Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: No I don't think it was the first time. No, 1 think it was a change in the amount that
they were to receive.
A: The percentage you mean?
Q: Yes I'm trying to think of the percentage it was.
A: It might have been the first time the townships came under it maybe.
Q: Well the first time that they were specifically allocated an amount. Otherwise the counties
were supposed to take care of townships in some way as I understand it.
A: Is that what it was? Yes.
Q: As 1 understand it. So do you recall anything about that particular discussion on that
distribution?
A: (pause) Well I recall one thing that Madison County - of course this had nothing to
do with the roads, but where they had - it seemed likc that wasn't agreed legislation, but
one time in those years that Madison County needed some money. Now what it was for
- whether it was for general revenue, or whether it was to keep the - at that time they
had the tuberculosis sanitorium, they do have a tax on it yet, I believe. I was always against
passing bond issues without referendum. I was that way on the city council and I'm still
that way. I think you ought to have a referendum. If they're going to raise your taxes,
you ought to get a chance - we had two or three measures on the ballot last Tuesday. And
I voted no on all of them, but my wife voted no on one of them, and to on the other. So
that's how much influence I've got.
Q: Well. (chuckles)
SESSION 7, TAPE 13, SIDE 2
A: Oh, Tom Butler, he was a manufarturer's agent. And they got the press, the Telegraph,
and Senator Monroe - he wasn't in the assembly at that time, he was out for a while -
and they got the labor organizations and they gave the county the right to issue bonds without
referendum and it wasn't a whole lot, and it was what they called agrcrd lcgislation,
and the governor - I guess Stevenson was governor at that time - he signed it and thcy
got their money, and there wasn't any increase in taxes. They paid it off pretty quick I
believe, if I recall correctly. Now that's been - that's been thirty years ago, l'm sure, in
that area.
Q: Sir, when you went up there did they still have the rolltop desks that had been there
for many many years, or had they changed to the new-type desks when you arrived?
A: Well they've changed to the new types. We might, have had a different type of desk. But
they had the roll type. I know the first time I went to see the assembly, 1 remember seeing
those. I've got my old desk. I bought it. Those desks have been changed several
times. (pause) Let me see if I can . . .
Q: They were changed of course in 1955, I know, after the election then because they had
t.o put a bunch more in.
A: Yes, that was after reapportionment. That's right. It went from 154, I guess, to
177. But 1 believe there at one time, we had temporary desks when I first went up there. I
think we had temporary desks if that - now I can he in error there, hut you mentioned