HB4659 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB099 17303 AWJ 41661 b

99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2015 and 2016
HB4659

Introduced , by Rep. Elaine Nekritz

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

70 ILCS 2605/5.2	from Ch. 42, par. 324L
70 ILCS 2605/9	from Ch. 42, par. 328
70 ILCS 2605/9.6a	from Ch. 42, par. 328.6a
70 ILCS 2605/9.6c
70 ILCS 2605/9.6e new
70 ILCS 2605/9.8	from Ch. 42, par. 328.8

Amends the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Act. Modifies the definition of "Construction Purposes" and a Section on bonds to include stormwater management and resource recovery facilities and systems (currently, flood control facilities) and residential and municipal sewers that connect with District sewers, facilities, or systems. Further provides that the District may establish the Residential Cost Share Program to encourage residents and municipalities to update the sewage system they own to prevent infiltration of water entering the sewer system. Allows the District to fund the new Program in various ways. Effective immediately.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IMPACT NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Act is amended by changing Sections 5.2, 9, 9.6a, 9.6c, and 9.8 and by adding Section 9.6e as follows:

(70 ILCS 2605/5.2) (from Ch. 42, par. 324L)

Sec. 5.2. Definitions. Where used in this law, "budget year" shall mean the fiscal year for which a budget is made. "Current year" shall mean the fiscal year in progress, i.e., the fiscal year next preceding the budget year. "Preceding year" shall mean the fiscal year preceding the current year.

The "Clerk" shall mean that officer so designated as provided in Section 4.

"Fund" shall mean a sum of money or other resources set aside for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. A fund shall be a distinct financial or fiscal entity.

"Accountant" shall mean a public accountant or certified public accountant licensed under the laws of this State.

"Expenditure" shall mean the amount of obligations incurred either paid or to be paid from the appropriations for the budget year for all purposes, including current expenses, retirement of debt, and capital outlays.

"Disbursement" shall mean the actual payment in cash for any purpose.

"Receipt" shall mean cash actually received and shall include appropriable cash on hand at the beginning of any specified year.

"Estimated receipt" shall mean cash estimated to be received within the budget year and shall include the cash surplus estimated to be appropriable at the beginning of the budget year.

"Cash basis" shall mean that system of accounting wherein revenues are accounted for when received in cash and expenditures are accounted for when paid.

"Accrual basis" shall mean that system of accounting wherein revenues are accounted for when earned or due, even though not collected, and expenditures are accounted for as soon as liabilities are incurred, whether paid or not.

"Function" (activity) of expenditure shall mean the particular purpose or group of services aimed at accomplishing a certain end for which an expenditure is made.

"Line Item" or item shall mean a particular type of expenditure within a class or related group of such expenditures, i. e., testing service, hospital service, towel and laundry service, within the class titled "Impersonal Services."

"Object" of expenditure shall mean specific articles, or classes of things for which an expenditure is made, i. e., personal services, impersonal services, materials and supplies, machinery and equipment, fixed charges and any such other classes of articles or things as may be desirable.

"Character" of expenditure shall refer to the relationship of total expenditures to current, prior, and future fiscal periods, i. e., whether the expenditure is a current expense, provision for the retirement of debt, or a capital outlay.

"Organization units" shall be the administrative units of the district, i. e., departments, major sewage treatment plants, and such other operating units or groups of operating units as may be deemed desirable by the authorities of the Sanitary District.

The "committee on finance" shall be any committee so appointed and so designated by the board of commissioners for the purpose of considering financial matters affecting the district.

"Sinking Fund Requirements" shall mean the amounts that will be needed to pay interest on and principal of bonds.

"Construction Fund" shall mean the amounts to be used for paying the costs incurred for construction purposes.

"Construction Purposes" shall mean the replacement, remodeling, completion, alteration, construction, and enlargement, including alterations, enlargements and replacements which will add appreciably to the value, utility, or the useful life of sewage treatment works, administrative buildings, flood control, stormwater management and resource recovery facilities and systems, or water quality improvement projects, and additions therefor, pumping stations, tunnels, conduits, and intercepting sewers, residential and municipal sewers directly or indirectly connecting with district sewers, facilities or systems therewith, and outlet sewers, and those activities set forth in Section 9.6e, together with the equipment and appurtenances necessary thereto, and for the acquisition of the sites and rights of way necessary thereto, and for engineering expenses for designing and supervising the construction of the works above described, and for removal of the rock ledge in the bed of the Des Plaines River (Illinois Waterway) through the City of Joliet.

