ICCTA Action Alert April 6, 2001 The Illinois General Assembly adjourned late Friday evening after completing first-house actions (where House bills introduced into the House and Senate bills introduced into the Senate have received the allotted time for consideration). All legislation that is still advancing has now been sent to the second house for consideration. Senate bills that have passed out of the Senate have now been sent to the House, and House bills that have passed out of the House have been sent to the Senate for further consideration. Lawmakers have now completed one-half of the spring legislative session and will take the week of April 9 off for Easter break. Both houses will return to Springfield on April 17 to begin work on the second half of the session. Several issues of interest to community colleges are advancing through the process and have passed out of the first house of action. In addition, several new or revived issues are listed below that were recently changed by amendatory action. We are listing all legislation of interest that has advanced to the second house for consideration. Issues that are not listed may be dead for the year. FY 2002 Budget On April 3, presidents and trustees from throughout the state were on hand to witness Edward Duffy, chair of the Illinois Community College Board, and Dr. Joseph Cipfl, president/CEO of ICCB, testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the system’s budget request for fiscal year 2002. Gov. George Ryan has recommended that the community college system receive a 5.6% increase in operations increases, a $9 million increase in funding for adult education programs, and $125 million in capital construction funds for each of FY 2002 and FY 2003. Bills of Interest to Community Colleges That Are Advancing 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. This is the first bill signed by the Governor this year - - Public Act 92-0001. HB 289 -- Statements of Economic Interest (Johnson / Karpiel) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Provides that a person whose multiple offices or positions each require a Statement of Economic Interests need file only one statement with the Secretary of State (for offices and positions required to file with the Secretary of State) or one statement with the county clerk (for offices and positions required to file with the county clerk). HB 289 passed out of the House 116-0-0. HB 502 -- Vocational Education Revitalization Grant (Scully) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Allows school districts that have unused or underfunded vocational education programs to apply for grants to revitalize their vocational education programs. HB 502 passed out the House 111-3-0. HB 583 -- Scholarships for "B" Students (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 passed out of the House 73-36-3. HB 862 -- ICEOP Grant Increase (Erwin) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Increases the maximum amount of an Illinois Consortium for Educational Opportunity Act grant from $10,000 annually to $15,000 annually. HB 862 passed out of the House 114-0-0. HB 914 -- Public Building Commission Bond Refinancing (Saviano / 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 out of the House 63-52-1. HB 921 -- Interior Design Title Act Reauthorization (Pankau) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Reauthorizes the Interior Design Title Act for 10 years until January 1, 2012. The Act, which sunsets at the end of 2001, was vigorously opposed by architects and others for extending the sunset until 2012. Several community colleges currently offer programs in interior design. HB 921 passed out of the House 110-0-0. HB 1356 -- Speech Language Pathology Assistant Certification ( Berns - Righter - Hartke) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Creates a new certified position of Speech Language Pathology Assistant and provides for the qualifications and supervision of the position under a Speech Language Pathologist. HB 1356 passed out of the House 115-0-0. 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 out of the House 108-2-1. 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 passed out of the House 109-0-0. 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 out of the House 110-0-0. HB 3066 -- Definition of Part-time Employees (Ryan / O’Malley) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Removes the provision in current law excluding part-time academic employees of community colleges from the definition of "educational employee" and "employee". HB 3066 passed out of the House 103-0-0. HB 3078 -- Freedom of Information Act - Litigation Agreements (Righter) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Specifies that a public body's agreement settling litigation, other than litigation brought by a prisoner, is a public record. HB 3078 passed out of the House 10-3-0. HB 3098 -- Open Meetings Act - Verbatim Transcript of Closed Sessions (Dart) ICCTA Position: OPPOSE Requires that a verbatim record of minutes of meetings closed to the public shall be maintained by the public body. The court may examine any portion of the minutes of a meeting at which a violation of this Act is alleged to have occurred. The minutes of meetings closed to the public shall not be subject to disclosure in any other proceedings except upon direction of the court or public body. Such record may be maintained in the form of an audio or video recording or may be taken by a certified court reporter. HB 3098 passed out of the House 91-10-0. HB 3320 -- ICCB Trades Training Program(Poe) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Requires the Illinois Community College Board to establish and administer an agriculture trades training grant program to provide grants to rural communities to bring together community leaders to develop a trades training program for their community. HB 3320 passed out of the House 91-10-0. SB 314 -- Retirees Health Insurance for Part-time Employees (Cronin / Saviano) ICCTA Position: MONITOR Permits part-time community college employees to elect to enroll in the community college retirees health insurance program. The part-time employee must meet all of the qualifying requirements that a full-time employee must meet and must qualify to draw a State Universities Retirement System pension. SB 314 passed out of the Senate 54-0-0. SB 914 -- ICCB Adult Education Fund (Donahue / Erwin) ICCTA Position: SUPPORT Creates the ICCB Adult Education Fund and provides that all money in the fund may be used, subject to appropriation, by the Illinois Community College Board for operational expenses associated with the administration of adult education and literacy activities. SB 914 passed out of the Senate 54-0-0. 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. The deadline for Appropriations Committee deliberations has been extended to May 11. Bills That Failed To Advance 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 the House Rules 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 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. HB 655 failed in the House Labor Committee four times. 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 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 has been held on second reading (when amendments may be added or deleted) in the House. 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 in the House Higher Education 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 has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee. 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 failed in the Senate 26-23-7 (30 votes are required for passage in the Senate). ICCTA Lobby Day is May 9. Register today by clicking here. For additional information on state legislative issues, contact ICCTA at 1-800-454-2282. [ Return to top ] Illinois Community College Trustees Association 401 E. 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