Two days: time enough to change consolidation

By PORTER McNEIL

BEFORE the one-day February session started on the 10th, the date of the governor's State of the State message, the Joint Committee on the Oversight of Education Reform held a hearing on the dangerous topic of school consolidation. By the end of the day, March 5, the date of the governor's Budget Message, legislators had watered down the controversial school reorganization plan (S.B. 730, P.A. 126) enacted last year. They dropped enrollment size as the measure of educational opportunity.

The appropriate "vehicle" was found: S.B. 242, sponsored by Sen. John W. Maitland Jr. (R-44, Bloomington), an original sponsor of last year's education reform legislation. Legislators from around the state as well as the two gubernatorial candidates have been juggling with the intent of the original consolidation legislation. By March 5 agreement was reached on the changes, climaxing months of swelling opposition from local school officials. The vote was lopsided: 99-10 in the House, 48-2 in the Senate, As passed, S.B. 242 says that "maximum education opportunity" rather than school size should be the cornerstone in consolidation of school districts. It would replace all mention of minimum enrollment requirements with the term "educational opportunity" as the major factor in deciding whether a school district should consolidate with another. Education opportunity would be measured by the courses required for entrance to state universities by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The law would also extend by 90 days the original June 30 deadline for local school district reorganization committees to submit their first proposals to the State Board of Education.

Shades of the gubernatorial campaign were cast over the debate. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Adlai E. Stevenson III sent a letter to the members of the General Assembly on the eve of the one-day March 5 session urging "Republicans in the Legislature and the governor to quit the political fun and games. This consolidation charade has gone on long enough." Similar charges were leveled by some Republicans against the Democrats during the floor debate.

Gov. James R. Thompson, who had indicated earlier that he backed removal of the enrollment guidelines, signed the bill on March 19. With the legislative changes, many fear that school disricts will cease to take seriously any plans to reorganize or consolidate.

Supplemental spending

Adding to an already strained fiscal 1986 budget, the legislature on February 10 approved a package totaling $62.8 million and on March 5 another $20 million. The earlier package (H.B. 526's conference committee report) included another attempt to increase welfare payments this year by $6.6 million. That's the same cost-of-living increase Thompson vetoed once this fiscal year and vowed to again on the grounds that the state could not afford it. With the evident intent of emphasizing the governor's anticipated veto, the legislature reapproved the same $6.6 million in the $20 million supplemental (S.B. 226) on March 5. Senate President Philip J. Rock (D-8, Oak Park) told one of his colleagues on the floor: "This battle is not over."

In the February 10 package, Thompson got $1.2 million instead of $2 million for operating the newly purchased DuQuoin State Fair. He took the lesser amount after House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-30, Chicago) threatened to block any appropriation for the fair.

That February supplemental appropriation bill also included $55 million for income tax refunds.

Citizens Assembly, councils

Remember the 1984 legislative commission massacre that outright killed 44 single-subject legislative study and advisory commissions? Lobbying efforts failed to spare another seven of the special commissions, but those seven have finally returned to the legislative arena in a different form.

Created under the authority of P.A. 84-15, effective July 9, 1985, seven "citizens councils" will carry on the work of the original seven: children, economic development, energy resources, mental health and developmental disabilities, public aid, school problems, and women.

On March 5 all 188 members — half legislators and half citizens — of these councils had been duly appointed by the legislative leaders, and the organizational meetings were held in the Stratton Building next to the Capitol. Operating under the central administration of the Citizens Assembly, also created by the act, the individual councils will conduct studies, hold public hearings and make recommendations to the General Assembly in their areas. The assembly consists of all cochairmen from the councils. (All appointments will be reported in next month's magazine.)

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Whither sunset oversight?

One victim of the legislative commission reform was the Select Joint Committee on Regulatory Agency Reform (the so-called Sunset Committee), created by the 1979 Regulatory Agency Sunset Act (P.A. 81-999). The sunset act set up a timetable for acts relating to the licensing of professional and business groups to be reviewed mainly by the Sunset Committee. The act's preamble boldly proclaimed: "The General Assembly finds that state government actions have produced a substantial increase in numbers of agencies, growth of programs and proliferation of rules and regulations. . . .without sufficient legislative oversight. . . . By establishing a system for the termination or continuation of such agencies, it will be in a better position to evaluate the need for. . . . regulatory bodies." Four years later the legislature abolished the committee designed to carry out that mandate, even though the 1979 sunset law and its timetable still exists.

There are other legislative and executive bodies that engage in reviews of licensing acts with or without a permanent sunset committee. Some of them include the House State Government and Regulatory Review Committee, the Senate Insurance, Pension and Licensed Activities Committee, and the Illinois Department of Registration and Education.

Common Cause's Gayle Keiser thinks that the need for a temporary or permanent legislative sunset committee still exists. She says that legislative sunset committees serve the public interest by opening up the process for increased citizen participation.

Keiser appears determined not to let the sun set on the sunset issue. She is seeking support for a proposal calling for some form of a new sunset committee. She would at least like to see a sunset committee set up for the scheduled 1987 review of the health care related professions, much the same way the sunset review of public utilities was conducted in 1985 by the Joint Committee on Public Utilities Reform. Keiser says that the "key is leadership support." She says that she already has the backing of two powerful political allies, the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, and is contacting legislators for support.

There are two other measures awaiting General Assembly action that may heighten the colors of the sunset debate. Keiser and Common Cause are particularly concerned about an attempt by Sen. John Davidson (R-50, Springfield) to repeal the 1979 sunset law and the timetable of license reviews set up by the act. His plan was adopted in a conference committee report on S.B. 1152, which passed in the Senate July 3, 1985, and still awaits action in the House.

Some opponents of Davidson's amendment contend that if the measure passed, useless laws and regulations that might otherwise be terminated would remain frozen in place. The irony here is that efforts to do away with occupations' regulation often meet stiff opposition from the group being regulated. That may sound strange since the popular consensus is that regulated groups want out from under government control; many of the laws, however, benefit the regulated groups by legitimizing their status and insulating them from competition, according to observers.

Davidson, a chiropractor, admits he does have an interest in the medical professions (physicians, osteopaths and chiropractors) being reviewed in 1987. "I do have an interest in the bill and I've stated that openly," he said. But he said he introduced his plan in "good faith" to eliminate the "constant stress and cost to government" that the "unnecessary" sunset committee caused. He said that under his proposal the Bureau of the Budget would still have the right to review licensing laws, and that by a resolution of both the House and Senate the legislature can ask the Legislative Research Unit to conduct a study of the laws. He said his measure will die this year if Madigan doesn't allow it to be heard.

The other sunset bill, H.B. 1260, would do the opposite of Davidson's amendment by expanding the sunset review process to include entire agencies, not just licensing acts. This would bring Illinois in line with many other states. H.B. 1260 passed last year in the House and is now sitting in the Senate Executive Committee. Although House Speaker Madigan and Senate President Rock are recorded as voting for the bill, neither seems likely to push the bill, according to a Senate staffer. H.B. 1260 would also repeal the timetable for reviewing various professions established by the 1979 Sunset Act, and it would grant the four leaders exclusive authority to decide which, and when, agencies would be reviewed.

With the primary election and the Easter break finally over, the General Assembly is due back on April 1. April will not be another one-day session month. Three days per week are scheduled for both chambers.

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