 12, and was sent to the governor June 17. Domestic violence PERSONS WHO are physically abused by members of their families would receive more protection and more compensation (under civil action) through a comprehensive domestic violence bill the General Assembly passed this session. H.B. 366, sponsored by Rep. Alan Greiman (D., Skokie), would create the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. The bill would allow the courts to issue orders of protection ranging from prohibiting one family member from striking another to barring a family member from entering the household. The bill would remove the immunity (from civil action) that spouses now enjoy and it would allow battered spouses to sue for civil damages. H.B. 366 passed the House 152-7 May 6, the Senate 55-0 June 26, and went to the governor July 27. The battered spouse provision, however, was initially contained in S.B. 115, sponsored by Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch (D., Chicago). S.B. 115 passed the Senate 54-3 May 29, but was eventually amended onto H.B. 366. 16 | September 1981 | Illinois Issues LOCAL GOVERNMENT Recommendations for solving financial problems DESPITE an intensive, year-long investigation of the financial problems local governments face, the General Assembly failed to pass the major bills recommended by its own Local Government Finance Study Commission. With reapportionment, transportation and the state's recession budget on the agenda, legislators simply did not have enough time to fully consider local government finance. The commission's report, due April 1, was released a week late and many of the bills based on its recommendations were not drafted until May. That left little time for thorough hearing in committee. The bills are expected to receive much more attention next year. The General Assembly created the commission in 1980 following the fiscal crisis that had threatened to close Chicago schools. The enabling legislation targeted several areas for investigation: the property tax cycle, cash flow problems resulting from the cycle, fiscal management and accounting procedure, and the availability as well as the adequacy of property tax revenue. In its report, the commission recommended that the General Assembly:
The commission's major recommendations were embodied in S.B. 945, sponsored by Sen. Robert Egan (D., Chicago), and S.B. 1082, sponsored by Sen. Jerome Joyce (D., Reddick), both of which called for a switch to a quarterly schedule. S.B. 945 would have applied only to Cook County and would have phased in the quarterly schedule over 10 years. S.B. 1082 would have applied to all other counties and it would have frozen valuations in 1983. Both bills reached third reading in the Senate, but were eventually sent back to committee for further study. H.B. 1600-1617, sponsored by Rep. James Keane (R., Rockford), was the only legislation dealing with the commission's recommendations as a whole, but only minor bills were passed. They included H.B. 1608, which would create a Local Accounting Task Force to recommend improvements in accounting systems, reporting to the General Assembly by April 1, 1983. The bill passed the House 134-19 May 15 and the Senate 52-2 June 25. H.B. 1614, authorizing local governments to establish auditing committees to review audits, passed the House 152-2 May 17 and the Senate 35-21 June 26. H.B. 1609 would have increased revenue funneled to local governments by raising court costs, or fees charged by the clerks of circuit courts. The bill passed the House 126-12 May 18 and reached third reading in the Senate, but was eventually held until next year. Weather modification districts LOCAL GOVERNMENT — and farmers — finally gained the power to create new weather modification tax districts under a bill passed this year to subsidize cloud seeding and other forms of rainmaking. Unlike a similar measure that failed last year, H.B. 196, sponsored by Rep. Gordon Ropp (R., Bloomington), would allow the creation of less than county wide districts. Rural areas that would benefit would be taxed while urban areas that would not benefit would not be taxed. H.B. 196 passed the House 131-21 May 14, and the Senate 58-0 June 17 and went to the governor June 24. Senior citizen high-rises SOME public high-rises would be reserved for seniors under H.B. 886, sponsored by Rep. Daniel O'Brien (D., Chicago). The bill would require that Chicago and other cities over 500,000 reserve at least 25 percent of all high-rises (housing over five stories) for senior citizens. Initially the legislation would have mandated that local government convert a quarter of all high-rises for seniors within five years. But legislators apparently felt that would displace too many persons. H.B. 886 passed the House 126-25 May 15 and had reached third reading in the Senate, but was eventually held over until next year. ELECTIONS Illinois primary date stays the same: second Tuesday in March REAPPORTIONMENT overshadowed all other elections legislation this session. After years of attempts, the General Assembly finally passed a bill that would have moved the primary election from March to April. But pro-ERA groups, fearing an April primary would lessen chances of ERA passage by the July 1982 deadline, prevented the bill from reaching the governor's desk.
