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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() March 19, 2001 Community College-Related Bills That Are Still Active House Bill 131 -- Local Government Joint Investments (Schoenberg) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides that with the authorization of the governing body, the treasurer of a governmental unit may join with the treasurers of other governmental units to jointly invest funds of which the treasurer has custody. HB 131 is currently on second reading (when amendments may be added or deleted) in the House. HB 258 -- Re-Map for the Southwestern Illinois Community College District (Holbrook) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides for the new division of Community College District No. 522 into trustee districts in the year following each decennial census. HB 258 passed the House 116-0 and has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee. HB 502 -- Vocational Education Revitalization Grants (Scully) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Allows school districts that have unused or underfunded vocational education programs to apply for grants to revitalize their programs. HB 502 passed the House 111-3 and is currently on first reading (when a bill has yet to be assigned to a committee) in the Senate. HB 583 -- Grade-Based Scholarships (Lang) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Allows scholarships to be awarded to entering freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have and maintain at least a "B" average at public and private community colleges, colleges, and universities in Illinois. HB 583 is on third reading (when it may be called for a recorded roll-call vote) in the House. HB 914 -- Public Building Commission Bond Refinancing (Moore) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides that, as a revenue source for alternate bonds, any unit of local government having a public building commission lease rental base is authorized to levy a public building commission lease rental base alternate tax levy. HB 914 passed the House Revenue Committee 10-1 and is currently on second reading in the House. HB 921 -- Interior Design Title Act Reauthorization (Pankau) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Reauthorizes the Interior Design Title Act for 10 years. The Act, which sunsets at the end of 2001, is vigorously opposed by architects and others. Several community colleges currently offer programs in interior design. Sen. Brad Burzynski is sponsoring similar legislation (SB 1228) in the Senate. HB 921 passed the House Registration and Regulation Committee 21-0 and is currently on second reading in the House. HB 975 -- Mandated Ratio of Full-time and Part-time Faculty (Hoffman) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Requires the governing board of each public university and community college to achieve a ratio between full-time and part-time teachers in which at least 75 percent of all full-time equivalent teaching positions are held by full-time faculty members and not more than 25 percent of all FTE teaching positions are held by part-time teachers. HB 975 passed the House Higher Education Committee 7-1 and is currently on second reading in the House. HB 1720 -- Collective Bargaining Rights for Part-Time Faculty (Ryder) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Amends the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act to redefine a "short-term employee." The change -- which provides that the employee must not have a reasonable expectation (instead of a reasonable assurance) that he or she will be rehired -- would permit part-time employees to organize and be recognized as a bargaining unit. ICCTA opposes this legislation because IBHE has not yet completed its General Assembly-mandated study on part-time faculty. HB 1720 passed the House 108-2 and is being sent to the Senate. HB 1851 -- Increase in Illinois Incentive for Access Grants (Myers) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Increases the Illinois Incentive for Access grants by raising the maximum amount paid per applicant per year from $500 to $1,000. HB 1851 is currently on third reading in the House. HB 1905 -- Reduction of Community College Treasurers Bond (Wirsing) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Changes the amount of the required bond for community college treasurers (outside of Chicago) to equal the rate for K-12 board treasurers. HB 1905 passed the House Higher Education Committee 12-0 and is currently on third reading in the House. HB 3078 -- Freedom of Information Act -- Litigation Agreements (Righter) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Specifies that a public body’s agreement to settle litigation (other than litigation brought by a prisoner) is a public record. HB 3078 passed the House Judiciary I -- Civil Law Committee 10-0 and is currently on second reading in the House. HB 3098 -- Open Meetings Act -- Verbatim Record of Closed Sessions (Dart) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Requires a public body to maintain a verbatim record of minutes of closed meetings. The court may examine in camera any portion of the minutes of a meeting at which a violation of this Act is alleged to have occurred. The minutes of closed meetings shall not be subject to disclosure in any other proceedings except upon direction of the court or public body. The record may be maintained in the form of audio or video recording, or may be taken by a certified court reporter. HB 3098 passed the House State Government Administration Committee 6-2 and is currently on second reading in the House. HB 3320 -- ICCB Trades Training Program (Poe) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Requires the Illinois Community College Board to establish and administer a trades training program to provide grants to rural communities for such programs. HB 3320 passed the House Agriculture Committee 13-0 and is currently on second reading in the House. Senate Bill 107 -- Certification of Adult Education Teachers (Del Valle) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides additional authority to the Illinois Community College Board to develop requirements and adopt rules to establish a system for the credentialing of adult education teachers. SB 107 is currently on third reading in the Senate. SB 314 -- Retirees Health Insurance for Part-Time Employees (Cronin) ICCTA Position: MONITOR Permits part-time employees to enroll in the community college retirees health insurance program. SB 314 passed the Senate 54-0 and has been assigned to the House Rules Committee. SB 682 -- Speech Language Pathology Assistants (Myers) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT This bill will be used to advance any agreements between the community college system and the Speech Language Pathologists to create a recognized Speech Language Pathologist Assistant designation in the K-12 system and other entities. SB 682 is scheduled to be amended in a Senate committee to add the agreed content. SB 1394 -- FY 02 Community College Appropriation (Donahue) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Contains the IBHE recommendations for community college funding in FY 2002. SB 1394 has been assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Community College-Related Bills That Are NOT Active HB 192 -- Extension of SURS "30 and Out" Provision (M. Smith) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Amends the State Universities Retirement System Act to allows retirement at any age with 30 years of service. Current law allows this temporarily through 2002. Sen. Judy Myers is sponsoring similar legislation (SB 584) in the Senate. HB 192 has been re-referred to the House Personnel and Pensions Committee. HB 501 -- Foundation Matching Grants (Scully) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Appropriates $1 million to the Illinois Community College Board for community college foundation matching grant awards as authorized by Public Act 91-664 (legislation originally advanced by ICCTA). HB 501 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 655 -- Repeal of City Colleges of Chicago Management Rights (McCarthy) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Repeals management rights legislation approved in 1996 that affected prohibited subjects of collective bargaining at City Colleges of Chicago. ICCTA testified against this bill in committee. HB 655 failed 9-7 in the House Labor Committee and has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 701 -- Tuition Tax Credits (Reitz) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Creates a tuition tax credit for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of less than $100,000. The credit would not exceed $500 for amounts spent during the taxable year for the tuition and fees of the taxpayer and any dependent enrolled in full- or part-time undergraduate studies at any public or private college, university, or community college in Illinois. HB 701 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 815 -- Release from Liability for Snow Removal (Hoffman) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides that a local public entity or its employees and agents who remove or attempt to remove snow or ice from a street, sidewalk, or other public way is liable for any injury that results from a condition caused by that undertaking unless the alleged misconduct was willful and wanton. HB 815 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 981 -- Grants to Increase Number of Full-Time Faculty (Crotty) ICCTA Position: MONITOR Appropriates $10 million to ICCB for a program that awards grants to community college districts to increase the amount of credit hours taught by full-time faculty. HB 981 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 1852 -- Minority Male Teacher Scholarships (Righter) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall set a goal to award at least 30 percent of its Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarships in each fiscal year to qualified male minority applicants (rather than requiring that 30 percent of these scholarships be awarded to qualified male minority applicants). HB 1852 failed 6-3 in the House Higher Education Committee and has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 1871 -- Repeal of Management Rights at City Colleges and Chicago Schools (Delgado) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Repeals provisions added by Public Act 89-15 that establish prohibited subjects of collective bargaining between the City Colleges of Chicago or the Chicago Public Schools system and an exclusive representative of the employees of that educational employer. HB 1871 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. HB 1974 -- Redefinition of Athletic Trainers (Brunsvold) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Changes the definitions of the terms "licensed athletic trainer" and "referral," and permits athletic trainers to perform many of the functions of a physical therapist. HB 1974 failed 5-13 in the House Registrations and Regulations Committee and has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee.
ICCTA Lobby Day is May 9 -- click here or call 1-800-454-2282 to register today. For additional information on state legislative issues, contact ICCTA at 1-800-454-2282.
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