A Spring of Missed Opportunities

The chance to make great change in the spring legislative session has come and gone.

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.

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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.