Illinois’s 34 community-college districts have sued the state in a dispute over whether the state attorney general was correct to classify the colleges as state agencies, not local agencies, under the 2003 State Ethics Act. According to the Associated Press, the colleges strongly believe they are local institutions that draw revenue from local taxes and offer curricula designed to answer local needs.

But the attorney general said, in a legal ruling issued last October, that in matters of ethics the colleges are arms of the state, and as such must uphold state standards on accepting gifts, keeping records of meetings, and so on. State officials say the ruling does not impose exceptional new burdens on the colleges.

College officials deny that they are seeking to evade their ethical responsibilities. “The lawsuit is not about ethics,” the AP quoted one official as saying. “It’s about local control and the state’s involvement in local government.” While the lawsuit is pending, the colleges are lobbying the legislature to change the ethics law so that it is clear that the law does not apply to them.