The IL Condo Act grants the board the right and responsibility to "prepare, adopt and distribute the annual budget for the property." (Sec. 18.4b) Unit owners do not vote on the annual budget, but there is a certain circumstance in which an owner vote may apply.
If the proposed budget shows an increase of more then 15% over the prior year's assessments, a unit owner vote may occur. A written petition signed by at least 20% of the owners by ownership percentage must be delivered to the board within 14 days of the adoption of the budget. The board must then call a unit owner meeting within 30 days of the date of the delivery of the petition. A majority of the total votes of the unit owners must be cast at the meeting to reject the budget or it is ratified.
The 15% increase applies to the total of all regular and special assessments. If the association's total budget was $100,000 in the prior year and they also collected a special assessment of $10,000 (for a sum of $110,000), the proposed budget would have to exceed $126,500 to meet the 15% threshold.