State of Illinois
92nd General Assembly
Legislation

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92_SB1522gms

 
                            State of Illinois
                         OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
                      Springfield, Illinois  62706
      George H. Ryan
      GOVERNOR
                                                    August 17, 2001
      To the Honorable Members of
        The Illinois Senate
      92nd General Assembly
          Pursuant to Article IV,  Section  9(b)  of  the  Illinois
      Constitution  of  1970,  I  hereby  veto  Senate  Bill  1522,
      entitled "AN ACT concerning State Government."
          Senate  Bill 1522 creates the Small Business Advisory Act
      (SBA Act) and requires each State agency to establish a small
      business advisory page on the World Wide  Web.   Senate  Bill
      1522  also  requires  that each agency include plain language
      versions of all regulatory  or  legislative  "interpretations
      and advisory opinions" issued by the agency.  Further, Senate
      Bill  1522 establishes that "any person who acts, or fails to
      act, in reasonable reliance  on  the  advisory  opinions  and
      interpretations   may  not  be  held  liable  in  any  civil,
      criminal, or regulatory action" because of that reliance.
          As a former small business owner, I agree with the intent
      of this legislation and I have been  a  strong  supporter  of
      many  similar  efforts  currently  being  carried  out  by my
      administrative  agencies  via  their   current   web   pages,
      published  pamphlets,  and electronic reports.  However, I am
      concerned   that   Senate   Bill   1522   contains    several
      unanticipated and insurmountable problems.
          Senate  Bill  1522  would  place  many  state  regulatory
      agencies  in conflict  with their federal counterparts.  Most
      federal statutes  (upon  which  many  Illinois  programs  are
      based)  require  a  strict  liability  standard as applied to
      enforcement matters.  Section 15 of the SBA Act would  create
      a  subjective  standard of "reasonable" reliance to determine
      whether enforcement was appropriate.  For  delegated  federal
      programs,  a  less  stringent  State standard could cause the
      federal delegation to be withdrawn or  seriously  challenged.
      In  cases  where  there  is a state program that is federally
      required, the approval of the entire state program  could  be
      withdrawn.   In  some instances, this might subject the State
      of Illinois to federally  imposed  sanctions,  including  the
      loss of highway funds.
          I  am  also  concerned that Senate Bill 1522 may infringe
      upon the traditional role  of  the  Office  of  the  Illinois
      Attorney  General,  which is responsible for providing advice
      regarding applicability of legislative enactments by  issuing
      advisory  opinions  on  behalf of the Executive Branch.  I am
      also concerned that the courts of this State  are  likely  to
      find  that  Senate Bill 1522 impermissibly infringes upon the
      court's powers authority of these courts since it appears  to
      delegate to the Executive agencies the authority to determine
      legislative  intent.   In  effect,  Senate  Bill  1522  would
      effectively  tie the hands of every court and states attorney
      in the State by granting a liability waiver from  any  civil,
      criminal, or regulatory action in which a defendant claims to
      have  acted  under  any  "reasonable"  reliance  on the plain
      language interpretation of any advisory opinion.
          Furthermore, if Senate Bill 1522 were to become law, most
      State agencies would encounter  difficulties  in  determining
      what   is   meant   by   the  terms  "advisory  opinion"  and
      "interpretation," as used in  Section  15  of  the  SBA  Act.
      Since  those  terms are not defined within the SBA Act, it is
      unclear just what documents would be  included  within  those
      classifications.    Likewise,   it   is   unclear  just  what
      "reasonable reliance" is intended to mean, and  there  is  no
      case  law  that  would  be  persuasive  since, for example, a
      "reasonable"  standard  is  not  employed  in   environmental
      enforcement litigation.
          Senate  Bill  1522  would likely create greater ambiguity
      and uncertainty for small  businesses  that  find  themselves
      regulated on one issue by more than one administrative agency
      charged  with  administering the law.  The resulting required
      explanations by  each  agency  may  contradict  one  another,
      especially since there could be differences of interpretation
 
      between  the two agencies.  Based upon the interpreted intent
      of Senate Bill 1522, it is this administration's belief  that
      the  means  of  resolving  differences  of  interpretation of
      legislative  intent  is   through   resolution   before   the
      appropriate  court, and if necessary, ultimate review by this
      State's  Appellate  and  Supreme  Court,  and   not   through
      explanations of conflicting state agency web pages.
          The  mandates  imposed  by  Senate  Bill  1522 upon State
      agencies  arguably  contradict  the   requirements   of   the
      Administrative   Procedure  Act  (APA),  in  that  the  plain
      language explanations described in Section 10 (b) of the  SBA
      Act may constitute a "rule" as defined in Section 1-70 of the
      APA.   Posting those statements on an agency's web page would
      violate the APA's procedural requirements.
          For these reasons, I hereby veto and return  Senate  Bill
      1522.
                                             Sincerely,
                                             George H. Ryan
                                             GOVERNOR

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