Legislative Action

By PORTER McNEIL

The two-day warm-up

THE General Assembly was in Springfield for only two days in January, but it was already evident that we are in an election year, and that politics and legislative activity are sure to advance together hand-in-hand as legislators and statewide candidates use the Statehouse to build campaign planks and attract media attention.

The legislators barely began rolling up their sleeves in mid-January before it was time to roll them back down and head home. There was, however, some action taken during the two-day session January 8 and 9. Lawmakers used S.B. 1037 (P.A. 1109) as a vehicle bill to repair the farm aid legislation (H.B. 568, P.A. 1027) which passed last year and became effective November 15.

As part of a complex package of lowered interest rates on delinquent property taxes, loan guarantees and legal aid, H.B. 568's purpose was to assist economically depressed farmers in rural Illinois. It reduced the annual interest penalty for late property tax payments from 18 percent a year to 12 and pushed back property tax deadlines.

But in their rush to help the farmers, legislators failed to take into consideration the effect of the law on the many nonrural taxing bodies in Cook County, forgetting about the accelerated tax billing system many of them use. The consequence: Although the first installment for Cook County real estate taxes is due March 1, under H.B. 568, interest on late payments would not have been charged until June 1. That three-month grace period would have meant losses of money to local governments that depend on property tax revenue, according to Cook County Treasurer Edward Rosewell. The second mistake that bill drafters made was to chop the interest penalty for all delinquent property taxpayers, instead of just farmers.

The new version of S.B. 1037 corrected both problems, reimposing the earlier tax deadlines for Cook County and restricting the reduced interest penalty rate to farmers only. The bill sailed smoothly through the Senate, but in the House there was nearly an hour of debate. Rep. Sam Vinson (R-90, Clinton), assistant minortiy leader, called the exemption for farmers unfair and "atrocious" because it allows a higher interest penalty to be levied on unemployed factory workers than on farmers. "I think this is the worst type of bill ... it is a wrongful discrimination on the basis of social class or occupation," Vinson said, warning that the state's unemployment-plagued urban areas could become "ripe for revolution" if the bill were to pass.

But House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-30, Chicago) supported the bill, saying the intent of the General Assembly was to give cash-strapped farmers a break, and that the measure was simply an "attempt to rectify a mistake made during the [fall] veto session." The measure passed on a 89-23 vote.

But what the speaker wants isn't necessarily what the House supports. In a rare occasion of thwarting the speaker's will, the House January 8 turned down a motion to expedite a Madigan-sponsored resolution establishing a Build Illinois oversight committee. Opponents, again led by Vinson, said the function was already covered by the existing ap-propriations committees. The resolution was referred to the House Committee on Assignments

On another vote, in what could be a foreshadowing of campaign rhetoric ahead, an attempt to override Gov. James R. Thompson's veto of a $6.4 million cost-of-living increase for public aid recipients failed. Some Senate Democrats accused Thompson of being insensitive to the poor. "His veto said, 'To hell with the small people. They can't help themselves, so we're not going to help them,' " said Sen. Charles Chew (D-16, Chicago).

Porter McNeil, 26, is interning with Illinois Issues through the Public Affairs Reporting Program at Sangamon State University. McNeil, a 1982 graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., spent one year as graduate assistant in the Illinois Legislative Studies Center and one with the Legal Studies Center at Sangamon State University. He was also an aide to former U.S. Rep. Tom Railsback in Washington, D.C.

32/March 1986/Illinois Issues