Prior to the commencing of work involved in the removal of the rock ledge in the bed of the Des Plaines River formal approval shall be obtained for the design and plans for accomplishing this work from the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, and the State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago, its agents, successors or assigns shall save the State of Illinois harmless from any and all claims of whatever nature which may arise as a result of or in consequence of any work which may be performed by the District.

The rights, powers, and authorities granted in this Act shall be subject to the provisions of Section 18 of the Rivers, Lakes, and Streams Act.

It is the intent and purpose of this Act to provide a legal basis which will authorize and require all Sanitary Districts organized under the provisions hereof to make and execute the budgets of their Corporate Funds and Construction Funds in such manner that the budgets may be planned and balanced with receipts on an actual cash basis and expenditures on an accrual basis, and all definitions, terms, provisions and procedures set forth in this Act shall be thus construed as applied to corporate funds and construction funds.

(Source: P.A. 97-367, eff. 8-15-11.)

(70 ILCS 2605/9) (from Ch. 42, par. 328)

Sec. 9. The corporation may borrow money for corporate purposes and may issue bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness therefor, but shall not become indebted in any manner, or for any purpose to an amount in the aggregate to exceed 5.75% of the valuation of taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and county taxes previous to incurring of such indebtedness. No ordinance providing for the issuance of such obligations of any sanitary district organized under this Act shall be valid unless it specifically states the purpose for which such obligations are to be issued. The funds derived from the sale of any such obligations shall be used solely for the purpose stated in such ordinance. Such obligations may be sold and delivered as and when the proceeds thereof shall be deemed necessary by the board of commissioners. Such obligations shall be of the form and tenor and shall be executed for and on behalf of such sanitary district by such of its officers as may be specified in the ordinance. The validity of every such obligation so executed shall remain unimpaired by the fact that one or more of the subscribing or attesting officers shall have ceased to be such officer or officers before the delivery of the obligations to the purchaser.

Except for the purpose of paying lawful claims against such sanitary district for damage to land or for damage to or destruction of other property, where such damage or destruction is caused or occasioned by such sanitary district, and except for the purpose of establishing a corporate working cash fund as is provided by Section 9b of this Act, and except for the purpose of establishing a construction working cash fund as is provided by Section 9c of this Act, and except as is otherwise provided in Sections 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, and 9.6a, and 9.6e of this Act, no such sanitary district shall issue obligations payable from taxes unless the proposition to issue such obligations shall have been first submitted to the legal voters of such sanitary district, and shall have been approved by a majority of those voting upon the proposition.

(Source: P.A. 83-1525.)

(70 ILCS 2605/9.6a) (from Ch. 42, par. 328.6a)

Sec. 9.6a. Bonds for sewage treatment and water quality improvements. The corporate authorities of a sanitary district, in order to provide funds required for the replacing, remodeling, completing, altering, constructing and enlarging of sewage treatment works, administrative buildings, water quality improvement projects, or flood control, stormwater management and resource recovery facilities and systems, and additions therefor, pumping stations, tunnels, conduits, intercepting sewers, residential and municipal sewers directly or indirectly connecting with district sewers, facilities or systems, and outlet sewers, and those improvements set forth in Section 9.6e, together with the equipment, including air pollution equipment, and appurtenances thereto, to acquire property, real, personal or mixed, necessary for said purposes, for costs and expenses for the acquisition of the sites and rights-of-way necessary thereto, and for engineering expenses for designing and supervising the construction of such works, may issue on or before December 31, 2024, in addition to all other obligations heretofore or herein authorized, bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness for such purposes in an aggregate amount at any one time outstanding not to exceed 3.35% of the equalized assessed valuation of all taxable property within the sanitary district, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and local taxes previous to the issuance of any such obligations. Such obligations shall be issued without submitting the question of such issuance to the legal voters of such sanitary district for approval.

The corporate authorities may sell such obligations at private or public sale and enter into any contract or agreement necessary, appropriate or incidental to the exercise of the powers granted by this Act, including, without limitation, contracts or agreements for the sale and purchase of such obligations and the payment of costs and expenses incident thereto. The corporate authorities may pay such costs and expenses, in whole or in part, from the corporate fund.

