Court Opinion

ID: 9819028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:18:03.273337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:35:08.193306
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE BILANDIC, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the portion of the majority opinion that holds that the Authority did not have the power to adopt a 1998 budget for the City under the facts of this case. The Financially Distressed City Law (the Act) (65 ILCS 5/8 — 12—1 et seq. (West 1996)) requires the City to submit its proposed budget no later than 60 days prior to the commencement of its fiscal year. See 65 ILCS 5/8— 12 — 16 (West 1996). The City’s fiscal year is the calendar year. The City’s budget for the period commencing January 1, 1998, and ending December 31, 1998, is involved in this case. The City adopted its first proposed 1998 budget and submitted it to the Authority for approval on November 12, 1997. Incredibly, the City adopted this budget 10 days later than required by the Act. After adopting an ordinance requesting that it be designated a financially distressed city under the Act, the City failed to comply with the provisions of the Act. Here, the Authority did what the City should have done — it adopted a timely and balanced budget. The Authority did so only after two failed attempts by the City. The majority erroneously decides that the Act does not allow the Authority to impose a budget on the City under the facts of this case. The Act gives the Authority “all powers necessary to meet its responsibilities and to carry out its purposes and the purposes of [the Act].” See 65 ILCS 5/8 — 12—6(b) (West 1996). With less than two weeks remaining in 1997, the Authority properly exercised these powers to rescue the City from its inept financial performance. Only harm could be visited on the citizens and taxpayers of the City without a timely approved budget. The broad language of the Act shows an intent by the legislature to give the Authority the power to impose a budget on the City. The provisions of the Act reveal that the legislature deemed it critical for a financially distressed city to have a balanced budget. As the circuit court found, prohibiting the Authority from imposing a budget “would be to limit their choice to either throwing the City into the same financial chaos and distress which the Law was enacted to prevent or compromising the City’s financial integrity which is contrary to the legislative intent.” The Authority was acting within the broad powers that the Act provides to it. The Authority determined that imposing a budget on the city was the best way “to provide a secure financial basis for the continued operation” of the City. See 65 ILCS 5/8 — 12— 2(b) (West 1996). Moreover, the Act should be read as a whole, with all relevant parts considered. See Kraft, Inc. v. Edgar, 138 Ill. 2d 178, 189 (1990). Section 8 — 12—6(b) states that the Authority shall have all powers necessary to meet its responsibilities and to carry out its purposes and the purposes of the Act “including, but not limited to” certain enumerated powers. The word “including” is a term of enlargement, not limitation. People v. Valley Steel Products Co., 71 Ill. 2d 408, 419 (1978). The term should not be construed to mean that those things not enumerated are excluded, where such a construction would override the intent of the legislature. See Valley Steel Products Co., 71 Ill. 2d at 419. The “including, but not limited to” language of the Act shows that the legislature contemplated that the Authority has powers other than the powers specifically enumerated. Indeed, two of the provisions in section 8 — 12—6(b) describe certain enumerated powers by referencing the broad power that the Act provides to the Authority. See 65 ILCS 5/8 — 12— 6(b)(2), (b)(5) (West 1996). Thus, the fact that the Act does not explicitly grant the Authority the power to impose a budget is not determinative. The legislature granted the Authority “all powers necessary” to carry out the Act’s purposes. The legislature stated that a purpose of the Act is “to provide a secure financial basis for the continued operation of a financially distressed city.” 65 ILCS 5/8 — 12—2(b) (West 1996). A legitimate budget is necessary to provide the City with a secure financial basis. The legislative history also reveals that the Act was intended to correct the problems of financially distressed cities. Representative Stephens made the following comments in support of the Act: “If you are going to give money to people who have been irresponsible with it in the past, for once and for all let’s simply say ‘no more.’ Now if you enter into a financial agreement, we will have an oversight committee that has to give a stamp of approval. Two of the citizens of that five man oversight committee will reside in the city, three will not. They will be put there to watch the taxpayers’ dollars, because they deserve to be watched. If the mayor continues his ways of the past, he will lose all authority, because we are saying to him, ‘no more.’ These are strings. These are ropes. These are iron clad guarantees to the taxpayers throughout the State of Illinois that we are fed up with irresponsibility.” 86th Ill. Gen. Assem., House Proceedings, June 29, 1990, at 220 (statements of Representative Stephens). Representative McNamara added the following: “[T]he most important thing we are doing during this Session is what we do here tonight. That is, to revitalize an economy to effectively bring financial ability into a community and to help for the future of East St. Louis and all other communities that may need *** help. And not to do it by the unspent or the reckless spending of dollars, but to do it by the ability to have good common fiscal management under a good loan package.” 86th Ill. Gen. Assem., House Proceedings, June 29, 1990, at 225 (statements of Representative McNamara). These comments support that the legislature intended to givé the Authority broad powers to rectify the financial problems of the City. Here, the Authority determined that the City appeared unwilling to adopt a legitimate budget. Consequently, the Authority voted to adopt its own budget for the City. The legislature gave the Authority broad powers to effectuate the purposes of the Act. Under these broad powers, the Authority was able to impose its budget as a means to provide a secure financial basis for the continued operation of the City. For the foregoing reasons, I would hold that the Authority properly imposed a budget on the City pursuant to the Financially Distressed City Law. I therefore respectfully dissent.