Public Act 100-0546
 
HB1797 EnrolledLRB100 08177 HLH 18273 b


  
    AN ACT concerning State government. 
  
 
    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has a strategic interest in 
the operations of the Illinois International Port District and 
its Board, whose function is to develop the District's port and 
harbor facilities, issue construction permits, regulate the 
District's facilities and waterways, establish and operate 
foreign trade zones, and govern and administer all the District 
area within Chicago's corporate limits; and
 
    WHEREAS, The Illinois International Port District is a very 
significant driver of freight movement and economic activity 
throughout the State of Illinois, including the downstate 
waterways and especially the Mississippi River and the Illinois 
River; and
 
    WHEREAS, In 2010, cargo shipments at the Port of Chicago 
directly or indirectly supported 6,930 jobs and generated 
$425,000,000 in revenue for Illinois firms, according to the 
Washington D.C.-based American Great Lakes Ports Association; 
and
 
    WHEREAS, The Port of Chicago links rail and trucking lines 
with barges and ships supplying the Great Lakes and nearby 
rivers and handles an estimated 26,000,000 cargo tons annually 
throughout its 1,500 acre complex on the far south side, 
according to a recent estimate by a consortium of Great Lakes 
shipping interests; and
 
    WHEREAS, In 1978, the Capital Development Board provided 
funds to the Illinois International Port District as authorized 
by Section 13 of the Capital Development Board Act, which 
provides for repayment by the Illinois International Port 
District using a flexible formula based on specified levels of 
revenues and profits; and
 
    WHEREAS, In the over 30 years since that payment from the 
Capital Development Board, the Illinois International Port 
District has never been required to make a single payment to 
the Capital Development Board because it has never reached the 
levels of revenues and profits that would require such payment; 
and
 
    WHEREAS, The Capital Development Board annually certifies 
to the Illinois International Port District that it owes no 
payment for the year to the Capital Development Board; and
 
    WHEREAS, It is virtually impossible that the Illinois 
International Port District will ever reach the level of 
revenues and profits that would require it to make a payment to 
the Capital Development Board; and
 
    WHEREAS, In its financial statements for each year since at 
least 2005, the Capital Development Board has "reserved" the 
entire amount lent to the Illinois International Port District, 
indicating that it does not expect any payments under the loan, 
and that non-payment of the loan would not require any future 
or present cash outlay by the Capital Development Board or the 
State; and
 
    WHEREAS, For the reasons discussed above, the existence of 
this debt is of no value whatsoever to the State and serves 
only to limit the investment in the Port of Chicago and the 
amount of economic activity throughout Illinois water and rail 
lines; and
 
    WHEREAS, Official forgiveness of the obligation from the 
Illinois International Port District to the Capital 
Development Board would benefit the entire State of Illinois by 
allowing greater investment in the State's waterways and 
freight facilities; therefore
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:
  


 
    Section 5. The Capital Development Board Act is amended  by 
changing Section 13 as follows:
 



    (20 ILCS 3105/13)  (from Ch. 127, par. 783)



    Sec. 13. 
The Board may provide cargo handling facilities 
and facilities
designed for the movement of cargo to or from 
cargo handling facilities for
the use of  regional port 
districts. Pursuant to appropriations setting forth
specific 
projects and regional port districts, the Board shall contract

with the regional port district named in the Act making the

appropriation for cargo handling facilities. Such contract 
shall provide
that the regional port district shall remit to 
the State of Illinois an
amount equal to not more than 20%
of 
the gross receipts attributable to those facilities, and not 
less than
20% of the profit attributable to those facilities, 
whether
collected by the regional port district or through an 
operator or other
intermediary, until the full amount 
appropriated and expended by the
State of Illinois has been 
remitted to the State.  The exact amount of,
the manner of, the 
method of and the time for such remittances shall be
agreed 
upon by the particular port district and the Board
acting 
through its Executive Director, and such agreement may, from 
time to
time, be amended by the parties so as to alter or 
modify the amount of,
manner of, method of and time for the 
remittance, including, but not
limited to, the temporary 
forgiveness, suspension or delay of the
remittances not to 
exceed 24 months for any single suspension or delay. The

payback is subordinate solely to any outstanding public bond 
agreements
existing at the time of the contract and solely for 
the period of time of
the running of those bond agreements. For 
any contract entered into under this Section, if, for a period 
of 25 years, a regional port district has not been required to 
remit any amount because the regional port district has failed 
to achieve the required level of profit, then the regional port 
district shall not be required to remit any amount under the 
contract. 

    This Section shall apply to all regional port district

facilities to be constructed by the Board, including projects 
for which
appropriations or reappropriations have been made 
prior to June 30,
1976, and to all contracts existing prior to 
the effective date of this
amendatory Act of 1985 as well as 
contracts entered into on or after such date.

(Source: P.A. 84-781.)

 

    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.