Such obligations shall be issued from time to time only in amounts as may be required for such purposes but the amount of such obligations issued during any one budget year shall not exceed $150,000,000 plus the amount of any obligations authorized by this Act to be issued during the 3 budget years next preceding the year of issuance but which were not issued, provided, however, that this limitation shall not be applicable (i) to the issuance of obligations to refund bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness, (ii) to obligations issued to provide for the repayment of money received from the Water Pollution Control Loan Program Revolving Fund for the construction or repair of wastewater treatment works or any other purposes as authorized by the Water Pollution Control Loan Program, and (iii) to obligations issued as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, issued prior to January 1, 2011, that are commonly known as "Build America Bonds" as authorized by Section 54AA of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Each ordinance authorizing the issuance of the obligations shall state the general purpose or purposes for which they are to be issued, and the corporate authorities may at any time thereafter pass supplemental appropriations ordinances appropriating the proceeds from the sale of such obligations for such purposes.

The corporate authorities may issue bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness in an amount necessary to provide funds to refund outstanding obligations issued pursuant to this Section, including interest accrued or to accrue thereon.

(Source: P.A. 96-828, eff. 12-2-09; 96-1308, eff. 1-1-11; 97-367, eff. 8-15-11.)

(70 ILCS 2605/9.6c)

Sec. 9.6c. Local Government Assistance Program; bonds.

(a) The General Assembly finds that governmental units located within the boundaries of the district require assistance in financing the cost of repair, replacement, reconstruction, and rehabilitation, and construction of local sanitary, combined, and storm sewer collection systems to reduce certain excessive sanitary sewer groundwater inflows in separate sewer area sanitary sewers and mitigate flooding in separate and combined sewer areas; that such inflows ultimately result in sanitary and combined sewer overflows, basement backups, and an increased need for treatment and storage facilities of the district; and that the district, in the discretion of its commissioners, advantageously may provide loan funds for such purposes.

(b) For purposes of this Section, the following terms shall have the meanings set forth, as follows:

The following terms shall have the meanings given to them in the Local Government Debt Reform Act: (A) "alternate bonds"; (B) "applicable law"; (C) "bonds"; (D) "general obligation bonds"; (E) "governmental unit"; (F) "ordinance"; and (G) "revenue source".

"Assistance bonds" means the bonds to be issued by the district to provide funds for the program as authorized in subsection (f) of this Section.

"Assistance program" means the program authorized in this Section by which the district may make loans to local governmental units for any one or more of the following undertaken with respect to the repair, replacement, reconstruction, and rehabilitation, and construction of sanitary, combined, and storm local sewer collection systems: preliminary planning, engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal or economic investigations or studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures or other necessary actions, erection, building acquisition, alteration, remodeling, or improvement of such collection systems, or the inspection or supervision of any of the foregoing.

"Loan" means a loan made by the district to a local governmental unit under the assistance program.

"Local governmental unit" means a governmental unit within the boundaries of the district.

"Reconstruction" shall include the construction of totally new lines or systems if reasonably designed to replace obsolete lines or systems.

(c) The commissioners may establish an assistance program.

(d) The commissioners are authorized to do any one or more of the following with respect to the assistance program:

(1) Establish the assistance program as a use or appropriation within the corporate fund of the district.

(2) Accept grants, borrow funds, and appropriate lawfully available funds for the purpose of funding the assistance program.

(3) Make the loans as provided in subsection (e).

(4) Enforce loans with all available remedies as any governmental unit or private person might have with respect to such loans.

(e) The district shall have the power to make loans and local governmental units shall have the power to obtain loans from the district, but only if authorized to borrow under such powers as may be granted to such local governmental units under other applicable law. This Section does not grant local governmental units separate borrowing power. If authorized to issue bonds under such applicable law, however, the form of the borrowing may be such as the district and the local governmental unit may agree, including, without limitation, a loan agreement made between the district and local governmental unit to evidence the bond. Any such loan agreement shall state the statutory authority under applicable law for the bond it represents but otherwise need not be in any specific form. The district shall have all rights and remedies available to the holder of a bond otherwise issued in the form provided for same under applicable law and also such rights and remedies as may be additionally available under subsection (d)(4) of this Section. The loans may be made upon such terms and at such rates, including expressly below market rates, representing a subsidy of funds from the district to the local governmental units, as the district may specify in the loan agreements.

