SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois senator wants voters to directly decide who becomes the leader of the state’s agriculture department every four years.

 

Making the agriculture secretary an elected executive position in Illinois wouldn’t be breaking new ground, as 12 other states now give voters the power to directly choose who they want to lead their state’s agriculture departments, including nearby in Iowa and Kentucky.

But it would be the first time Illinois voters would be allowed to pick their ag leader, as now only the positions of governor and lieutenant governor, as a team, along with attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer are elected executive offices.

State Sen. Sam McCann, a Republican from the central Illinois community of Plainview, believes given the significance of the agriculture industry to Illinois,the person who leads the department overseeing it should be accountable directly to voters.

“The director of agriculture is tasked with overseeing our state’s largest and most important industry. This would make sure that our ag director, just like all elected officials, is held accountable to the voters at the ballot box,” he said.

The measure McCann has filed, Senate Joint Resolution 14, wouldn’t take effect simply by legislative approval. Senate and House members must sign off on the measure and then it would be placed on the ballot in November 2018 as a constitutional amendment.

That assumes the measure gets acted upon before the end of the scheduled legislative session on May 31; given the state is locked in a serious budget battle, it’s possible the session would get extended into June, as has been done several times during the past 10 years.

“Agriculture is one of the few cylinders of our economic engine that has been firing reliably,” McCann said. “This would make sure the industry gets the attention and focus that it deserves at the Capitol. Having an elected person solely focused on agriculture could help grow the industry, providing a much needed boost to the state’s sluggish economy.”

Illinois Department of Agriculture data show the state’s ag industry generates more than $19 billion annually, including $8.2 billion worth of exports. Last year the state ranked first in the production of soybeans with a yield of about 593 million bushels; soybean production for types of goods accounted for about 57,200 jobs in the state, according to a recent study funded by the Illinois Soybean Assoc.