SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A commission has concluded that Illinois lawmakers should make it easier to reduce the number of local government boards and agencies, but not force the communities to do so. It also suggested that such consolidation might not save taxpayers money, as many critics have suggested.
The 17-member Local Government Consolidation Commission delivered its report last week, 2 ½ years after the panel was created by the Legislature amid concerns that the state’s 6,968 local governments - a total higher than any other state in the nation - weren’t all necessary because their services overlapped with those of other agencies.
The chairman of the commission said that it became clear during hearings that local officials do not want the state telling them which agencies should be eliminated or consolidated, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reported (https://bit.ly/On03nt ). As a result, said Rep. Jack Franks of Woodstock, “Our main focus became empowering the locals to be able to make their own self-determination.”
How state lawmakers could do that might include removing barriers. Franks explained that while state law sets out how to create local governmental units, in some cases there is no way to get rid of them once they’ve been established.
The General Assembly approved legislation that made it easier for DuPage County to consolidate and eliminate units, and Franks said he would like to see something similar extended to all Illinois counties.
Giving the local communities the ability to do so would put pressure on agencies to demonstrate their worth.
“We make them have to defend what they have because now they are actually at risk of having to consolidate,” he said.
The commission also found that Illinois might want to follow the lead of other states where local governments cooperate with each other and even share equipment, Franks said.
At the same time, the commission’s own research disputes the suggestion that reducing the number of local governmental units would automatically lower costs.
“By reviewing reports from around the country conducted on the topic of local governments and consulting with experts who worked on some reports, the Commission realized that simply reducing the number of local governmental units does not necessarily result in a reduction of costs to the taxpayer,” the report concluded.
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Information from: The State Journal-Register, https://www.sj-r.com
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