Local Government: Illinois Governor’s Amendatory Veto Would Allow Local Voters to Adopt Binding Ethics Ordinances by Referendum
August 27, 2009
Governor Pat Quinn has issued an unexpected amendatory veto to Senate Bill 1662. The veto attaches new provisions to the original bill that would allow voters within a local government to put on the ballot of a regular or local government election a referendum question that would, if passed by a simple majority of those voting, incorporate into the local code or book of ordinances the “binding ordinance relating to ethical standards” described in the referendum question. The original SB 1662, as submitted to Governor Quinn, would simply have reduced the time for filing a statement of organization of a political committee from five to two business days and would have required submission by facsimile or electronic mail.
If approved by a majority of both houses of the General Assembly, the amendatory veto would establish the following specific requirements for a petition for referenda on the voter-initiated ordinance:
- petitions must contain the text of the proposed ordinance and date of the election at which it is proposed to be submitted
- petitions must be signed by electors constituting at least 8 percent of the total votes cast for governor at the last general election in the unit of local government
- signatures on the petitions cannot be more than 12 months prior to the date of the election
In the amendatory veto language, local officials are provided with a 30-day window in which to decide if they want to adopt the proposed ordinance. Petitions must be filed with the clerk at least 108 days before the election on which ballot the referendum is proposed to appear. If the corporate authorities of the unit of local government pass the proposed ordinance, without any amendments, not less than 78 days prior to the election, then the referendum would not be submitted to the voters.
Procedures for filing objections to the petitions, and for submitting the proposed referendum to the election officials, are similar to those for other referenda. If the election official finds that the proposed ordinance is too long to print on the ballot, the election official may ask the clerk of the unit of local government to provide a “concise statement of its nature.”
If the ordinance is adopted, either as a result of approval of the voters by referendum or by the corporate authorities prior to submission to the voters, it cannot be repealed or amended for four years after its adoption, unless the question of whether to repeal or amend is submitted to the voters. The corporate authorities of a unit of local government are authorized to submit a referendum proposition to the voters to amend or repeal the ordinance.
Among the questions raised based on early review of the amendatory veto are the scope of the phrase “ethical standards” and who is intended to be covered by the phrase “unit of local government,” which would not normally include school districts. In addition, the proposed language also does not contain any express language preempting home rule authority, raising a real question about the preemptive effect of the proposal if it is enacted.
The amendatory veto was issued on August 24, 2009. The bill now returns to the Illinois Senate for consideration with the amendatory veto language. Both houses can concur with the new language by a majority vote, which will then return the amended bill to the governor for signature. In the alternative, the General Assembly can override the veto by again approving the original bill, this time by a three-fifths vote in each of the House and Senate, within 15 days after each chamber receives and enters the amendatory veto in its journal.
We will monitor the bill and keep you advised. In the interim, please feel free to contact Barbara Adams at
312-578-6563, or any Holland & Knight attorney with whom you normally work, for further guidance on this issue.
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