League of Women Voters of Illinois^®

The following list of bills provides an example of legislation that was passed quickly without time for the public to know what was being proposed. The list refers to "Shell Bills," which are bills with little description and vague language. These bills are used to flesh out last minute provisions that pass quickly at the last minute.

1. Electricity Rate Increases - House Bill 362 - January 29, 1997
   In 1997, House Bill 362 was introduced on January 29th. The bill added the words "enforcement of laws - electronic trespass" to the Public Utilities Act. The Act ensured that violations to the utility law will be enforced. House Bill 362 appeared to simply add electronic violations to the law. The bill sat unchanged for 245 days until October 30th when it was amended with 261 pages of complex utility law. It passed the Senate on the same day it was changed by a vote of 57 to 2. Calling it the "Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law", the bill focused on the ten-year rate freeze but it also gave tax relief for the utilities, imposed as a tax on citizens for the privilege of using the utility and allowed for the utility companies to raise rates in January of 2007 without a defined limit. The bill passed on the spin that this would help competition which didn't come about since the rates were frozen. The day after the Senate passed the bill, the House passed it 108 to 7 and the Governor (Jim Edgar) signed the bill quickly.
   
   We now know what the effect of this fast-track legislation was. It is now 2007 and the extremely large increases are causing many hardships for the people expected to pay them. Efforts are being made to correct the impact of this legislation.
   
   
2. Fee Increases - Senate Bill 1903 - February 20, 2003
   In 2003, Senate Bill 1903 was introduced as a shell bill with a simple reference to change language that said "the Governor" to say "Governor of Illinois". The bill was unchanged for 100 days when it was amended with 393 pages of new law raising $320 million in revenues for the state through fee hikes imposed on thousands of citizens, businesses and municipalities. Amended and passed on May 31st, the Armed Forces holiday, the bill became law and citizens didn't know what happened for some time. When trucking companies found their fees had doubled, and municipalities found their fees for dumping waste at an EPA regulated facility had greatly increased was when the word got out. Citizens also found extra fees added to the purchase of every tire and non profit organizations found their fees to participate in lobbying increased by leaps and bounds.
   
   
3. Diversion of Pension Payments - Senate Bill 27 - December 20, 2005
   Senate Bill 27 was introduced on December 20, 2005 to give a pension benefit to a Chicago widow. On May 29, 2006, it became an 83 page bill that changed pension law and imposed restrictions on staffing and careers of educators statewide. It also diverted pension payments that the state was scheduled to make for the next two years in order to balance the state budget. It passed both the House and the Senate on the same day. We don't know if the widow received her pension.
   
   
4. Budget Bills - SB 1548 in 2005 and SB 1520 in 2006
   Both of these large budget bills grew from shell bills into large comprehensive multi-million dollar budget ills and passed both houses in a matter of two or three days at the very of session. This was done by the very people who passed the legislation that said all school districts in Illinois were required to publicly publish their budgets for at least 30 days before they can be adopted.
   
   To view the full language of the bills mentioned above please check the website address: http://www.showus.org/sudpmemo122706.htm
   
   It is difficult to guess which shell bills will be moving as the Illinois General Assembly has introduced over a thousand shell bills for each session in recent years. When this is done on a holiday weekend, near the very end of session, it is even more difficult to keep an eye on what is moving in Springfield.
   
   The Show Us Amendment would require the legislature to plan ahead to meet the 21-day requirement and have final language ready at least three weeks before they plan to pass it. That would give citizens, businesses, municipalities, and organizations a chance to review any changes in time to let their local legislators know of their concerns. This amendment would also give legislators enough time to adequately review any new language on bills before they have to vote on them.