H.B. 209, sponsored by Rep. Frank Giglio (D., Chicago), would have moved the primary from the third Tuesday in March to the last Tuesday in April, moving the deadline by which candidates must file nominating petitions from December to January. The defeat of the legislation means that Illinois remains the only state in which a person declares candidacy in the calendar year prior to the election, an arrangement which generally favors incumbents. The bill also would have limited to three the number of advisory questions on public policy per statewide, general election ballot. And the bill would have raised the salary range for the executive director of the State Board of Elections from $22,000-$40,000 a year to $27,000-545,000 a year. H.B. 209 passed the House 145-12 April, the Senate 47-7 June 25, but it died when one chamber failed to concur with the other's version of the bill. County clerk salaries ANOTHER SALARY increase bill, S.B. 566, sponsored by Sen. Jack Schaffer (R., Crystal Lake), would increase salaries of county clerks by $3,500 a year to offset the additional work caused by the state's new consolidation election law, which took effect with April 7 elections this year. The bill passed the Senate 30-16 May 21, the House 125-6 June 18, and went to the governor July 27. September 1981 | Illinois Issues | 17 HIGHER EDUCATION College loans for students and parents via state loan authority IN A TIME of increasing inflation and decreasing federal aid, higher education legislation has centered on providing low-cost loans to both students and their parents. The General Assembly passed this year's most significant higher ed bill which would create a secondary money market for such loans by establishing a higher education loan authority similar to those already operating for housing, environmental facilities, industry, schools, health facilities and toll highways. (The legislature also set up such a loan authority for farmers this year in H.B. 607; see "Legislative Action," August 1981.) But only students attending private colleges and universities, or their parents, would benefit from this low-cost college loan program. The major education loan bill, H.B. 1438, sponsored by Rep. Mary Hallstrom (R., Evanston), would authorize the loan authority to sell tax-exempt revenue bonds to individuals or corporations on behalf of schools that wished to participate in the loan program. The amount of bonds sold would be determined by the amount of loan money the schools wished to make available to students and their parents. (The schools would pledge the collateral, so the state would not incur the debt.) The schools would make the loans to the students or their parents, who would be allowed to borrow up to $15,000 (less other loans, scholarships, stipends, grants, etc.), at market interest rates, over the time the degrees are earned. H.B. 1438 passed the House 150-1 May 20 and the Senate 51-2 June 26. Student guaranteed loans ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL student loan bill would expand the Illinois Guaranteed Loan Program, which is available to students at both public and private schools, to allow parents as well as students to borrow for college. Actually the federal government already authorized the expansions, as an alternative to increasing the amount which can be borrowed, when Congress approved the 1980 amendments to the 1965 federal higher education act; the expansion would have taken effect eventually. Currently students are allowed to borrow up to $2,500 per (undergraduate) year at 9 percent interest, with the loans deferred until six months after the students leave school. Under S.B. 1201, sponsored by Sen. Howard Carroll (D., Chicago), parents would be allowed to borrow up to $3,000 per student per (undergraduate) year, at 9 percent interest. The parent loans, however, would not be deferrable; parents would begin to make payments within 60 days of receipt of the loan. S.B. 1201 passed the Senate 56-0 May 28, the House 158-0 June 26, and went to the governor July 27. Scholarships MAXIMUM Illinois State Scholarship Commission (ISSC) awards would be increased under another successful higher ed bill. H.B. 198, sponsored by Rep. Daniel O'Brien (D., Chicago), initially sought to increase the biggest ISSC scholarships from $1,900 to $2,400 for full-time students and from $950 to $1,200 for part-time students. The new levels were eventually set at $1,950 and $975, respectively. The amended bill passed the House 149-4 May 20, the Senate 58-0 June 17, and went to the governor July 27. REAL ESTATE Support for new real estate research office from additional professional fees FINANCIAL support for the University of Illinois' new Office of Real Estate Research (ORER) would be stabilized under a series of bills passed this session. The Illinois Association of Realtors, through its Illinois Real Estate Education Foundation, has subsidized the research office since the University of Illinois created it in 1980 to study real estate problems in Illinois such as rent control and condominium conversion. The realtors provide grants of about $50,000 a year. A broader base for such financial support would allow the research office to expand to other colleges and universities. The ORER funding package, H.B. 774-776, sponsored by House Majority Leader Arthur Telcser (R., Chicago), was designed to supplement the private realtors' subsidy with a public state subsidy based on real estate license fees rather than on tax revenue. The new state subsidy is expected to generate in excess of $200,000 a year, which is believed to be sufficient to support ORER now. Under H.B. 774 and H.B. 775, the Illinois Department of Registration and Education, which regulates real estate and 30-plus other professions, would charge a new $4 fee (in addition to the old fees) for new or reinstated broker or sales licenses. (The new fee would not be charged, however, for renewal licenses.) The revenue generated from the new $4 fee would be deposited in a new Real Estate Research and Education Fund, and would be used solely to support ORER. H.B. 774 passed the House 137-3 May 7, the Senate 55-0 June 26 and the governor signed it July 21 (P.A. 82-0090). H.B. 775 passed the House 137-3 May 7, the Senate 57-1 June 17, and went to the governor July 16. Under H.B. 776, any interest or dividends earned from the investment of monies in the existing Real Estate Recovery Fund would be deposited in the new research and education fund. The state created the recovery fund in 1973 to compensate buyers who lose money at the hands of unscrupulous agents, but who have no legal recourse. Interest and dividends are fed back into the fund; as a result it has grown substantially. (The bill would also increase the minimum balance required in the recovery fund from $150,000 to $1.25 million. The current balance is $1.3 million.) H.B. 776 passed the House 137-3 May 7 and the Senate 57-1 June 17. Funding for regulation of the real estate profession ANOTHER successful bill was designed to revise the Department of Registration and Education's bookkeeping procedures to more efficiently finance regulation of the real estate profession. Under H.B. 698, sponsored by Rep. Lee Daniels (R., Elmhurst), and a companion bill, S.B. 769, sponsored by Sen. James Philip (R., Elmhurst), all regular license fees charged by the department under the state brokers and salesmen and land sales acts would be deposited into a new Real Estate Administration Fund, and would be used solely to support the Real Estate Examining Committee, the agency within the department that actually regulates the profession. The new administration fund, similar to those which finance regulation of the medical and dental professions, would ensure that real estate license fees go only to regulate the real estate profession and none of the others under the department's jurisdiction. H.B. 698 passed the House 139-1 May 15, and the Senate 57-0 June 24. S.B. 769 passed the Senate 53-1 May 26, the House 152-9 June 17, and went to the governor July 27. 18 | September 1981 | Illinois Issues |
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