Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

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Gerald W. Smith 218Q. That was speedily done.A. The matter of the payment of tuition for students living in non-.jdor college territory did not get resolved by the Board of HigherEducation nor by the comnittee that met with the Governor. The recornmendationwas that the Mtial act would provide for the same plan ofreimbursement by withdrawing the money frcm the state aid of the localdistricts as had been outlined by the first matter. That issue did notget resolved until near the end of the legislative process on House Bill1710 and came about as an amendment to the House Bill ITLO. The resolutionto the problem worked as follows: a sizable nwnber of people, includingwself, continued to push for special taxation to pay this tuitionfrom the non-junior college territories. Initially my recomndation hadbeen to establish a county-wide tax to be levled against those territorieshere within the county on the same pattern as had been used in the earliernon-hi& school temitory. As the discussion went on and there developedmore acceptance of this idea, a modification was proposed; I no longerremember where it came from, but it was acceptable to me. ?"nat was, insteadof levying a comty-wide tax and having a county-wide agency handleit, that each school district that had tert3itory not lying in the juniorcollege district that each school district vhich operated a hi@ schooldistrict, that would either be a unit district or a tmhip or communityhigh school district, that each one of those be authorized to levy a taxabove and beyond their other taxes, specifically for the purpose of paying'that, and that they be the administrative unit for getting that done.Namely that the junior college district would bill that specific schooldistrict for anyone coming from there, and then the district would pay itfrom this speclal fund that they wem authorized to levy. This was themodification that was offered and it was the amendment to the communitycollege act that became effective. It became !mown, interestingly enough,in the general language as the "chargeback."Q. This is still the pattern being followed, isn't it?A. Yes. If the pattern is still being folfowed except that the authorityto levy that tax expires with the taxes extended for the 1976 year. TheGeneral &s&ly is going to remove that problem and of course in 1977there is time for the extension of that tax authority if the General Assemblysees fit to do it. Such efforts were unsuccessful last year when theGeneral Assembly was in session, so I'm unable at this point to prophesywhat will happen, but by virtue of things we will talk about later, $hereis not a very sympathetic attitude within the General Assembly for allowingpeople to stay outside a junior college district. And this Is one wayof encouraging them to get in.Q. The munt of land that is not in one junior college district or anotheris very limited. The lmest chunk is around Normal, around Bloomlngton.A. But there are several pockets.Q. Well, that covers that phase of it. Now, I believe you said thiswould be a good time to,intmduce the deliberations and xrgwnentatioupsthat 'went on in the Governor ' s committee and their recommendat ions,Yd
Gerald W. Smith 219to continue with it in that way.A. The cormittee that worked in the Gwemor's office in the winter pndspring of 1965 continued its work to saneti& in April. The issues towhich they addressed themselves have already been discussed. Jt took'longer into the Spring than had been anticipated because of the three orfour frrrportant matters: 1. The issue of tuition, to which we have alreadyspoken, was a matter that did not get resolved until ~latively late 2ntheir deliberations. 2. The matter of capital hding for the c m t ycolleges which was recormended to be at 75 percent of the cost from statesources was another matter. It had been, I guess, just taken for grantedby almost all of us that the funds to do this would be approprfations bythe General Assembly. It turned out that Governor Kemer had a differentplan. It was his idea that this funding should be routed through theIllinois Building Authority, an agency which imd been established severalyears earlier for the purpose of constructing and selling bonds for supportof that constructfon for many public institutions. By 1965, practicallyall state constmction, all construction in the universities and so forthwas being handled by that process of going through the Illinois BuildingAuthority. It perhaps should be noted that for the record here the rationalebehbd the creation df the Illinois Building Authority had grown out of thelimi€&d bonding power of the State of Illinois under the old 1876 Comtitution.The bonding authority of Illinois was specific, the limitation wasvery specific, and the State could have done very little constmction bythe bonding process. And until the Building Authority was created aboutthe begidng of the 196ots, the General Assembly had always made directappropriations for building projects.Q. That's what I recall.A. It was the Governor's idea that the emunity college constmctionshould be included in this. No thinking or planning had been given to thatand so it was necessavy late in the deliberations to bring into the picturespecial law firrns that were specialists in this mea, to deal wLth thedrafting of the legislation that would be related to a proposed system oflocal districts, partly with capital development pmially locally fundedand partially state Med. You see, the same plan that worn& ror the -university where-it was all state funding was going to be different, thanit was in a cormunity college district. So this had to be a matter ofconsiderable discussion and some very inportant meethgs were held inChicago with the law firm of Chapman and Cutler, who are the outstandingauthorities on bond issues in Illinois. And that held up the final writingof the bill.Those of us on the outside waiting and waiting that sprlng were becorrdngapprehensive about the lateness of the time when the bill was ping tobe introduced. The resolutions to all of the topics, hwever were in duetime found and an attorney was selected to draft the initial bill. TQebill then was drafted on the basis of all the instructions that had bdengiven to hlm. A total bill was introduced into the House andnumber House Bill 1710. Eugenia Chapman of Wage County wassponsor of the bill, although by that time the support of the masterwas so great that there were many sponsors listed for the bill.
