Archive for the ‘Article 7 - Finance and Revenue’ Category
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) Public funds, property or credit shall be used only for public purposes.
(b) The State, units of local government and school districts shall incur obligations for payment or make payments from public funds only as authorized by law or ordinance.
(c) Reports and records of the obligation, receipt and use of public funds of the State, units of local government and school districts are public records. Every Governmental Entity in the State of Illinois shall make available to the public for inspection, any and all reports, accounts, account balances, records of disbursements, and any other communication relating the entity’s financial position. This availability for inspection shall be completed within 48 hours any transaction involving public funds. This disclosure of information shall be available electronically, in a uniform fashion.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly, at a time prescribed by law, a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year. The budget shall set forth the estimated balance of funds available for appropriation at the beginning of the fiscal year, the estimated receipts, and a plan for expenditures and obligations during the fiscal year of every department, authority, public corporation and quasi-public corporation of the State, every State college and university, and every other public agency created by the State, but not of units of local government or school districts. The budget shall also set forth the indebtedness and contingent liabilities of the State and such other information as may be required by law. Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.
(b) The General Assembly by law shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.
(c) The state shall not incur debt to meet fiscal year appropriations. Appropriations in excess of available funds shall require the reduction of appropriations. Appropriations shall be reduced by the General Assembly and approved by the Governor by a time prescribed by law.
(d) Failure to reduce appropriations in accordance with Section (c) of this article shall result in an equal reduction of every appropriation necessary to equalize appropriations with available funds.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) The General Assembly shall provide by law for the audit of the obligation, receipt and use of public funds of the State.
(b) The Auditor General shall conduct the audit of public funds of the State. He shall make additional reports and investigations as directed by the General Assembly. He shall report his findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and to the Governor.
(c) The Auditor General shall be empowered to conduct audits independently of any directive by the General Assembly or the Executive Branch as the Auditor General sees fit.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
The State of Illinois shall, for the purposes of this Article, prepare budgets on the basis of revenue and expense measurement that are in accordance with the accrual basis of accounting. All units of local government and school districts shall use these systems.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
The General Assembly has the exclusive power to raise revenue by law except as limited or otherwise provided in this Constitution. The power of taxation shall not be surrendered, suspended, or contracted away.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
In any law classifying the subjects or objects of non-property taxes or fees, the classes shall be reasonable and the subjects and objects within each class shall be taxed uniformly. Exemptions, deductions, credits, refunds and other allowances shall be reasonable.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) A tax on or measured by income shall be at a non-graduated rate. At any one time there may be no more than one such tax imposed by the State for State purposes on individuals and one such tax so imposed on corporations. In any such tax imposed upon corporations the rate shall not exceed the rate imposed on individuals by more than a ratio of 8 to 5.
(b) Laws imposing taxes on or measured by income may adopt by reference provisions of the laws and regulations of the United States, as they then exist or thereafter may be changed, for the purpose of arriving at the amount of income upon which the tax is imposed.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this Section, taxes upon real property shall be levied uniformly by valuation ascertained as the General Assembly shall provide by law.
(b) Any depreciation in the value of real estate occasioned by a public easement or regulation may be deducted in assessing such property.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) The General Assembly by law may classify personal property for purposes of taxation by valuation, abolish such taxes on any or all classes and authorize the levy of taxes in lieu of the taxation of personal property by valuation.
(b) Any ad valorem personal property tax abolished on or before the effective date of this Constitution shall not be reinstated.
(c) On or before January 1, 1979, the General Assembly by law shall abolish all ad valorem personal property taxes and concurrently therewith and thereafter shall replace all revenue lost by units of local government and school districts as a result of the abolition of ad valorem personal property taxes subsequent to January 2, 1971. Such revenue shall be replaced by imposing statewide taxes, other than ad valorem taxes on real estate, solely on those classes relieved of the burden of paying ad valorem personal property taxes because of the abolition of such taxes subsequent to January 2, 1971. If any taxes imposed for such replacement purposes are taxes on or measured by income, such replacement taxes shall not be considered for purposes of the limitations of one tax and the ratio of 8 to 5 set forth in Section 3 (a) of this Article.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
The General Assembly by law may exempt from taxation only the property of the State, units of local government and school districts and property used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, and for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes. The General Assembly by law may grant homestead exemptions or rent credits.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
The General Assembly may provide by law for fair apportionment of the burden of taxation of property situated in taxing districts that lie in more than one county.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) Real property shall not be sold for the nonpayment of taxes or special assessments without judicial proceedings.
(b) The right of redemption from all sales of real estate for the nonpayment of taxes or special assessments, except as provided in subsections (c) and (d), shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate for not less than 2 years following such sales.
(c) The right of redemption from the sale for nonpayment of taxes or special assessments of a parcel of real estate which:
(1) is vacant non-farm real estate or
(2) contains an improvement consisting of a structure or structures each of which contains 7 or more residential units or
(3) is commercial or industrial property; shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate for not less than one year following such sales.
(d) The right of redemption from the sale for nonpayment of taxes or special assessments of a parcel real estate which:
(1) is vacant non-farm real estate or
(2) contains an improvement consisting of a structure or structures each of which contains 7 or more residential units or
(3) is commercial or industrial property; and upon which all or a part of the general taxes for each of 2 or more years are delinquent shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate for not less than 6 months following such sales.
