New Relief Act in Force 



TOWNSHIPS are busy getting set 

 to call special town meetings dur- 

 ing July. So, if you hear about it, 

 you'd better plan to attend as it has 

 to do with levying taxes for poor relief 

 along the lines set forth in the recently 

 enacted Hickman-Lantz-Finn bill which 

 was sponsored by the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association. 



Considerable drama was connected 

 with the actual placing of this bill on 

 the statute books. Up until the last few 

 days of the General Assembly, efforts 

 were being made to amend the bill but 

 with adjournment went all chances and 

 the bill became law, effective July 1, 1936. 



At the same time. Governor Horner 

 vetoed the Adamowski relief bill spon- 

 sored by Chicago politicians which 

 sought to appropriate half the revenue 

 from the sales tax for relief. These two 

 events seem to indicate that the down- 

 state population, with the assistance of 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association, is 

 rapidly bringing order and economy out 

 of the relief chaos which has existed in 

 the state for several years. 



Reviewing relief conditions during the 

 past four years, Governor Horner stated 

 in his veto message that, "it was not in- 

 tended that local government be entire- 

 ly relieved from bearing its just share 

 of the responsibility — no self-respecting 

 local government would want to escape 

 its share of the burden. In all but name 

 it was a dole system." 



Regarding the Adamowski bill, the 

 Governor said, "it undertakes only to 

 place more of the burden on the state. 

 Its proponents refuse to assume local 

 responsibility. This is an unusual posi- 

 tion and merely perpetuates the condition 

 we are trying to improve. The proposal 

 offered by the bill, and the failure of 

 the proponents thereof to suggest any 

 legislation whatsoever that might aid 

 the local governments they represent to 

 meet their own relief responsibilities, 

 show plainly the purpose of these pro- 

 ponents to enable those localities to es- 

 cape all responsibility in the matter of 

 relief." 



On the other hand, the I. A. A. spon- 

 sored Hickman-Lantz-Finn relief bill 

 is a reversal of the previous policy in the 

 administration of relief. This reversal 

 is no doubt due to several causes. The 

 most important are probably the con- 

 tinuing high cost of relief despite the 

 increase in industrial employment; the 

 increasing fear that relief as it has been 

 administered is undermining the char- 

 acter of many recipients and creating 

 a permanent and difficult problem of 



18 



Town Meetings in July 



Will Fix Poor Relief 



Levies 



pauperism; and the steady shifting of 

 the burden to the State by the Federal 

 government. 



In a recent letter to County Farm Bu- 

 reau Presidents, John C. Watson, direc- 

 tor of the I. A. A. Department of Taxa- 

 tion, stated that the I. A. A. measure 

 contain the following provisions: 



a. Beginning July 1, 1936, paupers 

 shall be relieved and supported: 



1. By each township in the 84 su- 

 pervisor-governed counties. 



2. By each township in Cook coun- 

 ty outside the City of Chicago. 



3. By the City of Chicago. 



4. By each of the 17 downstate 

 commission-governed counties. 



b. Each of the above relief taxing dis- 

 tricts shall have power to levy an- 

 nually an amount requiring a tax 

 rate of not over 30 cents on each 

 hundred dollars of all assessed val- 

 uations of property. 



c. Each township shall have power, in 

 July, 1936, to call a special town 

 meeting for the purpose of levying 

 taxes for relief. The city council of 



Chicago also shall have power in 

 July, 1936, to levy taxes for relief. 

 The county board of each of the 17 

 commission-governed counties, as 

 now, has power to levy such taxes 

 in its regular September session. 



d. Any relief taxing district failing to 

 levy an amount requiring the maxi- 

 mum 30 cent tax rate, shall not be 

 given any allocations of State re- 

 lief funds after September 30, 1936. 



e. All of the above taxes shall be used 

 for relief and for administration of 

 the same. 



Notice will be posted or inserted in 

 newspapers five days before the date set 

 for the meeting. At these town meet- 

 ing's, the levy for relief will be made 

 with the provision that the tax rate 

 shall not exceed 30 cents. When this 

 levy for relief has been legally made 

 those in authority to do so have the 

 authority to borrow money immediately 

 by issuing and selling warrants to the 

 extent of not more than 75 per cent of the 

 total tax. In the first year of the new 

 plan, no relief taxes will be available 

 until about April, 1937. Thus a borrow- 

 ing program will be entered into and 

 money should be available in a few days. 



In the past, the "grab bag" method of 

 handling relief funds, as in the Illinois 



(Continued on page 21) 



CLIPPING OATS IN WOODFORD COUNTY 



Gene Cteary, one of Woodford county's smart farmers from near El Paso, pulling a mower 



through a field of oats seeded down to sweet clover, to qualify for Class I payments in the 



soil conservation program. Cleary and his father have ISO acres of beautiful hybrid corn, 



knee high on June 15, being grown for hybrid seed in co-operation with Seedman Pfiester. 



I. A. A. RECORD 