(f) The district may borrow money and issue its assistance bonds under this Section 9.6c for the purpose of funding the assistance program, which bonds shall be alternate bonds payable from any lawfully available revenue source, including without limitation receipts from the loans.

(Source: P.A. 98-652, eff. 6-18-14.)

(70 ILCS 2605/9.6e new)

Sec. 9.6e. Residential Cost Share Program.

(a) As used in this Section:

"Infiltration" means the quantity of water entering a sewer system through such sources including, but not limited to, defective pipes, pipe joints, connections, or manhole walls.

"Inflow" means the quantity of water entering the sewer system through connections including, but not limited to, area or foundation drains, connected downspouts, and catch basins.

"Program" means the Residential Cost Share Program.

"Residential" means real property primarily used as a residence or dwelling and for which the majority of wastewater generated from the property is of a domestic nature and which falls within the scope of the Program established by the District.

(b) The General Assembly finds that:

(1) basement backups present a public health and safety issue;

(2) infiltration and inflow can occur from sources on both public and private properties and ultimately must be conveyed and treated by the district at a cost to the District's taxpayers;

(3) under many circumstances, removing infiltration and inflow from private property is the most direct means to reduce the incidence of basement backups because it removes excess flow at the source and thereby frees capacity for sanitary flows requiring treatment at a water reclamation plant;

(4) disconnecting foundation drains and downspouts is an effective strategy for reducing inflow;

(5) large cisterns and rain gardens are successful methods for reducing infiltration and inflow;

(6) overhead sewers, backflow prevention valves, and bypass pumps are effective systems for protecting private properties from basement backups during large rain events;

(7) rehabilitation or replacement of lateral sewers (including flood grouting) is also an effective method for reducing infiltration, especially in older communities where deteriorated laterals can contribute very large quantities of clear water to the sanitary system thereby overburdening local and District sewer lines with water not requiring treatment;

(8) private property infiltration and inflow work reduces the incidence of combined and sanitary sewer overflows to surface water during wet weather by increasing the percentage of total flow that can be conveyed and treated at a water reclamation plant;

(9) although privately owned, lateral sewers are a necessary part of the collection system and lateral sewer replacement or rehabilitation may be a benefit to the residential property owner, that benefit is incidental to the public benefits and public purpose described above;

(10) it is efficient and beneficial for the District to cooperate and assist by way of cost share programs with units of local government who in turn may assist residential property owners with the activities referenced in this section; and

(11) a Residential Cost Share Program would be beneficial to lessening and preventing infiltration and inflow.

(c) The board of commissioners of the District may establish a Residential Cost Share Program by ordinance. Once the Program is established by ordinance, the District is authorized to cooperate with and assist units of local government located in whole or in part within the boundaries of the District by financing and cost sharing residential repairs, replacements, reconstructions, rehabilitations, installations, constructions, and disconnections of the following:

(1) Downspouts;

(2) foundation drains;

(3) lateral sewers;

(4) overhead sewers;

(5) backflow prevention valves;

(6) bypass pumps;

(7) cisterns;

(8) residential rain gardens; and

(9) other infiltration and inflow control strategies as approved by the District in its Program.

(d) The board of commissioners of the District are authorized to: (1) establish the Program as a use or appropriation within the corporate or stormwater funds of the District; and (2) accept grants, cost share with units of local government, borrow funds, and appropriate lawfully available funds for the purpose of funding the Program. Funds borrowed to fund the Program will be general obligations of the District authorized under Section 9.6a of this Act.

(70 ILCS 2605/9.8) (from Ch. 42, par. 328.8)

Sec. 9.8. Except as is otherwise provided by Sections 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.6a, 9.6c, 9.6e, 9b, and 9c of this Act, whenever the corporate authorities of the Sanitary District desire to issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes, they shall by ordinance direct that the ordinance or ordinances for the issuance of such bonds be submitted to the legal voters of such sanitary district at any election. The clerk of such sanitary district shall certify the ordinance and the question to the proper election officials who shall submit the question at an election in accordance with the general election law. The question shall be in substantially the following form:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Shall bonds for the purpose of YES (State purpose) in the sum of.... be --------------------

issued by the Sanitary District of....? NO

-------------------------------------------------------------

It shall not be necessary to print in full on the ballot any such ordinance authorizing the issuance of bonds.

The result of the referendum on the question shall be entered upon the records of the district.

(Source: P.A. 90-690, eff. 7-31-98.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.