(e) Owners, occupants and parties interested shall be given reasonable notice of the sale and the date of expiration of the period of redemption as the General Assembly provides by law.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) No State debt shall be incurred except as provided in this Section. For the purpose of this Section, “State debt” means bonds or other evidences of indebtedness which are secured by the full faith and credit of the State or are required to be repaid, directly or indirectly, from tax revenue and which are incurred by the State, any department, authority, public corporation or quasi-public corporation of the State, any State college or university, or any other public agency created by the State, but not by units of local government, or school districts.
(b) State debt for specific purposes may be incurred or the payment of State or other debt guaranteed in such amounts as may be provided either in a law passed by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly or in a law approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question at the next general election following passage. Any law providing for the incurring or guaranteeing of debt shall set forth the specific purposes and the manner of repayment.
(c) State debt in anticipation of revenues to be collected in a fiscal year may be incurred by law in an amount not exceeding 5% of the State’s appropriations for that fiscal year. Such debt shall be retired from the revenues realized in that fiscal year.
(d) State debt may be incurred by law in an amount not exceeding 15% of the State’s appropriations for that fiscal year to meet deficits caused by emergencies or failures of revenue. Such law shall provide that the debt be repaid within one year of the date it is incurred.
(e) State debt may be incurred by law to refund outstanding State debt if the refunding debt matures within the term of the outstanding State debt.
(f) The State, departments, authorities, public corporations and quasi-public corporations of the State, the State colleges and universities and other public agencies created by the State, may issue bonds or other evidences of indebtedness which are not secured by the full faith and credit or tax revenue of the State nor required to be repaid, directly or indirectly, from tax revenue, for such purposes and in such amounts as may be authorized by law.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
(a) General provisions. The preferred interpretation of this section shall reasonably restrain most the growth of government. All provisions are self-executing and severable and supersede conflicting state constitutional, state statutory, charter, or other state or local provisions. Other limits on district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future voter approval.
(b) Term definitions. Within this section:
(1) “Initiative” means a non-recall petition or referred measure in an election.
(2) “Entity” means the state or any local government.
(3) “Emergency” excludes economic conditions, revenue shortfalls, or district salary or fringe benefit increases.
(4) “Fiscal year spending” means all entity expenditures and reserve increases except, as to both, those for refunds made in the current or next fiscal year or those from gifts, federal funds, collections for another government, pension contributions by employees and pension fund earnings, reserve transfers or expenditures, damage awards, or property sales.
(5) “Inflation” means the percentage change in the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
(c) All governmental taxing entities in the state of Illinois shall limit the growth of their budget appropriations and expenditures to no greater than the prior year except for the rate of inflation plus population growth with in the boundaries of that entity. Should the operation of economic activity reduce an entity’s revenue, the highest level of expenditure shall be the foundation from which the entity can calculate its allowable increase.
(d) Excess revenues over allowable expenditures at the end of a fiscal year shall be transferred to a Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund shall not exceed 3% of the current year’s expenditures. Expenditures from the Reserve Fund may be made only upon the exhaustion of other available funds.
(e) For any fiscal year, the excess lf revenues over expenditures, except as provided in paragraph (d) shall be returned as refunds as determined by the governing body of the entity.
(f) The citizens or elected representatives of any Illinois governmental entity may, in accordance with provisions in this Constitution or in the Illinois election code, place on the ballot, an initiative to exceed expenditure caps in paragraph (c).
For the purposes of this section, the entity seeking to increase the expenditure limits must follow provisions in paragraph (g) of this Section.
(g) Election provisions.
(1) Initiatives under this Section shall be decided in a state general election.
(2) At least 30 days before an initiative, entities shall mail at the least cost, and as a package where entities where initiatives overlap, a titled notice or set of notices addressed to “All Registered Voters” at each address of one or more active registered electors. The entities may coordinate the mailing required by this paragraph with the distribution of the ballot information booklet required by law. Titles shall have this order of preference: “NOTICE OF ELECTION TO INCREASE TAXES/TO INCREASE DEBT/ON A CITIZEN PETITION/ON A REFERRED MEASURE.” Except for entity voter-approved additions, notices shall include only:
(i) The election date, hours, ballot title, text, and local election office address and telephone number.
(ii) For proposed entity tax or bonded debt increases, the estimated or actual total of district fiscal year spending for the current year and each of the past four years, and the overall percentage and dollar change.
(iii) For the first full fiscal year of each proposed district tax increase, district estimates of the maximum dollar amount of each increase and of district fiscal year spending without the increase.
(iv) For proposed district bonded debt, its principal amount and maximum annual and total district repayment cost, and the principal balance of total current district bonded debt and its maximum annual and remaining total district repayment cost.
(v) Two summaries, up to 500 words each, one for and one against the proposal, of written comments filed with the election officer by 45 days before the election. No summary shall mention names of persons or private groups, nor any endorsements of or resolutions against the proposal. Petition representatives following these rules shall write this summary for their petition. The election officer shall maintain and accurately summarize all other relevant written comments. The provisions of this subparagraph (v) do not apply to a statewide ballot issue.
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