 Most of the items passed with little or no opposition, but a handful are
expected to draw debate should they make into bill form and be considered by the
General Assembly.
The items passed involved:
Giving the Illinois State Board of Education flexibility to provide incentives
for the outcomes of school consolidation.
Encouraging sharing of regional safety equipment, resources, training,
facilities and administrative functions.
Merging downstate and suburban public safety funds into a single pension
authority or perhaps two (one each for police and fire). Each unit of local
government’s fund still would be uniquely maintained. The model would be
somewhat akin to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
Allowing the merging of township road and bridge districts with less than 25
miles of roads into township general funds.
Protecting the Illinois’ Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.
Making collective bargaining at the local level permissive rather than
mandatory.
Eliminating minimum firefighter and paramedic staffing for collective
bargaining.
Adopting the federal definition for catastrophic injury for lifetime total
health insurance benefits for public safety workers.
Allowing arbitrators to use local governments’ existing financial parameters as
a primary consideration during interest arbitration.
The group tabled an item suggesting a constitutional amendment to end all
future, unfunded state mandates. Members agreed the draft language needed more
work.
Seventeen of the roughly two dozen voting task force members were present in
person or by conference call, and the votes cast showed no opposition or drew
only a single “no” vote.
The task force, appointed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and led by Lt. Gov.
Evelyn Sanguinetti, includes state legislators, local government and education
officials and others.
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 State Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, cast two “no” votes and two
present votes on the last four items, which are the ones expected to
draw the most scrutiny from legislative Democrats.
Holmes, the lone Democratic lawmaker voting in this task force
session, said she thinks the group has “fostered a lot of good
discussion, so I think that’s definitely a positive.”
Still, Holmes said, she’s not entirely comfortable with all the
items on the group’s agenda.
“Let’s be completely blunt here,” she said. “I think in some cases,
some of these items are bleeding over into this administration’s
goal of eliminating the powers of organized labor.”
She said she wonders if those items involving collective bargaining
are “more items on the governor’s turnaround agenda than … specific
to the unfunded mandates and government consolidations committee.”
The group — formally the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded
Mandates Task Force — intends to finish its report in December.
To that end, Sanguinetti asked members to keep space on their
calendars open for the first three Tuesdays in December. Only one
December meeting had been planned, Sanguinetti said, but the other
two might be necessary.
Rauner says Illinois must rein in government. The state has more
than 7,000 units of local government, reportedly the most in the
nation and a full 1,800 ahead of the next most government-heavy
state.
The administration says bloated government is inefficient, aids
corruption and contributes to high tax burdens.
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