lAA STATES POSITION ON PENDING 



New Legislation 



By PAUL MATHIAS 



DEVELOPMENTS on the state legis- 

 lative front during recent weeks that 

 ^ are of major interest to farmers con- 



cern bills on airport authority districts, 

 enriched bread and flour, feed analysis, 

 school transportation, state distributive 

 fund, and the constitutional convention. 

 Position of the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation on the constitutional conven- 

 tion is carried on other pages of this is- 

 sue of the lAA Record. 



Airport Authority Districts 



The lAA was not able to secure an 

 amendment of the airport authority dis- 

 tricts bill making the validity of the en- 

 tire act dependent upon the validity of 

 the disconnection clause. Attorneys for 

 the bond houses stated that they could 

 not approve bonds of the districts if such 

 a provision were included. However, 

 the bill was amended to restrict the is- 

 suance of bonds prior to July 1, 1947 to 

 those airport authority districts which 

 have received a definite commitment in 

 ► writing from the federal government for 

 assistance on their airport project. This 

 will limit the issuance of bonds to but 

 a very few areas during the next two 

 years. Meanwhile, the validity of the 

 disconnection provisions can be tested in 

 the courts. 



While the airport district may include 

 rural territory, amendments provide that 

 after the site for the airport is selected, 

 60 days notice of the location of the site 

 must be given. In this 60-day-period, 

 the owners of all the rural property ex- 

 cept that taken for the airport itself and 

 the immediately adjacent area may file 

 petitions for disconnection. 



The Act provides for the disconnection 

 of this property and when the petition is 

 allowed and the disconnection granted, 

 the disconnection will relate back to the 

 date the petition for disconnection was 

 filed. Any bonds issued will not be a 

 lien upon the property disconnected. 



The amount of adjacent property that 

 can be kept within the authority of the 



district has been substantially limited, de- 

 pending upon the length of the runways 

 on the field and as stated above, the is- 

 suance of bonds for the two year period 

 is permitted only where a federal commit- 

 ment has been received. These amend- 

 ments seem to protect fairly well the 

 residents of rural areas. After their 

 adoption, the lAA did not further op- 

 pose the bill. It passed the House and 

 the Senate concurred in the amendments. 

 It now goes to the Governor. 



Enriched Bread and Flour 



A bill on the House calendar that is of 

 primary concern to milk producers is one 

 which seeks legislation requiring flour 

 used in making white bread and rolls to 

 be enriched through the addition of cer- 

 tain synthetic B vitamins and iron. 



Prior to the war, 75 per cent or more 

 of all white bread flour used by bakers 

 was enriched. For the most part, skim 

 milk powder was used. It contains the 

 vitamins which would be required under 

 the proposed legislation and generally 

 was regarded as superior to the synthetic 

 vitamins. With the advent of war, the 

 skim milk powder was not available in 

 sufficient quantities and the War Food 

 Administration required the use of syn- 

 thetic vitamins. This bill would continue 

 the provisions of the WFA order after 

 the war. The lAA and the Illinois Milk 

 Producers Association are opposing this 

 legislation. They believe that the enact- 

 ment of the legislation will deprive dairy 

 farmers of a market which will be much 

 needed in the postwar period. The legis- 

 lation is not fixing standards for bread 

 but is merely requiring the inclusion of 

 one ingredient. It discriminates against 

 the dry skim milk in favor of synthetic 

 vitamins. The bill has been favorably re- 

 ported by the committee on public health 

 and is now pending in the House. 

 Feed Analysis Law 



The Department of Agriculture is 

 sponsoring legislation requiring mixed 

 feeds which contain more than 5 per 

 cent minerals and all mineral feeds to 



state the calcium, phosphorus and iodine 

 content of the feeds and also the salt 

 content. 



The legislation also would require the 

 names used for ingredients to be the 

 official names used by the Association of 

 American Feed Control Officials. This 

 legislation is designed to give purchasers 

 a better understanding of the content of 

 the feed which they buy. The lAA is 

 supporting this legislation. This bill has 

 been favorably reported by the House 

 committee on agriculture. 



School Transportation 



The lAA with other organizations is 

 sponsoring legislation which increases the 

 maximum state contribution to the cost of 

 pupil transportation from $15 to $20 per 

 pupil. The present law provides that the 

 state shall reimburse school districts for 

 three-fourths of the cost of pupil trans- 

 portation up to a maximum of $15 pet 

 pupil. This bill has been reported favor- 

 ably by the committee on education. 



State Distribution Fund 



Legislation has been introduced increas- 

 ing state supf)ort for schools. The amount 

 of the flat grants, that is the amount 

 given to each school on a per pupil basis 

 regardless of need, is increased from $13 

 to $19 per pupil for elementary schools 

 and from $2 to $4 per pupil for high 

 schools. 



The special equalization aid which is 

 made available to needy districts where 

 a local levy of $1 on the assessed valu- 

 ation does not provide adequate revenue, 

 is changed to increase the total amount 

 available from $1048 to $1200 per school 

 for rural schools. In the case of the 

 larger elementary schools, this special 

 equalization aid is increased to provide 

 $80 instead of $62 per elementary pupil 

 and $90 instead of $85 per high school 

 pupil. When these changes become effec- 

 tive, the state will be contributing approx- 

 imately 26 million dollars per year toward 

 elementary and high schools. The lAA 

 is supporting this legislation. 



APRIL 1945 