Page 1 and 2: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 3 and 4: Gerald W. Smith 201A. I would like
Page 5 and 6: Gerald W. Mth 20 3One of the outcom
Page 7 and 8: Gerald W. Smith 20514-Ipeople who h
Page 9 and 10: Gerald W. Wth 207Master Plan and th
Page 11 and 12: Gerald W.Smithof them have retired.
Page 13 and 14: Gerald W. Smith 211Q. There was lot
Page 15 and 16: Gerald W. Sr~Lth 2131As a counte~pr
Page 17 and 18: Gerald W. Smith215IWge tuition at o
Page 19: Gerald W.SmithA. And m n I'll speak
Page 23 and 24: Gerald W. Smith 221A. The principal
Page 25 and 26: Gerald W.SmithQ. And who was it tha
Page 27 and 28: Gerald W. SMth 225who was skilled o
Page 29 and 30: Gerald W. Smith 227A. Generally spe
Page 31 and 32: Gerald W. mth 2 29climate fop it. B
Page 33 and 34: Gerald W. Smith 2 31discuss this as
Page 35 and 36: Gerald W. Smith 2 3Education; I'm t
Page 37 and 38: Gerald W.Smlth23Fjbut we would say
Page 39 and 40: Gerald W. Smith 237point out that i
Page 41 and 42: For example, when they met on the a
Page 43 and 44: Gerald W. Smith 241Hawk Cammity Col
Page 45 and 46: Gerald W. Smith 243was there wlth a
Page 47 and 48: Gerald W. Smith 245The following is
Page 49 and 50: 1people who were working wfth me a
Page 51 and 52: Gerald W. Smith 249I was looking in
Page 53 and 54: Gerald W. Smith 251.developnents ea
Page 55 and 56: Gerald W. Smith 253Secretm for the
Page 57 and 58: Gerald W. Smith 255He and I then wo
Page 59 and 60: Gerald W. Smith 257One of the peopl
Page 61 and 62: Gerald W.Smith259we always indicate
Page 63 and 64: Gerald W. Smith26rCentralia, 1940;M
Page 65 and 66: Gerald W.SmithJdor College Act ax i
Page 67 and 68: Gerald W. Smith 265districts, also
Page 69 and 70: Gerald W. Smith 267A. Yes, I think
Page 71 and 72:
Q. That's an unbelievable record.A.
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So this is the story of Danville. I
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Gerald W. Smith 2 73Of course, you
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At the far south, a junlor college
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Gerald W. Smith 2 77FIe ad, In fact
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me, but he was not happy about it t
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Gerald W. Smith 281Q. Let me ask ya
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not understanding the le@slative pr
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Gerald W. Mth 2 85I tbhk it 2s inte
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Gerald W. Smith 287Board received a
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Gerald W. Smith 2 89land they were
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Gerald W. Smith 291Q. Now there was
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Q. Was there sane particular reason
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At any rate, it was a year before t
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A. Yes. He was the prbe mver and le
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Gerald W. Smith 9opportunity to org
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Gerald W. Wth 30 1of Cook County is
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A. ... even though the statutes pre
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Gerald W. Wth 30 5who actually, as
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Gerald W. Smith 30 7Their feasibili
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Gerald W.Wth309There were two quota
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Gerald W, Smith. -The referendum fo
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Gerald W. Smith 31 3In the Galesbur
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Gerald W.Smith315Q. This is perhaps
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Gerald W. Smith 317proposal - just
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Gerald W. Smith 319I would poht out
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Gerald W.Smith321$0 they were to go
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They enunciated a pollcy that was n
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Gerald FI, Wth325A. I have never se
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Gerald W. Wth 32 7A. Yes, the count
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Gemld W. Smith 329A. Well, yes, I a
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Q. This is a continuation of the in
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Gerald W. Smith 333were workin@; to
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Gerald W. Smith 335perhaps to take
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Gerald W. Smith 337'Rut north in Un
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Gerald W. Smith 339A. Speaking now
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Gerald W. Smith 341A. Well they are
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Gerald W. Smith 343opportunity to d
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Gerald W. Smith 341This district wa
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Gerald W. Smith 34 7When Cahokia pe
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Gerald W. Smith 349Q. This is tape
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