From Wonder Lake’s Bob Anderson comes this op-ed piece:
No State Should Have 8,925 Units, 45 Types Of Governments, But Illinois Does.
Whether Democrat or Republican, we can all agree that Illinois’ nation leading 8,923 units of local government, structured into forty five types-of-government, is a Political-Tar- Pit of Corruption, Cronyism, Nepotism, Patronage and Waste, needs restructuring and made a priority of the governor and all members of the General Assembly.
There is hope in the future for tax relief with government consolidation if the Citizens Empowerment Act becomes law. The Citizens Empowerment Act, H B 5276, was filed on January 27, 2022 by the Vice Chair of the Counties and Township Committee Representative Jonathan Carrol.
The Citizens Empowerment Act would allow citizens of any government unit to initiate a referendum to consolidate that unit.
Also, State Representative Rita Mayfield has proposed forming a broad-based efficiency commission with a plan that could reduce the number of Illinois’ school districts by twenty five percent. Mayfield’s House Bill 7 would create a School District Efficiency Commission.
Illinois news media activists and civic groups have long called for government consolidation.
Government consolidation is supported by government efficiency advocates Illinois Policy Institute, Lincoln Lobby, Civic Federation, Taxpayers United, Better Government Association, Citizen Advocacy Center and Americans For Prosperity.
Many Illinoisans are voting with their feet.
The Illinois population loss last year was 310,288, 3rd worst in the U. S. and marks the 8th consecutive year.
Nearly half of Illinoisans who have thought about moving away said taxes were their number one reason.
Where are Illinoisans moving to?
Many are moving to lower tax states likeTexas that have fewer units of government than Illinois.
Texas had the highest influx of people of all states.
Illinois’ loss of citizens has had serious consequences when it comes to the economy and representation in the federal government. In 1980 Illinois and Texas each had 24 U. S. House Representatives.
Now Illinois has 17 representatives, a net loss of 7 seats.
Texas now has 38 representatives, a net gain of 14 seats!
Illinois has, by far, more units of local government.than any other state.
By contrast,Texas has 3,580 fewer local governments, but has16,300,000 more people and 210,665 more square miles than Illinois.
Florida has a population about 70% larger than Illinois and gets by with 1,617 units of government.
Hawaii has 21 units.
Other than Texas, Illinois is the only state with over 5,000 units of government.
Overlapping units of local government leads to confusion, redundancy of services, inefficiencies and higher costs to taxpayers.
Illinois township governments, which most states do not have, as well as 17 of Illinois’ 102 counties, are notorious for corruption, cronyism, nepotism, patronage and waste.
The Illinois township empire, an invisible layer of government dating back the 1850’s, the days of settlers living in the wilderness, with the county seat a day’s ride on horseback, is primarily supported by property taxes, over ninety percent.
The empire is made up of 1,433 township governments, 1,395 township road districts, 334 township multi-tax assessment districts and 26 township cemetery districts, each with its own tax levy authority and has an annual taxpayer cost of $747.6 million.
State law allows for township official double-dipping, holding two public funded public offices simultaneously.
A township supervisor, assessor or road commissioner may also be elected as a state senator or representative, collecting a paycheck with benefits from both positions.
An example of a double-dipper would be former State Senator Bill Peterson who collected for many years $84,000 as a Illinois State Senator and $90,000 as the Supervisor of Avon Township.
Township Officials of Illinois (TOI) is a 100 year old Springfield based lobby organization made up of 11,500 taxpayer funded township officials, the foremost defenders of township government and its double-dippers.
Consolidating Illinois’ nation leading school districts should not be overlooked by the governor or the General Assembly.
There are 852 public school districts in Illinois made up of 368 elementary, 96 high school and 388 unit districts.
About two-thirds of the state’s school districts have fewer than 1,000 students.
Illinois was the only state to spend more than $1 billion on administration in 2018.
California, with three times as many students as Illinois, spent $780.5 million.
Government consolidation should start at the township level, beginning with the coterminous townships.
There are a total of 17 coterminous townships in Illinois, meaning the township and a municipality have the same boundaries.
Great write up Bob. You mention 17 which will trigger Lopez and the rest here to label you a QAnon conspiracy theorist. This one came to my inbox this week. This proves your theory to a T but on a much smaller scale. Take a drive through Twin Lakes, WI sometime. Many people are jumping that way too.
====
THE NIGHT WATCHMAN
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.” So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?” So, they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.” So they laid off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in.
Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the
establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?
Anybody? Anything? Anyone? No? Didn’t think so!
Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason
for which very few people who read this can remember! Ready??
