From The Center Square:
Measure threatens to dissolve Illinois’ rural townships, sparking opposition
By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Opponents say Senate Bill 2217 will be detrimental to rural Illinoisans by dissolving townships that have population sizes less than 5,000. [The bill got no hearing and is back in the Assignments Committee.]
Illinois state Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, D-Western Springs, has introduced Senate Bill 2217 to dissolve townships that have population sizes less than 5,000.
Jan Weber, Phoenix Township clerk in Henry County, said she knows there’s probably some duplication of services among some of the various state agencies.
“Our county doesn’t have this situation, but we have neighboring counties where there may be six or seven elementary districts. Each one of those elementary districts is their own unit of government, and then you have a high school district. In our county, all of the schools are what we call unit schools. So they maintain a high school, a middle school and an elementary school,” said Weber.
Illinois has more than 850 school districts.
With nearly 10,000 units of local government, Illinois has more taxing bodies than any other state. Weber said residents rely on the township government to take care of roads and dissolving would mean adding a lot more employees to larger government entities.
“I know that the county highway department in our county, in most counties, those county employees are paid better than what we pay in the townships. They probably have health insurance. They have retirement benefits and things that townships in many cases do not offer.
“So it would be a huge budget drain financially out on the county,” said Weber.
Townships were originally created to provide local government services to rural and unincorporated areas. Weber said about half their residents are rural and the other half live in subdivisions.
“They depend on the township government to take care of the roads. That’s fixing potholes. That’s removing trees that fall into the roadway, plowing snow, so they can leave their homes on a daily basis to go to work or get their kids to school,” said Weber. “So having good roads and access to those roads, virtually 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, is vital just for people’s livelihood.”
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, called the bill a “war on downstate Illinois.” Rose also explained consolidation would lead to property tax increases.
“For the county to simply be tossed with no equipment, no manpower, here’s the debt, take the debt, how are they supposed to handle this without raising property taxes? It is simply going to be a property tax increase on the citizens of these counties,” Rose said during a recent news conference.
State Sen. Chris Balkema, R-Channahon, has a similar bill, Senate Bill 1347, but it wouldn’t mandate units of government to consolidate rather it “removes the red tape” so, for example, fire districts A and B can decide to consolidate on their own.
Rose supports Balkema’s bill.
