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ILLINOIS
HOUSE PASSES BILL TO ALLOW RESIDENTS TO DISSOLVE TOWNSHIPS
Illinois Policy Institute
On March 29, the Illinois House of
Representatives voted almost unanimously in favor of allowing voters to
decide on local government consolidation – a crucial component of
shrinking local government spending, which drives up property taxes.
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, sponsored House Bill 496, which received
bipartisan support – more than a dozen representatives...
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 On March 29, the Illinois House of Representatives voted almost unanimously in
favor of allowing voters to decide on local government consolidation – a crucial
component of shrinking local government spending, which drives up property
taxes.
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, sponsored House Bill 496, which received
bipartisan support – more than a dozen representatives from both parties signed
on as co-sponsors. HB 496 passed the House 111-2. The only lawmakers who voted
against the bill were state Reps. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, and Lawrence
Walsh, D-Elwood.
If the Senate passes HB 496 and Gov. Bruce Rauner signs the bill into law,
residents of townships that are coterminous or substantially coterminous with a
municipality will have the right to put township dissolution referendums on the
ballot. For a referendum to dissolve a township to make it on the ballot, the
township’s city council would have to pass an ordinance or 10 percent of the
registered voters of that township would have to sign a petition. If the voters
approved the dissolution of a township, the municipality would take over the
services, duties, assets and liabilities of the township.
Too many local governments drive up Illinois property taxes
One of the main reasons Illinois has some of the highest property taxes in the
nation is because Illinois has the most units of local government in the
country. The Land of Lincoln has nearly 7,000 units of local government – around
1,400 of those are townships. Texas ̶ the state with the second-highest number
of local governments ̶ only has 5,100 government units despite being much larger
geographically and having a bigger population. Florida, with a population of
nearly 20 million people, has just 1,650 units of local government, and
functions with no township-level governments at all.
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 Thanks to the high number of local governments, along with other
spending drivers, Illinois’ property taxes have grown 2.5 times
faster than inflation and 14 times more rapidly than the state
population since the 1960s. And since 1990, residential property
taxes in Illinois have grown 3.3 times faster than median household
incomes.
On top of being very costly to taxpayers, these units of local
government are often redundant and inefficient. The average local
government in Illinois only serves 1,800 people, while the average
local government in California serves more than 8,000 residents.
HB 496’s passage by the House is an important victory for Illinois
homeowners and families, but Illinoisans shouldn’t start celebrating
just yet.
In 2016, state Rep. Sam Yingling, D-Grayslake, sponsored HB 4501 to
expand the local government consolidation powers enjoyed by DuPage
County to counties throughout the state. Those powers included
combining services and eliminating unnecessary government entities,
saving DuPage County millions. HB 4501 passed the House 93-19, but
did not make it out of the Senate before the 2016 legislative
session ended, effectively killing the bill. Yingling is one of the
co-sponsors of HB 496.
Residents should cheer the passage of HB 496, but should also demand
that the Senate follow the House’s lead. This would be an important
step in eliminating unnecessary government entities and making
property taxes affordable.
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