Legislative Update -- June 23, 2022
June 23, 2022
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Governor Pritzker Signs Bills into Law
We reported on
April 14 about Senate Bill 3789, the "Decennial Committees on Local Government Efficiency Act," was signed it into law on June 10 as Public Act 102-1088.
- Requires certain governmental units to establish a committee within one year of the effective date (by June 9, 2023) and at least once every 10 years thereafter, to study local efficiencies and report recommendations to the county board no later than 18 months after the committee has been formed.
- Library districts that have the ability to levy a tax are one of the units of local government affected by the provisions of this initiative. Municipalities are specifically excluded from the provisions of this bill.
- The public act outlines committee responsibilities: “...the study of the governmental unit's governing statutes, ordinances, rules, procedures, powers, jurisdiction, shared services, intergovernmental agreements, and interrelationships with other governmental units and the State. The committee shall also collect data, research, and analysis as necessary to prepare the report” it will tender to its county board.
- The committee, the composition of which is delineated within the bill, is required to meet at least three times and may convene during a regularly scheduled governmental body meeting if certain conditions, including Open Meetings Act and quorum requirements, are met. The committee will operate as a public entity for purposes of FOIA disclosure and compliance.
Municipal Minute reported last week about various legislative proposals that were recently signed into law that raised other units of local governments’ bid purchasing thresholds. We have heard concerns from our members about this, and we'd like to share some additional context and history about purchasing thresholds for libraries:
- The Illinois General Assembly raised library bid thresholds in 2018, an increase actively sought, and achieved, by ILA. When compared to governmental units that had their bid thresholds raised during this year's spring session, libraries have had our limits raised more often and on a more regular basis than many affected by those proposals.
- These threshold increases for the other units of local government were four separate bills, sponsored by four different legislators, rather than a coordinated effort to pick and choose which types of units to which this benefit would apply.
- When compared against the yearly budgets of some of those governmental units, our members remain at somewhat of an advantage with the $25,000 threshold amount when compared against our yearly individual budgets on a percentage basis, at least for projects that scale based on size.
That said, we understand there may be renewed interest now in seeking another increase for libraries in the upcoming 2023 legislative session, and the ILA Public Policy Committee will put this on its docket to discuss.
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