 In a 6-1 decision Thursday, the high court upheld a 2006 Sangamon
County Circuit Court ruling that backed the governor and
Legislature's ability to take money from hundreds of special state
funds, a practice commonly referred to as sweeping.Motorcycle
riders sued former Gov. Rod Blagojevich after he ordered that
$296,000 be taken from the Cycle Riders Safety Training Fund, or
CRSTF. A portion of the fee for an Illinois motorcycle license went
into the fund. The motorcycle education and advocacy group called A
Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education, or ABATE, argued that the money
was only to be spent on motorcycle safety education. The governor
that year used the $296,000 to pay general state bills.
"Clearly, the fee charged by the state for motorcycle
registration and licensing is state revenue, and therefore the
portion of this state revenue which the General Assembly has
allocated to the CRSTF is also public money," wrote Justice Anne
Burke in the majority opinion.
Burke rejected the ABATE lawyers' argument that the special fund
was tantamount to a special trust fund.
With the lone opposing vote, Chief Justice Tom Kilbride wrote in
his dissenting opinion that he is "concerned, however, that the
legislature may have swept private or federal funds."
In 2003, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in the case City of
Chicago v. Holland that federal dollars cannot be rerouted for state
needs.
But Kilbride pointed to $2 million in "fund transfers" from the
State Park Fund. Some of the money in that fund comes from
charitable contributions from Illinois taxpayers.
"This court has an obligation to address the implications of
sweeping private donations and federal grant moneys," he wrote in
his dissenting opinion.
Dawn Clarke Netsch, former legislator and current professor
emeritus at Northwestern University Law School, said private and
federal dollars are a different issue, but the court was on target
with the idea of "public money."
"If there are no specific constitutional protections for money
that comes in to the state, the General Assembly can always change
its mind and do something different with those dollars," she said.
"Just because a bill is passed that sets forth a path to paying
certain moneys to certain funds, doesn't mean it will stay that way
forever."
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Laurence Msall, president of the Chicago-based Civic Federation,
a public policy research group, said he hopes the lawmakers and
governor will use the money to pay the state's bills.
"But even with permission to sweep every state fund, it would not
be enough to fix the state's problems," Msall said.
Quinn's budget spokeswoman, Kelly Kraft, said there are no plans
to sweep any special funds for the next state budget.
"Gov. Quinn worked to end the practice of fund sweeps, and sweeps
are not a possibility for FY13," Kraft said.
But the governor has come to rely on interfund borrowing. Quinn
borrowed $500 million from special state funds in the current state
spending plan. That money is supposed to be paid back at the end of
the fiscal year.
ABATE lawyer Rod Taylor said, "The decision just strikes terror
into the basic fabric of American life, the sanctity of contract."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
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