Public Act 097-0675

HB0588 Enrolled LRB097 03418 HLH 43455 b

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,

represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Library System Act is amended by

changing Section 8.1 as follows:

(75 ILCS 10/8.1) (from Ch. 81, par. 118.1)

Sec. 8.1. The State Librarian shall make grants annually

under this Section to all qualified public libraries in the

State from funds appropriated by the General Assembly. Such

grants shall be in the amount of up to $1.25 per capita for the

population of the area served by the respective public library

and, in addition, the amount of up to $0.19 per capita to

libraries serving populations over 500,000 under the Illinois

Major Urban Library Program. If the moneys appropriated for

grants under this Section are not sufficient the State

Librarian shall reduce the per capita amount of the grants so

that the qualifying public libraries receive the same amount

per capita.

To be eligible for grants under this Section, a public

library must:

(1) Provide, as determined by the State Librarian,

library services which either meet or show progress toward

meeting the Illinois library standards, as most recently

adopted by the Illinois Library Association.

(2) Be a public library for which is levied a tax for

library purposes at a rate not less than .13% or a county

library for which is levied a tax for library purposes at a

rate not less than .07%. If a library is subject to the

Property Tax Extension Limitation Law in the Property Tax

Code and its tax levy for library purposes has been lowered

to a rate of less than .13%, this requirement will be

waived if the library qualified for this grant in the

previous year and if the tax levied for library purposes in

the current year produces tax revenue for library purposes

that is an increase over the previous year's extension of

5% or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index,

whichever is less. Beginning in State Fiscal Year 2012 and

continuing through and including State Fiscal Year 2015,

the eligibility requirement in this subsection shall be

waived if a library's tax levy for library purposes has

been lowered to a rate of less than 0.13%, and the State

Librarian determines that the library (i) continues to meet

the requirements of item (1) of this Section and (ii)

received a grant under this Section in the previous fiscal

year.

Any other language in this Section to the contrary

notwithstanding, grants under this Section 8.1 shall be made

only upon application of the public library concerned, which

applications shall be entirely voluntary and within the sole

discretion of the public library concerned.

In order to be eligible for a grant under this Section, the

corporate authorities, in lieu of a tax levy at a particular

rate, may provide funds from other sources, an amount

equivalent to the amount to be produced by that levy.

(Source: P.A. 93-527, eff. 8-14-03.)