A press release from Governor Bruce Rauner:
Governor Applauds Bipartisan Consolidation Legislation
Task Force headed by Lt. Governor announces four bipartisan bills to empower local communities & save taxpayer dollars
NAPERVILLE – Governor Bruce Rauner today joined Lt. Governor Sanguinetti, legislative leaders and local elected officials to announce four bipartisan pieces of legislation to streamline local government delivering more control to local communities.
“Today we are one step closer to empowering our local communities and giving them the necessary tools to rein in their out of control costs,” Governor Rauner said.
Bruce Rauner
“These four bills are just the start of delivering more value to taxpayers by reducing layers of redundant bureaucracy. I want to thank the Lt. Governor and the Task Force for their hard work, and I look forward to working with the legislature to get these bills passed.”
Evelyn Sanguinetti
“I believe the recommendations put forward today will have a tremendous impact on the people of Illinois,” said Lt. Governor Sanguinetti.
“It was an honor to serve as the Chairman of the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force. I look forward to continue working with members of the Task Force as we work to streamline local government and make it more efficient for the taxpayers of Illinois.”
According to the US Census of Government, Illinois has more local units of government than any other state in the nation at 6,963. Illinois also has the second-highest effective property tax rate in the nation. These four pieces of legislation help reduce state barriers to consolidation, and empower taxpayers and local leaders to pursue efficient and effective government.
The proposed legislation includes:
Citizens Empowerment Act: Empowers Illinois citizens and local governments to consolidate duplicative, excessive or unnecessary units of government via referendum. Sponsored by: Sen. Dan Duffy (R-Lake Barrington), Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) and Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
DuPage County Consolidation Powers Expansion: Provides that the Local Government Reduction and Efficiency Division of the Counties Code applies to all counties which currently only applies to DuPage County. Sponsored by: Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Wheaton), Sen. Dan Duffy (R-Lake Barrington), Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo), Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), Rep. Grant Werhli (R-Naperville) and Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
Evanston Township Consolidation Expansion: Extends to all coterminous townships and municipalities the same authority to consolidate that is currently only provided to Evanston. Sponsored by: Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) and Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
Township Consolidation: Removes arbitrary barriers to township consolidation that exist in statute so local residents or units of government can consolidate if they so choose. Sponsored by: Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) and Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
“I have been fighting for government consolidation since the day I was elected in 2008,” said State Sen. Dan Duffy (R-Lake Barrington). “I am proud to have had the opportunity to recommend ways we can eliminate government bureaucracy and wasteful spending to reduce costs for our local governments, schools and taxpayers.”
“I want to thank the Lt. Governor and Governor Rauner for their leadership on this important issue,” said State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo). “I chaired the previous effort and found that background extremely useful for this effort, but I especially appreciate this administration’s commitment to consolidation and government efficiencies.”
“I’m glad to support these proposals to streamline and improve local government,” said State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon). “These bills will reduce costs and improve efficiency, and that will help taxpayers across Illinois.”
“It is the duty of all elected officials to seek greater efficiencies and cost-savings opportunities by way of intergovernmental agreements that save taxpayer dollars,” said State Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Wheaton). “In the face of ‘sky-high’ property taxes, it’s time to empower local governments with these cost-saving measures.”
“The Task Force put together a very comprehensive report and as elected officials we all have a responsibility to look for the most efficient way to deliver services to residents,” said Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico. “Naperville has always been a community that values good government as well as looking at innovative ways to create savings for our taxpayers.”
I guess Jack had to choose between doing his job, in this case attending this morning’s meeting with the County Board’s legislative committee to go over the legitimate concerns of his constituency or attending a photo op with the Governor.
He picked the option that gave him the better chance for gratuitous publicity and ran with it.
Sorry you weren’t there, Jack, it was a very good meeting.
How is meeting with the governor to work on legislation that would consolidate government and lower property taxes, especially in McHenry County, not doing his job?
Haven’t you been criticizing Franks for not working with the governor, when this shows he is trying to help him achieve a key piece of his agenda?
This is dumb beyond words.
Spending your time with those RINO’s in the legislative committee who want to keep property taxes high is a complete waste of time.
I would want my representative to spend his time better than that.
Jackson, the legislation was all set more than a month ago, that was a photo op with Brucy.
Poorly constructed defense.
Mr. Reick, I find it very disturbing that you are against government consolidation, which would lower our property taxes, against term limits, so that if you get in you can stay in and collect a pretty sweet pension and health care benefits, while supporting taking away the rights of workers to bargain for those same benefits, and that you would support raising the income tax in exchange for “structural reforms” that would lower wages for workers.
It seems like your goal is to get into office to protect the good ol boy network while taking money out of the pockets of average people both through raising taxes and lowering wages.
Why should any working person vote for you?
@Jackson Teller: Here’s Franks’ record of involvement with the consolidation committee:
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/on-government-consolidation-jack-franks-just-phones-it-in/
Consolidation will be nothing more than a rounding error on property taxes.
The real driver of property tax increases is the way we pay for schools.
Franks has done nothing to address this problem and since he’s in the pocket of the teachers’ unions, he’ll do nothing in the future, either.
Until we change the way education is paid for in this state, your property taxes are not coming down.
Ask Jack Franks how he intends to change that without biting the hand that feeds him.
Steve: Your comment:
While it is true, local tax revenues provide the bulk of money to operate schools, reducing local funding and increasing state funding will NOT fix the problem.
The problem we have is not how the schools are funded, the problem as so eloquently FREQUENTLY pointed out by Mark is the GUARANTEE of public sector pensions dictated by the voters of Illinois!
