Senate Sponsors: PARKER. House Sponsors: SCHOENBERG-GARRETT-CROTTY-MAY-COULSON Short description: TOLL HIGHWAY-COUNTERFEIT FINES Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Amends the Toll Highway Act. Increases the fine for using spurious or counterfeit tickets or tokens from not less than $5 and not more than $100 for each offense to not less than $20 nor more than $250. Effective immediately. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 1. Adds reference to: 605 ILCS 10/8.1 new 605 ILCS 10/10 from Ch. 121, par. 100-10 605 ILCS 10/11 from Ch. 121, par. 100-11 605 ILCS 10/14.1 from Ch. 121, par. 100-14.1 605 ILCS 10/16.2 new 605 ILCS 10/18 from Ch. 121, par. 100-18 605 ILCS 10/20.2 new 605 ILCS 10/23 from Ch. 121, par. 100-23 605 ILCS 10/23.5 new 605 ILCS 10/24 from Ch. 121, par. 100-24 Further amends the Toll Highway Act. Requires the Governor to appoint an Inspector General to investigate waste, fraud, or financial mismanagement in Authority operations involving Authority employees or contractors. Provides that after the effective date of this amendatory Act and through June 30, 2003, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority may not charge or collect tolls at a rate higher than the tolls in effect on March 21, 2002. Provides that with respect to a proposed increase in toll rates, the Authority may not hold more than one hearing on the same day, and imposes other requirements concerning such hearings. Requires the Authority to submit a 20-year comprehensive strategic financial plan to the General Assembly by December 31, 2002. Requires the Auditor General to conduct a management audit of the State's toll highway operations and management. Provides that the Act constitutes an irrevocable and continuing appropriation from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority Fund for amounts to pay principal, interest, and other bond expenses and obligations (instead of the Fund being considered always appropriated for the purposes of repayment of debt service and other bond obligations). Provides that all other expenses, including ordinary and contingent expenses, are subject to annual appropriation. Provides that, before bonds may be issued for or construction may be commenced on any new segment of toll highway, the issuance of bonds for or the commencement of construction of that particular segment must be approved by law (rather than authorized by joint resolution of the General Assembly). Prohibits directors of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, their employees, and agents from receiving financial benefit from the letting of Authority contracts during their terms of service and for a period of one year following termination of their positions or employment with the Authority. Provides that any general increase in toll rates must have the prior approval of the General Assembly by a three-fifths majority vote. Provides that the State guarantees payment of bonds issued before the effective date of the amendatory Act, and requires the Authority to maintain a debt service fund with respect to revenue bonds outstanding on the effective date of this amendatory Act. Makes other changes. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 2. Deletes the amendatory provision that for all outstanding bonds issued by the Toll Highway Authority before the effective date of this amendatory Act, the State guarantees the timely payment of any principal or interest that is not paid by the Authority when due. FISCAL NOTE (Auditor General) SB 2067 as arrived in the House does not require the expendi- ture of any State funds by the Auditor General. FISCAL NOTE, H-AM 1 (Auditor General) While the bill requires the Toll Highway Authority to pay for the audit, the Auditor General Office would need to first incur the audit expenses. Consequently, the Auditor General Office will need additional appropriation authority to allow it to incur the audit expenses, even though they will be subsequently reimbursed by the Authority. The non-recurring cost of conduc- ting the audit could be as high as $750,000, depending on whether the audit can be completed entirely using in-house staff, or using a combination of in-house staff and contrac- tual assistance. STATE DEBT IMPACT NOTE (Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission) SB 2067, as engrossed, would not affect the bonding authoriza- tion of the State, and, therefore, has no direct impact on the level of State indebtedness. STATE DEBT IMPACT NOTE, H-AM 1 (Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission) SB 2067, as amended by H-am 1, could affect the State's bonded indebtedness by an undetermined amount. STATE DEBT IMPACT NOTE, H-AMS 1 and 2 (Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission) No change from State Debt Impact Note, engrossed. FISCAL NOTE, H-AMS 1 and 2 (Illinois State Toll Highway Authority) Establishing an Inspector General position would increase the expenditure of toll revenue by approximately $300,000 per year. Intercession by the General Assembly into the fixing of tolls, either by authorizing their increase or imposing a toll mora- torium would give rise to a default under the current Trust Indenture and provide Tollway Authority bondholders standing to exercise contractual remedies. These options inlcude declaring the entire outstanding debt ($781 million) immediately due and payable. The Tollway does not have this amount in reserve and therefore would be in default. These changes could affect the creditworthiness of the Tollway Authoirty and subject its credit rating to a possible downgrade by the various rating agencies. Future bond issues may require a higher interest rate. Subjecting the Tollway's annual budget to an annual appropriation may also affect the rights of current bondhold- ers and provide standing for contractual remedies, which could affect the creditworthiness of the Authority and subject its credit rating to a possible downgrade. Future bond issues may require a higher interest rate. At this time, no exact dollar figure can be attached to these provisions. In the opinion of the Authority, removing the guarantee by the State for payment of Tollway bond interest and principle does not remove the State from liability should the Tollway default on its bonds due to the other provisions of this bill. Requiring the Auth- ority to submit a Comprehensive Strategic Financial Plan to the General Assembly is estimated to cost up to $100,000. The Auditor General has estimated that a management audit could cost up to $750,000. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 3. Makes a technical change to correct page and line number references contained in House Amendment No. 2. HOME RULE NOTE, H-AMS 1 and 2 (Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs) The legislation does not pertain to a home rule unit of local government. Therefore, in the opinion of DCCA, this legisla- tion does not pre-empt home rule authority. STATE DEBT NOTE, H-AM 3 (Economic and Fiscal Commission) No change from previous State Debt Note. FISCAL NOTE, H-AM 3 (Illinois State Toll Highway Authority) H-am 3 would impose no additional fiscal impact to those detailed in the prior fiscal note on H-ams 1 and 2. JUDICIAL NOTE, H-AMS 1, 2, 3 (Administrative Office of Illinois Courts) The bill would neither increase nor decrease the number of judges needed in the State. HOME RULE NOTE, H-AM 3 (Department of Commerce and Community Affairs) Same as previous home rule note. LAND CONVEYANCE APPRAISAL, H-AMS 1, 2 (Department of Transportation) SB 2067 includes no particular conveyance of property by the State. Therefore, the filing requirement for an appraisal is not applicable. STATE MANDATES NOTE, H-AMS 1, 2, 3 (Department of Commerce and Community Affairs) In the opinion of DCCA, SB 2067 (H-ams 1, 2 and 3) does not meet the definition of a State mandate under the State Mandates Act. STATE DEBT IMPACT NOTE (Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission) No change from the first State debt impact note. STATE DEBT IMPACT NOTE, H-AM 4 (Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission) No change from previous State Debt Impact Note. JUDICIAL NOTE, H-AM 4 (Administrative Office of Illinois Courts) Same as previous Judicial Note. Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: JAN-07-2003 Location: Senate Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 3 SENATE - 0 END OF INQUIRY Full Text Bill Status