The Illinois Library Association’s Executive Board has taken the following general positions on legislation that has already been introduced, or is likely to be introduced, during the current session of the Illinois General Assembly.
–Opposes any legislation cutting funding, for counties and municipalities, that comes from the Local Government Distributive Fund
–Is against legislation reducing the amount of funding that units of local government receive from the Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax
–Opposes any legislation that would restrict the power that local libraries have to levy or collect taxes on real property
The ILA has also reiterated its past stances on the issue of pensions, while adding a fourth one.
–Is against legislation that would modify pension benefits an employee has already accrued
–Backs legislation that promotes genuine choice for employees
–Supports legislation that would apply any proposed pension reform uniformly across all local and state plans
–Opposes any mandatory reform that would move the burden of pensions costs from the State to local governments or institutions (new statement)
To give some background on the first point (maintaining levels of funding from the Local Government Distributive Fund), the Fund consists of net revenue that the State draws from personal and corporate income taxes. (The money is transferred from the General Revenue Fund to the Distributive Fund.) The proportion of those taxes that has been earmarked for the Fund has declined in recent years, from 10 percent to about 6 percent. The reduction went into effect in 2011, when the State temporarily increased the tax rates on corporate and personal income but did not correspondingly raise the amount set aside for the Fund. That the tax increase has not been renewed complicates the issue further. As of FY 2014, the Fund brought in $1.095 billion.
Legislation to increase the proportion of money transferred from the General Revenue Fund to the Local Government Distributive Fund has been introduced in this session of the General Assembly. House Bill 0365 would raise the amount back to 10 percent by February 1, 2019. (The increases would come in increments over a three-year period, beginning in February of next year.) The bill was referred to the Rules Committee on January 28. To track the status of the bill, click here.