By DOUG FINKE
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
A state senator is looking to the federal government for a model on how to reduce the glut of local governments in Illinois.
Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, wants to create a commission that will recommend governments to be consolidated or eliminated.
State lawmakers then would take a single up or down vote on the entire list. THe process is similar to the approach used by the federal government to close military bases.
“I think it is a fairer way of doing it,” Link said. “It will allow us to consolidate. It will lessen the number (of governments) we have now.”
Illinois is famous (or infamous) for having the most units of government of any state in the country. And by a wide margin.
Census data complied in 2007 showed Illinois with 6,994 units of government, from cities and counties to drainage and mosquito abatement districts. Pennsylvania was in second place with 4,871, more than 2,100 fewer than Illinois.
“When you look at your tax bill, you’re paying for all of these different units of local government,” Link said. “That’s where your property taxes are going to.”
Link wants to form an eight-member commission with two members appointed by each of the four legislative leaders.
“Hopefully, the leaders would pick people who have definite independence of the General Assembly,” Link said. “They should look at what’s most beneficial to taxpayers, not at what’s political.”
Five-year target
The commission would come up with a list of local governments to be consolidated or abolished. Link said the goal is to target 250 units of government a year over a five-year period.
Each year, the list would be presented to the General Assembly, which could vote to reject the list -- but only in its entirety. Lawmakers could not cherry-pick the list to save a particular local government.
Just how much would be saved by eliminating units of government is an open question.
“There is relatively little research, and what research there is mixed if reducing government reduces the cost of government,” said Jim Nowlan of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois.
In North Carolina, for instance, there have been cases where merging governments actually increased costs because lower-paid employees from one governmental body received pay raises to bring them in line with salaries paid by another. It is similar to what some school districts in Illinois experienced when they merged and had to resolve salary disparities between the two.
Nowlan also cited a 2007 Congressional Quarterly publication that showed Illinois was just slightly above the national average in terms of the number of local government employees per 10,000 population, despite Illinois’ outsized number of local governments. Combine state and local public employees, and Illinois ranked 43rd in the country.
Savings in question
“The question is whether a reduction in governments would reduce expenditures significantly,” he said.
University of Illinois Springfield political scientist Chris Mooney said the proliferation of small government units makes it difficult for anyone to monitor their activities.
“Very few people know what these people are doing,” Mooney said. “There is a lack of accountability. There is an opportunity for nepotism and hanky-panky. They’re certainly not all corrupt, but when you get so many of them, people don’t notice what’s going on.”
That’s even true of government units that elect their officers.
“People don’t pay attention to politics to begin with. As you move down the ticket, people know less and less,” he said.
Both Mooney and Nowlan said the job of eliminating units of government will be tough because all of those governments have constituencies that want to preserve the status quo.
“People in them feel passionately about them,” Nowlan said.
“It’s going to be tough, given the way the General Assembly works,” Mooney said. “Nobody wants to be the one whose ox is gored.”
The Township Officials of Illinois represents the more than 1,400 townships in Illinois.
“We are obviously opposed to that bill,” said Bryan Smith, executive director of the association. “It places the fate of a government in the hands of an eight-person commission. I take it as an attack on local government.”
Smith said voters can already elect to dissolve special districts if they choose.
The legislation is Senate Bill 1926.
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Units of local government in Illinois
Counties – 102
Municipalities – 1,299
Towns or townships – 1,432
Schools – 912
Special districts – 3,249 (such as fire protection, library, drainage, cemetery, park, sewer and other miscellaneous districts)
Copyright 2011 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved.
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