Franks’ Feeble Government Consolidation Bill Signed

House Bill 229 is a bill whose content ended up doing virtually nothing in DuPage County and will do the same in McHenry and Lake.

Sponsored by State Rep. Jack Franks, it deals with consolidation of local governments.

This is at least Frank’s second foray into consolidation.

The first time he passed a bill that would allow the Nunda and Richmond Cemetery Districts to be folded into the township governments that appoint them.

No saving of money could be foreseen, except for salaries of the cemetery district trustees.

The last bill is described as follows:

HB 229 

Local Government Dissolution: Allows both Lake County and McHenry County to dissolve units of local government whose governing body is appointed by the county chairman.

Adds conservation districts to the units of local government that are excluded from dissolution.

Also excludes community mental health boards from being dissolved.

Currently these consolidation powers are only granted to DuPage County.

(Ask Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller how homeowners’ taxes went up when a DuPage County Board-appointed fire protection district was replaced with a special service area taxing entity.)

Had not Franks passed a bill to have the trustees of the Marengo Rescue Squad to be elected, this hometown unit of government, which exists nowhere else in McHenry County, the services being delivered by fire departments, could have been dissolved.

Guess consolidation wasn’t really a priority for the Marengo Democrat running for McHenry County Board Chairman against Mike Walkup.


Comments

Franks’ Feeble Government Consolidation Bill Signed — 8 Comments

  1. “No saving of money could be foreseen, except for salaries of the cemetery district trustees.”

    LOL – so no savings of money, except for the money that they saved.

  2. Reboot Illinois

    Rep. Ives: Don’t be Duped by claims DuPage County is a Consolidation Champion

    Guest View

    by Jeanne Ives

    January 18, 2016

    The article discusses Senate Bill 494 (SB 494) in the 98th General Assembly how it led to the dissolution of Fairview Fire Protection District in Downers Grove (a paper only pass through fire protection district), which was replaced with 15 special service areas (SSA’s), which taxed 3x what the fire protection district was taxing.

    It also discusses an SSA that supports the Wheaton Downtown Association.

    http://rebootillinois.com/2016/01/18/rep-ives-dont-be-duped-by-claims-dupage-county-is-a-consolidation-champion/51584/

  3. By far the most consolidations have occurred in school districts.

    That resulted in bigger school districts with more teacher union power which negotiated opaque collective bargaining agreements (the rank and file teachers get to vote whether or not to ratify the agreement but the rank and file taxpayers do not).

    The costs for schools have soared.

  4. My DuPage bill went down 3.1%, the first decrease in 19 years.

    Only 2 taxing body’s out of the 12 increased.

    Milton Twp Mosq Dist and Twp Spc Police.

    Even College of DuPage and Glen Ellyn Parks took less.

    It only took 19 years to reach the tipping point in DuPage County.

    Good luck in McHenry.

  5. DuPage and all 102 counties have taxing districts with underfunded pensions and retiree healthcare.

    Taxes of one sort or another will be going up in this state for a whole host of reasons.

    The current system is rigged against the taxpayer to benefit special interests.

    Consolidating a rigged system results in a consolidated rigged system.

    One of the ways the system is rigged is unfunded or underfunded legislation coming out of Springfield (State Representatives and State Senators, Governors) that results in tax hikes, but not disclosed to taxpayers as such.

  6. This line says it all:

    “Consolidating a rigged system results in a consolidated rigged system.”

    In addition to what Mark has highlighted, anyone notice what has happened with fines for traffic violations?

    THE FEES ADDED IN MANY CASES EXCEED THE FINE!!

    Build or re-model a house pay a fee; have a special event (party), pay a fee; replace a hot water tank, pay a fee; put in a culvert, pay a fee; have a dog, pay a fee; pay off your mortgage (does not happen much), pay a fee; buy a house, pay a fee; on and on and on and on.

    The McHenry County P & D fee schedule is four pages long!

    https://www.co.mchenry.il.us/home/showdocument?id=48891

  7. I’m having the phrase “Consolidating a rigged system results in a consolidated rigged system” made into a framed sampler for my wall…

  8. Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 229 (HB 229) into law as Public Act 99-0709 (PA
    99-0709) on August 5, 2016.

    ilga.gov > Public Acts > Public Acts/Leg. From Previous General Assemblies > Please select a General
    Assembly: 99 (2015 – 2016) Go > Legislation, Public Acts – Legislation & Laws – Listing > House Bills > 0201 – 0300 > HB0229 COUNTIES-REDUCTION-EFFICIENCY

    http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=229&GAID=13&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=83913&
    SessionID=88&GA=99

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