CHICAGO – Mayors and the Illinois Municipal League will press state lawmakers this year to pass legislation merging some public safety pension fund functions and guaranteeing the flow of various revenue streams without a state budget in place.
Municipal leaders and the league laid out a 2017 legislative agenda dubbed "Moving Cities Forward" this week as local governments continue to face strains from the 19-month-old state budget impasse.
The group also offered a mixed assessment of Gov. Bruce Rauner's recent budget address, expressing relief that he doesn't want to cut local government aid and opposition to his suggestion that local governments' share of property taxes be permanently frozen.
In the wake of the state's budget quagmire, the group wants lawmakers to pass legislation establishing an automatic appropriation to free up their share of motor fuel taxes, 9-1-1 emergency fees, use taxes, and gambling taxes. The budget gridlock resulted in some of those revenue streams being withheld without such an appropriation in place. Temporary appropriations approved by lawmakers and Rauner were needed to resume the flow of revenues.
"The 'Moving Cities Forward' legislative reforms are crucial for maintaining fiscal solvency in municipalities across the state," the league's executive director, Brad Cole, said at a news conference Tuesday. "Mayors have long championed these reforms to provide local government with critical tools needed to serve their communities."
The group also said it would press for the consolidation of administrative functions and investments among the 663 individual local government public safety pension funds with the goal of reducing costs. Many local governments are struggling to meet rising payments due to a state mandate to reach a 90% funded ratio in the coming decades.
"Our growing pension obligations, coupled with delays in receiving funding from the state, hinder our ability to run our communities as efficiently and effectively as possible," said Barrington village president and league board president Karen Darch.
The group also backs some workers' compensation and prevailing wage changes and expanding home rule eligibility. The group wants a constitutional amendment put on the ballot that would extend automatic home rule status to municipalities with at least 5,000 residents. Currently, municipalities with more than 25,000 residents automatically qualify or residents can pass a referendum. More than 200 communities hold home rule status and the change would make at least 171 communities eligible.
Local leaders said they were heartened by a full funding commitment of Local Government Distributive Funds and motor fuel tax revenues in Rauner's proposed fiscal 2017 budget after he proposed cuts in the past. The group is opposed to Rauner's suggestion that the bipartisan Senate budget fix should be revised to make permanent a proposed two-year local government property tax freeze.
Such a mandate would curb local government flexibility and smaller communities without a diverse tax base would be hardest hit.
"Many communities spend their entire property tax collection on state mandates, such as pension contributions," Cole warned. Local governments could ask voters to raise the tax levy but the delay could hurt local governments' ability to manage challenges.
