January 11, 2008

“We must remember that a right lost to one is lost to all.” 

~William Reece Smith, Jr.

A hard fought battle for the rights of property owners again dominated activity at the Statehouse this week. After a flurry of activity on both sides of the rotunda, the week ended with the latest version of the mass transit package (House Bill 656) being approved by both the Senate and the House by narrow margins. This final version DID include the authority for the city of Chicago to increase their real estate transfer tax up to $3 per $1,000. The Governor declared that he would put aside his pledge not to sign a bill that contained a sales tax increase but stated that a further change must be included to allow all those 65 years of age or older to ride mass transit for free throughout the State. The bill cannot become law until the General Assembly acts upon the Governor’s amendatory veto which is expected to happen as early as next week.

Here is how the week unfolded:

On Wednesday, the Illinois House approved two different funding proposals with the intent to send both to the Senate. The first measure taken up was contained in House Amendments #4 and #5 to Senate Bill 307, offered by Representative Julie Hamos. This legislation had the various reform provisions with the diversion of the sales tax collected on motor fuel in the six-county metropolitan region from the State’s General Revenue Fund as the funding source. SB 307, as amended had previously been endorsed by the Governor and it was approved by the House on a roll call vote of 66-49-0. Opponents not only pointed to the fact that there were no provisions that would have “back-filled” the hole created in the State budget by the diversion but that Illinois should instead seek to eliminate this sales tax since only nine states even impose such a tax. Next Representative Hamos presented House Amendment #14 to Senate Bill 572, which included the reforms and the sales tax increase for Cook County (1/4 cent per dollar) and the five collar counties (1/2 cent per dollar) as well as the authorization for the Chicago city council to increase its real estate transfer tax up to $3 per $1,000 tax WITHOUT the required referendum. This amendment was adopted in lieu of House Amendment #12 which had been filed and contained the authority to the NON-ELECTED CTA BOARD to impose the real estate transfer tax. Thousands of your e-mails clearly made an impact as this provision was stricken from the final legislation. SB 572, as amended was approved on a roll call vote of 63-52-1. In the Senate, Senate Amendment #2 to House Bill 656- a measure nearly identical to SB 572- was introduced and sent to the Senate Executive Committee for a hearing. IAR presented the only testimony in OPPOSITION based on the inclusion of the real estate transfer tax, imposed by the CTA. The sponsor of the amendment, Senator Rickey Hendon, acknowledged that the CTA should not be the entity charged with the authority and indicated a later amendment would be put on the bill on the Senate floor to revert the authority back to the Chicago city council, albeit without the referendum provision. The Senate Executive Committee approved the measure on a partisan roll call vote of 8-5-0 (Democrats voting Yes and Republicans voting No) and sent it to the Senate floor for further consideration. On the floor, Senate Amendments #4 and #5 were the subject of lengthy debate late into the evening. The critical changes embodied in these amendments included the aforementioned shift back to the Chicago city council for the imposition of the real estate transfer tax and added flexibility regarding the use of proceeds from the sales tax increase for the collar counties.  DuPage County Chairman Bob Schillerstrom wanted that language in the bill and the inclusion of it persuaded Republican Senators Dan Cronin, Kirk Dillard and John Millner to break ranks with the Republican caucus and support the bill. However, opponents continued to hammer on the funding sources, the lack of a capital infrastructure bill to address transportation needs THROUGHOUT the State, and the relatively meager contributions from the city of Chicago and Cook County for mass transit needs and the bill LOST on a roll call vote of 29-24-2 (30 votes were needed for passage). Two of the Senate Democratic leadership team, Senators Debbie Halvorson and Senator James Clayborne voted NO. The sponsor used a parliamentary procedure to place the bill on a special order of “Postponed Consideration” which would allow the bill to be called for a second time.

On Thursday the Senate leaders spent the morning meeting with members of their respective caucuses to secure the requisite votes to approve House Bill 656 and in the early afternoon the Senate did take final action narrowly approving the bill on a roll call vote of 30-25-1. Senator James Clayborne, who voted YES on this second roll call, was the key swing vote. The bill was immediately reported back to the House of Representatives which quickly acted to concur with the Senate version, adopting a motion to concur with the Senate Amendments to House Bill 656 on a roll call vote of 62-51-1.

Following the final approval by both the Senate and the House, the Governor announced that he would reverse his long-standing position in opposition to an increase in the sales tax to “avert a transit crisis”. However, he indicated that he would not immediately sign House Bill 656; instead he would use his amendatory veto power to add language to require that all citizens 65 and older be allowed to ride on all State mass transit for free. This will require that the General Assembly act upon the Governor’s changes before HB 656 can become law.

Links to the key roll calls:

House Final Vote on SB 307

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/house/09500SB0307_01092008_005000T.pdf

House Final Vote on SB 572

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/house/09500SB0572_01092008_008000.pdf

Senate Final Vote on HB 656

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/senate/09500HB0656_01102008_003000M.pdf

House Concurrence-Final Vote on HB 656

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/95/house/09500HB0656_01102008_008000C.pdf

THANK YOU to your continued support in the Calls-to-Action on this very important issue.  The focus now shifts to the Chicago city council which must take action to increase the real estate transfer tax. 

In other action, on Thursday the House approved House Bill 1841 on a roll call vote of 73-42-0 and sent the bill to the Senate for their consideration. HB 1841, sponsored by Representative Julie Hamos, amends the RTA Act to provide that the RTA shall coordinate the public-participation and public hearing processes with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (C-MAP).

Also on Thursday, the House overwhelmingly approved House Bill 4191 and sent the bill to the Senate for their consideration. HB 4191, sponsored by Speaker Michael Madigan, would accelerate the effective date of Senate Bill 1167 approved in the 2007 spring session. You will recall that this comprehensive predatory lending measure was slated to take effect in mid-2008. That measure enacted new predatory lending regulations that were the initiative of Attorney General Lisa Madigan and revised the predatory lending database provisions originally enacted in House Bill 4050. Under HB 4191, the new effective date of the Attorney General’s provisions would be on the date it is signed by the Governor but the predatory lending database provisions would still be effective July 1, 2008 due to a stated effective date for those provisions. Another section of HB 4191 amends the Deposit of State Moneys Act to grant the State Treasurer the ability to expand the “Our Own Home” program which provides assistance to home owners at risk of losing their homes due to a financial hardship. 

The Illinois House honored one of their own on Wednesday, January 9th in moving testimony on the House floor on House Resolution 889. Representative Jim Watson (R-97) is set to deploy to Iraq in February as a member of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s (I MEF) Headquarters Unit and will be serving in Fallujah in Al-Anbar province as part of the Unit’s Governance Cell where he will be working to build provincial and municipal governments. IAR wishes to extend our admiration to Representative Jim Watson and we wish him Godspeed. 

For more information, contact Greg St. Aubin, Director of IAR Governmental Affairs, gstaubin@iar.org, or Julie Sullivan, Assistant Director, Legislative and Political Affairs, jsullivan@iar.org.

Contact information for members of the House and Senate, notice of committee hearings, text of legislation and roll call votes are all available on the Illinois General Assembly’s Web site, www.ilga.gov.