August 25, 2009

To the Honorable Members of the Illinois Senate,

96th General Assembly:

Today I return Senate Bill 1682 with a specific recommendation for change. I thank the sponsors for their hard work on this bill. As recent tragedies have indicated, our State officials charged with enforcing the Funeral or Burial Funds Act and the Illinois Pre-Need Cemetery Sales Act must do more to prevent mismanagement and unfair business practices. I formed the Cemetery Oversight Task Force and the General Assembly has created the Funeral Burial Task Force to advise our State officials on improvements that can be made to better regulate these industries. The Funeral Burial Task Force will make its report by December 31, 2009. Accordingly, I recommend changing the effective date of this bill to allow for an opportunity to review those findings.

Therefore, pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 1682, entitled “AN ACT concerning State government.”, with the following specific recommendation for change:

on page 49, below line 19, by inserting “Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect on January 31, 2010.”.

With this change, Senate Bill 1682 will have my approval.  I respectfully request your concurrence. 

Sincerely,

PAT QUINN

Governor