It was very simple… and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh???
AND NOW IT’S 2022 — 45 YEARS LATER — AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $242 BILLION A YEAR. IT
HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!
********AND TWO YEAR AGO WE WERE ENERGY INDEPENDENT THANKS TO OUR PRESIDENT, NOT ANY BUREAUCRATIC OVER FUNDED AGENCY *********
(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?”) 34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.
Ah, yes — good old Federal bureaucracy.
NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? What can possibly go wrong?
Signed…. The Night Watchman
8,925 units of government to corrupt, it’s a DEMOCRATS dream.
Those who have left or are planning to leave when/if possible have
already come to the realization that there is little to no hope of saving Illinois
from the fate the DEMOCRATS have imposed upon us.
In short, there is nothing worth remaining here for.
Illinois has that many units of government because the 1870 Constitution (when Illinois was majority Republican) limited the amount of taxes that could be levied by a given unit of government.
The way around this was to create Library Districts, Park Districts, Mosquito Abatement Districts, etc, etc, etck, each of which could impose a separate levy for its needs.
The current constitution, passed in 1970, eliminated that provision but nothing was done thereafter to eliminate all of the redundant local entities.
Someone should be sure to ask Supervisor Thrower if she plans on following in the illustrious footsteps of Bill Peterson and double dip if she is elected State Rep.
Good info, Bob.
The stats about school districts and administrative costs were new to me.
How many times are we going to see the same incorrect info printed here Cal?
Bob had 4 years on the township board to prove his township is more expensive to run its functions than if the county did the same functions, has anybody seen proof Bob does anything other than whine?
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.
Bob, stop whining and prove McHenry township elimination would benefit taxpayers, facts and figures, then present that info to the taxpayers, then a vote.
Good analysis.
Not a good analysis.
Do a regression analysis and you’ll see the US News& Reports bs is quite flawed.
Thanks for the facts, Bob.
I admire your persistence.
Nob,
There you go again, offering the same Blah, Blah, Blah.
Your words do not make any sense in regards to the stupidity of the funding of Illinois’ nation leading 8,925 units of local government.
If townships are so cost effective, why don’t all states have them as well as 17 Illinois counties?
Do you know what the mandated duties of townships are???
What is your back ground?
Do you live in one of the nine municipalities in Algonquin Township?
How can you, or anyone, justify a coterminous township?
Also use a real name!
“The Nob” is Robin Mohr, former Algonquin Township employee and Bob Miller stooge!
Robin was a large recipient of Miller’s Family and Friends plan for taxpayer money.
The pause while he runs to a dictionary to look up “coterminous”…
Bob, I agree the Supervisors functions are flawed and need legal adjustments to make more efficient.
Where are the numbers for your township that prove that it is a fact McHenry township is inefficient compared to the county, especially the roads that could be taken over by McDOT?
We have too much government, but until you Bob can prove making the county bigger will not lead to higher costs as has been proven many times over, that big gov is not better, people will oppose your lip service.
I’ll be glad to vote for any proven tax savings, something you have failed to do in detail so far.
Bob, where will the assessors be housed if McHenry twh is eliminated, who will lead them?
What are McDOT costs verse the McHenry twh road dist costs, and where will the new McDOT employees and equipment be housed if the twh is eliminated.
McDOT gets MFT based on population as do municipalities, what about the MFT the townships get per mile of road that will be eliminated if the twh is?
McDOT and county don’t want the extra headaches for less $$$$$ than the townships get, how do you propose to deal with that.
Coterminous Mun/twh usually don’t have the issues we deal with like a road district with roads, as all roads are Mun roads, like Evanston, which did consolidate once the savings were proven before the election.
There’s more Bob, lost more to be answered before a vote.
Bob, I worked for Del Miller in the late 70s for $5.00 an hour for one year, then many years later, for a few years, Bob Miller as a Senior bus driver on Mondays for $15.00 and hour no benefits, ending in 2016.
After Andrew Gasser got elected in 2017 he raised bus drivers wages per hour, our hero, Not!
I have a degree is in Civil Engineering with 30 year Municiple work experience, plus township, school district, and 1st Armor Div Germany.
You were a Marine (THX), Barber, and worked for Woodstock School dist buses, how does that apply to effective government exactly?
Nob,
Yes I was a Marine and barber, but never drove a school bus for the Woodstock school district.
If you are going to say something, make sure you have correct information, which you don’t.
However, thank you for your service in the 1st Armor Division.
Opps my bad, is this your IMRF listing Bob: 2021, Harrison School District 36, Anderson Robert G, $1,054.14, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund?