August 26, 2011
To the Honorable
Members of the
Illinois House of
Representatives,
97th
General Assembly:
I
hereby return House Bill 1079 with a specific recommendation for change.
Increasing the transparency and
information provided to the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the General
Assembly from public universities in this state is an important step. This
bill requires that a report be submitted annually by each public university
listing all programs of instruction, research and public service that have been
terminated, dissolved, reduced or consolidated by the university as well as any
programs exhibiting trends of low performance in enrollment, degree completion or
high expenses per degree. These provisions provide much needed scrutiny and I
applaud the sponsors for their efforts.
Other provisions of this bill,
however, do not promote transparency and oversight. This bill also makes a
change to the State Property Control Act to allow the Department of Central
Management Services (CMS) to require universities to report only those items
owned by the university that are valued in excess of $1,000. All other
entitles under the State Property Control Act operate under a lower threshold.
Differentiating disclosure requirements between the public universities and
other governmental entities will impose confusion in the application of our
State’s surplus property laws. I encourage the sponsors to consider a measure
that provides for uniform application of the State Property Control Act.
Therefore,
pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return House Bill 1079, entitled “AN ACT concerning education.”, with
the following specific recommendation for change:
on page 1, by deleting lines 4
through 16.
With this change, House Bill 1079 will
have my approval. I respectfully request your concurrence.
Sincerely,
PAT QUINN
Governor