Legislative Veto Session recap

Posted February 18, 2015 in Legislative briefs

The override of the Governor’s veto of the Voluminous FOIA Request bill
Recap provided by IML: HB 3796 would establish “a definition of a “voluminous request” and allow the public body to respond to a voluminous request in much the same manner as when responding to a recurrent requester under the current law. The bill also states that a public body is not required to copy and make available for public inspection a public record that is published on the public body’s website – unless the requester does not have reasonable electronic access. Supported by IML

Passage of the Fire Minimum Manning bill, which generally would not be supported by local governments
The Legislative Committee has been getting updates from our legislative consultants that a trailer bill is coming to help mitigate the effects of this bill.  
Recap provided by IML: On January 7, Governor Quinn signed the fire department minimum staffing legislation into law as Public Act 98-1151. The new law makes collective bargaining over staffing levels a mandatory subject of bargaining in every municipality with a unionized fire department. The law carries an immediate effective date.

 The IML is presently working with Senator Mulroe on a trailer bill intended to ensure that arbitrators must apply a “breakthrough” standard before assenting to impose a manning standard where one presently does not exist, or when considering a mandate of additional fire fighters on a shift.  

2011 income tax hike not extended
The Legislature failed to extend the 2011 income tax hike, so the income tax rate has dropped from 5.0% to 3.75%. It does not appear, however, that this will impact the municipal share of income tax revenue.