From New-Gazette columnist Jim Dey comes this summary of township government:
The 17 counties that don’t have township governments raise the question of why township supporters suggest the world will end if townships in their counties were merged and/or eliminated.
What many of them really fear is that their jobs — and those of their otherwise-unemployable brothers-in-law — will end.”
The column is entitled,
Illinois has way too much of a bad thing
The subject is much wider than township government.
It is the multiplicity of local governments in Illinois, so many more than in any other state.
My 300lb Uncle was a township Supervisor in DeKalb County.
He always said he had the “best job in the world.”
As a young man I asked him which job was he talking about, his township post or the insurance agency he ran simultaneously.
The township was his answer because he ‘didn’t have to even show up’ and ‘got a good pension and real good health insurance.
Of course he had two fat children (my cousins)
Who were also township employees.
Assuming your anecdote means you oppose township government, that shows how this cuts so broadly across ideological and political lines. I agree with you entirely, for the first time.
During the 80’s the Township Supervisor for Algonquin Township spent 5 months every year in Florida.
He would fly in over the weekend before the monthly township board meeting and show up in the office on Monday and Tuesday and do what he needed to do, hold the meeting on Tuesday night, and fly back on Wednesday for another 3 1/2 weeks.
Now they call this “remote working”.
When he was in town he would come into the office in the morning, have a cup of coffee while reading the paper, return a few calls, sign a couple of checks and go home at noon for the balance of the day.
For this he was paid $35,000 which in the 80’s was the equivalent of about $85,000 today (https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/).
As for municipalities, McHenry County has a number of what amount to unincorporated subdivisions or areas of estate homes that were given special legislation (any area of a certain size containing a certain number of people in a county of over a certain population that borders on another state), by the GA to incorporate in certain narrow time windows so they could avoid having the county make zoning decisions for them.
Now they don’t have any revenue sources other than speed traps and are hurting so they pile on property taxes on top of the county property tax.
Illinois has 7000 units of local governments, and leads the nation in this dubious category.
https://www.governing.com/archive/number-of-governments-by-state.html
Townships are licenses to steal.
The corrupt road district commissioner for McHenry Township, Jim Condon, is a perfect example.
His lazy kid was hired by the township.
When people complained about him, the kid was ‘transferred’ to Nunda Township.
Meanwhile Jimmy hired Bob Miller who was finally turned out of stealing from Algonquin Township.
Just goes on and on.
Bob Anderson should be given a parade for exposing so much crookedness.
Who was that Supervisor?
Cal and Jim Dey like sharing left wing BS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Civic_Federation
“The Federation was founded to fight corruption, government subsidies, high taxes, and unneeded public enterprise. However it also wanted government to solve the problems of the metropolis.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-02-23/these-states-have-the-highest-property-taxes
Effective tax rates, #1 New Jersey @ 2.49%, #2 Illinois @ 2.27%
https://www.governing.com/archive/number-of-governments-by-state.html
Units of government, New Jersey 1338, Illinois 6918
The following states have fewer total units of government, but have higher number of units of gov per 100k population than Illinois. Co, Ia, Ka, Me, Mn, Mo, Mt, Ne, Nd, Sd, Vt, Wy.
There is no direct correlation between the number of units of government to the actual costs of delivering those same services.
re “Effective tax rates, #1 New Jersey @ 2.49%, #2 Illinois @ 2.27%.”
Illinois’ Effective Tax Rate would be much higher if the number excluded the underassessed homes in Cook County.
(By underassessed, I mean the Cook County assessment level on homes is much lower than out one-third of market value over a three-year period.)
I live in McHenry Township.
I applaud Anderson cutting the fat township budgets and tax levies.
Jim Condon is a real trip.
He used to hold court at the bar on Richmond Rd in Ringwoodl, then got into beef with the customers.
He then held court at the Rusty Nail, but got mad when he couldn’t put up his signs.
He then bought McCollum Knoll using daughter as a straw person.
If you want drugs, check the place out.
Why does he have immunity from the law?
I moved here from Iowa, in 1999.
We didn’t have townships there.
They seem wholly unneeded.
How come some counties in Illinois don’t have them.
The article doesn’t explain it.
My township supervisor (Alg. Township) never returned my over ten calls about the Township Assessor screwing up my single lot residence with a guy who had the same street number but a different street and three lots.
She would never return my calls either.
The whole thing was finally resolved by the County Assessor’s Office.
My belief is that counties with townships were settled by people from states with townships. That would be the north, e.g., PA and points east and north.
South of the Mason-Dixon, e.g., Maryland and points south did not have townships.
When their inhabitants went West, they settle the southern part of Illinois.
If they didn’t need townships in their home states, why would they need them in their new state?