Thaf Pauper Relief Act 



(Continued from page 7) 

 the down-state townships. These bills 

 further permitted the commission-gov- 

 erned counties to levy a tax in addition 

 to the 25c tax for general county pur- 

 poses, the proceeds of this additional tax 

 to be used solely for relief in these com- 

 mission-governed counties. 



These bills were passed by the Gen- 

 eral Assembly but were vetoed by the 

 Governor. At this session of the Legis- 

 lature a limit of 50c per flOO valuation 

 was fixed for the tax for poor relief pur- 

 poses in townships having a population 

 of 7,000 inhabitants or less. At the ad- 

 journment of the regular session in 1933 

 and with the veto of the Lantz bills, the 

 law then provided that Cook County and 

 the commission-governed counties should 

 support their poor but did not provide 

 them with any funds except as they 

 might be able to use funds from the 

 25c levy for general purposes. In the 

 counties under township government, 

 townships of 7,000 population or less 

 might levy up to 50c for relief purposes 

 and there was no limitation upon the 

 levy in townships of a greater popula- 

 tion. 



Same Old Story 



Under this law the townships con- 

 tinued to levy and expend large amounts 

 for relief purposes. In Cook County and 

 the commission-governed counties but a 

 email proportion of the relief funds 

 were raised locally. The $30,000,000 re- 

 lief bond issue legrislation was passed 

 and again a large portion of the pro- 

 ceeds of this bond issue was required 

 to carry the relief load in Cook County. 



At the 1935 session of the Illinois leg- 

 islature, the bills permitting and requir- 

 ing- the townships in Cook County and 

 the City of Chicago itself to raise funds 

 for the care of their poor in the same 

 manner as had been done in the down- 

 state townships were again introduced. 

 It appeared impossible to pass these 

 bills. The State administration spon- 

 sored and supported an increase in the 

 occupational or sales tax from 2c to 3c 

 on the dollar, the additional Ic to be 

 used only for relief purposes. The Fed- 

 eral government announced its work re- 

 lief program and the United States Con- 

 gress passed a bill providing $4,800,000,- 

 000 for this purpose. 



The Federal government stated that 

 it would take over all families on relief 

 ■containing employable persons and would 

 provide employment for at least one per- 

 son from each such family. It appeared 

 that approximately 50,000 families hav- 

 ing no employable members would re- 

 main for which the State and local au- 

 thorities would be required to provide. 

 The legislature also passed an old age 

 pension law and it further appeared that 



"AT THE ECONOMIC MOVIES" 



effective January 1, 1936, a large num- 

 ber of persons included in the families 

 to be provided for by the State and local 

 authorities would be entitled to old age 

 pensions. It was estimated that the ad- 

 ditional Ic occupational or sales tax 

 would produce at least $20,000,000 per 

 year which would be available for the 

 relief and support of the 50,000 families 

 or approximately $400 per family per 

 year without taking into consideration 

 the more than 13,000 families which con- 

 tained persons eligible for old age pen- 

 sions or the other families having mem- 

 bers eligible for blind pensions or moth- 

 ers pensions. 



Why Law Changed 



In view of the entire situation it 

 seemed there was no longer any necessity 

 for large levies on the part of the 

 townships to care for their poor. Sen- 

 ators Hickman; and Lantz introduced 

 bills which transferred the duty of car- 

 ing for the poor and indigent from the 

 townships back to the counties. Repre- 

 sentative Bolger introduced a bill giving 

 counties power to make a levy for relief 

 purposes in addition to the levy for gen- 

 eral county purposes. The Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association supported this legis- 

 lation believing that in view of the Fed- 

 eral program and the old age pension 

 law, the proceeds of the additional Ic 

 of the occupational tax should be ade- 

 quate to carry practically the entire bur- 

 den supplemented, if need be, by a small 

 levy in counties with unusually heavy re- 



Cardll IB Tb« ChitUnoot* Time*. ..:^\.'.. -V 



lief loads. The Association realized that 

 this legislation did not constitute a per- 

 manent solution of the controversy over 

 local support of the poor but it did b«- 

 lieve that this legislation was the first 

 step towards placing all counties of th« 

 State on a uniform basis. This legisla- 

 tion was passed by the General Assembly 

 and approved by the Governor. 



The Federal government did not get 

 its work relief program under way as 

 soon as anticipated and a number of 

 counties reported to the Governor that 

 they were unable to levy a sufficient 

 amount to carry the relief load of their 

 county and requested that he include th« 

 subject matter of local poor relief in 

 the call for the first special session of 

 the General Assembly. This subject was 

 included in the call for the present spe- 

 cial session and bills were introduced in 

 the Senate which would have returned 

 the duty of providing relief from th» 

 counties to the townships in the 84 down- 

 state township-governed counties. 



In Cook County and the 17 commission- 

 governed counties, this duty was to b« 

 left on the county and these counties 

 again required to secure their funds for 

 relief purposes out of the 25c levy for 

 general county purposes. This provision 

 would have made it almost impossibl* 

 for Cook County and the commission- 

 governed counties to raise any substan- 

 tial amount for relief purposes while in 

 the townships large levies for relief pur- 

 poses would have been made. 



(Continued on page 29) 



DECEMBER. 1935 



