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Illinois Municipal League director open to local consolidation

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Illinois

“With nearly 7,000 units of government in Illinois, it’s time to empower local taxpayers and voters to consolidate them or eliminate them,” the governor said.

Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole said it was time to take a look at the idea.

“And it doesn’t have to be radical,” Cole said. “I think any change, any positive movement, would be worthwhile so it doesn’t have to mean that everything gets eliminated, everything gets consolidated, but some common-sense approach would be good.”

Cole said lawmakers could either go back to previous task forces on consolidation for ideas, or come up with new ones. But he said he anticipated some snags.

“Well the barriers are obviously that everybody wants to protect their area, their piece of the pie, or if they’re an elected official or their particular unit of government, there’s a natural tendency to try and protect that,” Cole said.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 9:40 am

Comments

It’s February 7th, I believe the 88 person committee to study the real estate tax issue began about last April or May. Their ideas were to be completed by December 31.

Where do things stand on a very, very important issue?

Comment by Pick a Name Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 9:48 am
School districts are both a logical place (there is no need for single school high school districts), but even harder to see happening. Too many officials, and parents/voters, will see consolidation as a loss of control.

Comment by anon Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 9:48 am
Yes…..several exclamation points. I say consult the Edgar County guys for what to do on Townships. they have so much to say about downstate and upstate follies.

Comment by Amalia Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 11:04 am
If resistance from those with a personal interest in the outcome (e.g., a board member) is the issue that prevents consolidation, would consolidation that maintains the status quo for a period help with this? For example, if two cities merge, the new council would be the same size and have the same members as the sum of the two previous councils. As members attrition off, or after some 5-10 years, you could start reducing the number of seats to a more appropriate level for the combined cities.

Comment by thechampaignlife Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 11:44 am
7,000 govt units and over duplication and waste of resources. We need to move into 21st century and consolidate at county level. BTW, people keeping pointing to high property tax, if you in Chicago and part of the Chicago Public school base, you get to pay for not only ALL chicago public school pensions via property tax BUT also a great majority of downstate school pensions via state income tax. You wan fairness? Force downstate districts to fund THEIR teacher and admin pension just like Chicago has to. BTW, I am downstate resident myself.

Comment by truthteller Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 1:16 pm
Thinking back to yesterday, apparently the Chamber of Commerce’s paper The Madison Record disagrees with this idea.

Comment by Highland IL Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 2:11 pm
Let’s eliminate cities.

I think the IML would love that.

Comment by Try-4-Truth Friday, Feb 7, 20 @ 2:14 pm

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