July 29, 2016
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois Senate,
99th General Assembly
Today I veto Senate Bill 2531 from the 99th
General Assembly to prevent yet another hindrance to economic development in
Illinois.
The bill requires an economic development council that
receives public money to include members of a labor council and persons from
minority groups on its corporate board. Diverse representation, particularly
minority representation, on corporate boards is an admirable goal and one every
corporation should seek to attain. However, corporate boards should also be
representative of the constituencies they serve and need flexibility to ensure
that representation. Mandating certain representation on every economic
development corporation that receives public monies is a one size fits all
approach that ignores that many of these local and regional councils may be
best served with different representation that reflects their specific mission.
Further, the vague drafting of this legislation is likely to
have unintended consequences. For example, “economic development corporation”
is defined as “an organization that receives public money that promotes the
development, establishment or expansion of industries.” This broad definition
will likely lead to the inclusion of corporations whose works bears no
relationship to traditional economic development. In addition, many
corporations that would fall within this definition are dedicated to
representing the interests of the management side of business. Forcing the
inclusion of the labor representatives on such a board is in direct conflict
with such a corporation’s interest;
This bill is one of three pieces of legislation passed by
the General Assembly this year that imposes arbitrary mandates on groups trying
to further economic development in Illinois. Last year Illinois lost thousands
of jobs, and I continue to hear that businesses are leaving our state. Rather
than imposing inflexible requirements on entities trying to bring jobs to
Illinois, I encourage the General Assembly to focus on passing legislation
designed to further economic development.
Therefore, pursuant to Section 9(b) of Article IV of the
Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 2531, entitled “AN
ACT concerning business”, with the foregoing objections, vetoed in its
entirety.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR