Court Opinion

ID: 9884276
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:50:52.169118+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:37.188676
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE WARD, with whom MR. CHIEF JUSTICE UNDERWOOD and MR. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH join, dissenting: Mr. Chief Justice Underwood, Mr. Justice Goldenhersh and I consider that the opinion of the majority in holding that home-rule units require enabling legislation in order to create special service areas and to tax for special services seriously contradicts an authority conferred on home-rule units by the constitution. The majority not unreasonably begins by observing that it is incumbent upon the court to give meaning to every section and clause of the pertinent constitutional provisions, but, as we view it, it then proceeds to contradict and deny effect to sections 6(a), 6(g), 6(h) and 6(1). In doing so, it examines 6(Z) in isolation and makes no reference to sections 6(a), 6(g) or 6(h). When one examines section 6 (Powers of Home Rule Units) in its entirety, it can be seen that 6(a) is the source of a home-rule unit’s powers. Making a grant of powers, it, as is pertinent here, declares: “*** Except as limited by this Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur debt.” It is clear that the constitutional drafters intended through section 6(a) to give home-rule units a comprehensive authority to provide for the government and affairs of a unit, subject, insofar as section 6 is concerned, to such restrictions as the drafters might insert thereafter in this section. The Report of the Committee on Local Government to the Constitutional Convention (p. 45) shows the breadth of the grant of powers to home-rule units. It said that the powers given under 6(a) “are designed to ensure that the specified counties and cities receive directly under the constitution the broadest possible range of powers to deal with problems facing them and with demands that are made upon them by their residents and by the greater society.” (7 Record of Proceedings, Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention 1619.) Reflecting the apprehension of the convention that judicial interpretation of powers might be unduly restrictive, the drafters, in an effort to make some of the most important home-rule powers invulnerable to judicial slighting, specified the powers of regulation, licensing, taxing and incurring debt. The Report observes at p. 48: “Standing alone, the general grant of local powers would be subject to interpretation and possible limitation in important respects by the courts. This danger is especially important in Illinois with its tradition of strict construction of local powers. To avoid this danger, the Committee believes it desirable to specify those basic areas of local power which are most important and which, without question, are included in the more general language of the proposed section.” 7 Proceedings 1622. Following 6(a) is a series of paragraphs (c through k) which actually limit or authorize the General Assembly to limit the home-rule authority conferred in section 6(a). These are the limitations on home-rule units under section 6. It is to be observed that section 6(Z) is not a limitation on home-rule units but is an explicit limitation on the authority of the General Assembly to restrict the powers of home-rule units. The authority of the defendant to enact the challenged ordinances is not to be found in 6(1), but rather must be found in 6(a). The prohibition in 6(1) against the legislature’s acting to deny or limit the power of home-rule units to make local improvements and to levy for the provision of special services is itself a recognition of the existence of the power. The prohibition in this paragraph against legislative interference with the power shows the drafters’ consciousness that elsewhere, viz., in section 6(a), the power was conferred on home-rule units. That the constitutional drafters intended to preserve the home-rule powers referred to in 6(1) free from legislative restriction is evidenced also by the language of 6(g) and 6(h). Section 6(g) states: “The General Assembly by a law approved by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house may deny or limit the power to tax and any other power or function of a home rule unit not exercised or performed by the State other than a power or function specified in subsection (l) of this section. ” (Our emphasis.) The drafters in providing that the General Assembly by a three-fifths vote might limit or deny the power to tax and other powers or functions of the home-rule unit not exercised by the State specifically excepted the powers and functions specified in 6(1). Section 6(h), also, in authorizing limitations on home-rule powers specifically excepted the home-rule powers and functions referred to in 6(Z). Section 6(h) reads: “The General Assembly may provide specifically by law for the exclusive exercise by the State of any power or function of a home rule unit other than a taxing power or a power or function specified in subsection (l) of this Section. ” (Our emphasis.) We would note, too, another seemingly unnoticed and paradoxical consequence of the majority’s holding. Section 6(1) expressly provides that the General Assembly may not deny or limit the power of home-rule units to make local improvements and to levy taxes for the provision of special services. However, under the holding of the majority, the legislature, by not enacting the legislation which the majority considers necessary, has done what the constitution specifically prohibits, viz., denying the power. By construing the language “in the manner provided by law” to be a requirement that there be enabling legislation, the majority permits the legislature to do by inaction what the constitution expressly prohibits it from doing. The majority does not comment on what appears to be an easy frustration of the constitutional intendment. The majority makes no reference to the proceedings of the constitutional convention in forming its conclusion that the drafters of the constitution intended to make a home-rule unit’s power to create special service areas and to tax for special services conditional under 6(1) upon the enactment of enabling legislation. It is not always easy to read, interpret and understand the flow and sometimes the mazes of the convention’s proceedings, but we consider a careful study of the proceedings makes it apparent that the power to tax for special services was not made conditional. An examination of pages 3144, 3146, 4248, 4249 and 4450 of volumes IV and V of the Constitutional Proceedings (Verbatim Transcripts) is helpful in understanding the background to the preparation of 6(/). The majority proposal of the Committee on Local Government relative to “differential” and special service taxation (sec. 4.2) was referred to the Style, Drafting, and Submission Committee for revision. It was however “lost” for a time because of some confusion, but it was later submitted to the convention as section 6(e)(3) of the Style, Drafting, and Submission Proposal No. 15. As then presented, a home-rule unit would clearly have to have enabling legislation to impose special service taxation. (The text of section 6(e)(3) appears at pages 2474, 2475 of volume VII, Constitutional Proceedings, Committee Proposals.) When it became obvious that 6(e)(3) did not fulfill the drafters’ intent that enabling legislation was not to be required it was rejected. (Pages 4248, 4249, Verbatim Transcripts.) Section 6(Z) was then drafted. The colloquy at page 4450 (Verbatim Transcripts) reflects that the intendment was not to have the powers to make special assessments and to levy special service taxes dependent upon enabling legislation. The power to specially assess and to levy special service taxes was referred to as a constitutional right. Mr. Chief Justice Underwood, Mr. Justice Goldenhersh and I consider that the language “in the manner provided by law” in (6)(Z) is satisfied by the ordinance’s provision that established procedures for the tax levy and assessment of the Revenue Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 120, par. 482 et seq.) be utilized through application of section 9 of the constitution’s Transition Schedule. (See Delegate Lennon’s and Chairman Parkhurst’s comments at 4 Proceedings 3143, 3144, and 5 Proceedings 4249.) Apart from this, we judge that a home-rule unit could establish its own procedures, subject, of course, to meeting due-process and other constitutional requirements. A power to tax carries with it the authority to provide for necessary procedures.