Capitol Report | Summer 2018
A Spring of Missed Opportunities
The chance to make great change in the spring legislative session has come and gone.
Marty Green, Esq.
Senior VP and Legislative Counsel, Illinois CPA Society
The Latest on Advocacy and Legislation
The atmosphere of the spring legislative session’s closing days was much different this year.
Considering the large number of lame duck legislators currently in office who will not be on
the ballot come the November general election, there was no place or patience for the
deadlock we’ve seen in prior years. To put it in perspective, the FY 2019 State Operating
Budget actually passed on time. In all, the mostly collegial environment led to an amicable
resolution to the spring legislative session — if only this was always the case.
From my perspective under the Capitol dome, however, there were many missed opportunities
by our state legislators. In total, 19 Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendments (JRCA) were
introduced in the Illinois House and Senate that would have set the stage to amend the Illinois
Constitution and bring significant political and financial change to the state.
Passed in 1970, the Illinois Constitution serves as a structure for our state’s government and
laws. Aside from the General Assembly proposal, there are two other ways to initiate change
to the Illinois Constitution: (1) a constitutional convention may propose changes to any part;
(2) a petition initiative may propose amendments limited to structural and procedural subjects
contained in the Legislative Article. The people of Illinois must approve any changes to the
Constitution before they become effective.
Back to the missed opportunities.
SJRCA 20/HJRCA 47 proposed imposing term limits on the General Assembly’s members,
legislative leaders, and constitutional officers.
SJRCA 22, 26/HJRCA 43, 46 put forward changing the way state legislative and congressional
districts are drawn following the decennial census, taking the redistricting process out of the
hands of the General Assembly’s majority party. A more independent approach would be
established, whether it be through an independent redistricting commission or by a 16-member
commission appointed by the chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and the most senior
Supreme Court judge of the minority political party.
SJRCA 24/HJRCA 41 proposed merging the Office of the Comptroller with the Office
of the Treasurer.
Additionally, as discussed in Keith Staats’
Tax Decoded column, JRCAs were also introduced to amend the Illinois
Constitution to allow for a graduated income tax rate versus the
state’s current flat tax rate.
None of these JRCAs introduced by the 100th General Assembly
received a committee hearing, were debated, or were voted upon.
While I only identified similar JRCAs above, the range of topics they
cover go straight to the heart of our governmental structures and
processes and are more than worthy of the legislature’s
consideration. In fact, just one JRCA was heard, voted upon, and
adopted — SJRCA 4, making Illinois the 37th state to ratify the 1972
federal Equal Rights Amendment. It’s uncertain if this will even have
any impact on amending the U.S. Constitution. In 1979, Congress
required 38 states to adopt the amendment, but the deadline for
adoption was 1982.
Since the 1970 Illinois Constitution was adopted, the General
Assembly has proposed 17 amendments to Illinois voters — 11 of
those proposals, the most recent in 2016, were adopted and six
were not. Although there have been attempted petition initiatives
to amend the Illinois Constitution, on topics like legislative
redistricting, the only successful petition initiative was approved
by voters in 1980, reducing the size of the Illinois House and
abolishing cumulative voting for its members.
As we now look ahead to Illinois’ November general election,
many of the 157 legislative seats that appear on the ballot (118
House and 39 Senate) aren’t even competitive. To illustrate, of the
39 Senate seats up for election, 18 incumbent seats are
uncontested. These “safe, non-competitive seats” are most likely
reflective of the state’s existing methodology of drawing legislative
districts. More importantly, the 2020 decennial census is
approaching, followed by the 2021 redistricting process. Illinois is
expected to lose one or two congressional seats due to the state’s
population decline, thereby making the redistricting process even
more political. With that in mind, our 2018 gubernatorial election
becomes more important to both political parties due to the
governor’s potential veto power over legislation establishing
legislative and congressional districts.
As I wrote to you last fall, “I believe Illinois can be restored to its
place as a progressive leader in the Midwest and throughout the
country. It will take political change, greater voter literacy and
participation, and the election of public officials committed to the
interests of the state and solving its systemic problems.” And I’ll
remind you again of the words of U.S. District Judge James B.
Zagel, “The American people always get precisely the government
that they deserve.” I encourage you to keep these thoughts in mind
when assessing your candidates of choice.
The Illinois Constitution requires that every 20 years the question
to convene a constitutional convention be presented to Illinois
voters. In 2008, voters opted not to call for such a convention.
Given the General Assembly’s current lack of appetite to modernize
our governmental structures (it remains to be seen what the
next General Assembly will bring), Illinois voters may have
to wait until 2028 for the opportunity to vote on convening a
constitutional convention. In the meantime, let’s hope our
legislators miss fewer opportunities.
Author’s Note: This column includes my personal observations of the
evolution of the legislative environment and are not necessarily the
views of the Illinois CPA Society.