To make this problem worse, we in this state, allow teachers and other public sector unions to use the power of work stoppages for guaranteed increases in wages and benefits!
I say guaranteed because teachers have become the best paid daycare workers in the world and the threat of shutting down this expensive daycare will not be tolerated by the guardians of most children.
Without a change to the State Constitution and complete implementation of the ‘Rauner Agenda’ the exodus from Illinois will continue because TAXES are also guaranteed to increase!
Unlike the federal government, the state does not have its own printing presses to create more money to fund (here is that Agenda 21 term) ‘unsustainable’ spending on social services and government infrastructure.
@Concerned Voter: The pension guarantee is our largest systemic problem, no question.
But the pension issue and the education funding issue need to be separated from one another.
Whether teachers pay for their pensions out of their own pay or its paid for at the district level, the pension contribution is part of the complete compensation package that a board negotiates with its teachers. It’s just a matter of which bucket the money comes from.
The “employer” share of the pension is paid for by the State.
If you want to say that the compensation package as a whole is too high, then take that up with your local school board.
I’ve written on this issue before:
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/how-should-illinois-pay-for-education/
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/education-funding-a-crumbling-foundation/
and several posts following
The one word you don’t hear in any of the education funding debates is the word “parent”.
Until we give parents control over their own kids’ education, we’re going to continue to see school costs go up because there’s no incentive for school districts to make them go down.
‘ve been looking at the voucher program recently enacted in Nevada and see a lot that I like. You can read about it here:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2015/06/school_vouchers_nevada_law_breaks_new_ground.html
Creating competition for education dollars with force school districts to compete, and competition lowers costs and increases quality pretty much everywhere it’s tried.
We cannot continue to do things the way they’ve always been done, especially if the only reason is that it’s the way it’s always been done.
Unfortunately, there’s no leadership coming out of Springfield, on either side of the aisle, that would change the way we pay for education.
I’m running for the General Assembly because I think there are better ways, and I want to talk about them.
@Steve Reick
I was on the G.A. website to see if you were right and that Franks is doing nothing to address the problem of property taxes being the primary funder of schools.
He has a bill that would both freeze property taxes for two years and create a commission to revise the school funding formula.
This would help lower property taxes, along with consolidation. That’s not exactly doing nothing as you stated earlier.
If you were to get into the G.A., what would you propose to be the primary funder of public schools?
Higher sales taxes?
Higher income taxes? or slashing school funding?
It’s one thing to make broad statements about vouchers or school choice or anti-union rhetoric, but an enitrely different one once you are there and are facing the very real situation.
@Jackson Teller:
Freezing taxes that are already unaffordable is not the answer.
Property taxes need to be lowered, and it won’t happen just by revising the funding formula.
That’s happened in the past and look what it’s gotten us:
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/education-funding-a-crumbling-foundation/
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/education-funding-part-ii-the-big-sucking-sound-from-the-shores-of-lake-michigan/
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/education-part-iii-ptell-giveth-and-ptell-taketh-away/
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/education-part-iv-poverty-grant-and-ptell-subsidy-why-do-they-matter/
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/education-part-v-property-taxes-the-well-has-gone-dry/
Each of the above posts starts with the same thing: the language of Article X, Section 1 “The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.”
It seems like every time somebody appoints a commission to revise school funding, the end result is more money going to the Chicago Public School system at the expense of the rest of the state, especially the collar counties.
The State needs to stop calculating how much it’s going to appropriate per student for education and then give that money to school districts, it must be given to parents.
Also, we need to carve off an agreed amount by which the pensions are underfunded, treat it like a capital project with its own revenue stream and take it out of the budget process.
What that revenue stream will be is open to negotiation, but we have to take the repayment of the underfunding (underfunding which Jack Franks had a big hand in causing, by the way)out of the budgeting process or soon the pension is going to swallow the entire budget.
Any bill proposed by a legislator who has accepted as much teachers’ union money over the years as Jack Franks has cannot contain the type of change that’s needed to both give our kids access to better learning while at the same time lowering property taxes.
The unions will fight with everything they have to keep parents out of the equation.
That’s a debate I dare Jack Franks to have with me.
As soon as Bruce Rauner pass that bill, we’ll AT LAST be able to dissolve and consolidate the public school system, which takes over 73 percent of our property tax dollars.
I don’t even have children in school and I’m on a fixed income.
Why am I paying for other people’s kids?
THANKS BRUCE RAUNER!!!!
And THANKS JACK FRANKS AND DAVID MSWEENEY!
@Rian: I’m not against government consolidation, what I’m against is people who call for consolidation without showing us how it will provide better and more responsive government and save money, and how much.
I’m in favor of less government, but calling for fewer governments will not necessarily give you less government.
There’s a difference.
As to taking a pension, I’m not going to take one.
End of conversation.
I do not support raising the income tax, the Democrats had their shot in 2010 when rates went to 5%, and our situation got no better.
We need a complete overhaul of how revenue is generated in this state, which requires us to look at every source of revenue, then broadening the base and lowering rates.
If you want to find someone who’s bent on raising taxes and killing jobs, you need look no further than Jack Franks’ recently proposed a bill that’s a true tax increase.:
https://illinoyances.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/jack-franks-proposes-3-billion-tax-increase-when-will-this-district-notice/
Why don’t you ask him why he wants to “protect the good ol boy network while taking money out of the pockets of average people both through raising taxes and lowering wages.”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer.
re Article X, Section 1 “The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.”
It has been litigated to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled it was “hortatory,” if memory serves me correctly.