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 Residents of Vernon Township decided Nov. 6 they don’t need a
township road district, or more specifically, a person making $107,750 to run
it.
The road district is an independent unit of government staffed by an elected
highway commissioner, whose compensation totals $107,750. Vernon Township will
absorb the responsibilities of the road district and its 15 miles of road. The
highway commissioner hands over the keys in 2021, when his term ends.
Taxpayers will save $107,750 a year when the township absorbs the road district,
according to a study commissioned by the township in February. Those savings
were entirely attributed to eliminating the district commissioner’s six-figure
compensation.
Vernon Township Highway Commissioner Michael Lofstrom takes home an annual base
salary of $93,844. But $1,380 in mobile phone reimbursements, $500 in health
benefits and other perks bring the commissioner’s annual total earnings to
$107,750. The district sits just north of Cook County and near Buffalo Grove.
The February study recommended that the township board include the consolidation
referendum on the ballot, concluding that there would be “no reduction in
service” nor any outsourcing of services “to private contractors and neighboring
government entities.”
The ballot question read, “Shall the Road District of the Township of Vernon be
abolished with all the rights, powers, duties, assets, property, liabilities,
obligations, and responsibilities being assumed by the Township of Vernon?” Of
23,489 votes cast, 75 percent picked consolidation.
Responsibilities the township will inherit from the district are mainly road
construction, street maintenance and snow removal. Vernon Township Supervisor
Daniel Didech told the Daily Herald in October that consolidation would not
negatively affect the delivery of those services.
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Didech said township leaders viewed the role of
highway commissioner as “a very unaccountable position,” which
earlier this year prompted discussions about the possibility of
consolidation, the Daily Herald reported. Inadequate accountability
is a familiar theme among townships and township road districts
across Illinois, and has given way to patterns of corruption and
abuse.
In February 2015, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed an
executive order establishing the Task Force on Local Government
Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates. The task force published a
report in December 2015, recommending that lawmakers empower
Illinoisans to consolidate local government units through
referendum.
In August 2017, Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 3, allowing
township boards serving a population of fewer than 3 million to hold
voter referendums over whether to consolidate their road districts.
The law also gave township boards the authority to allow voters to
dissolve the township altogether.
Swaddled in nearly 7,000 layers of local government, Illinois boasts
more taxing bodies than any other state. The cost of maintaining so
many government units is a core driver of Illinoisans’ growing
property tax burden. In Lake County, where Vernon Township is
located, the average effective property tax rate in 2017 was 2.7
percent, according to property analytics company ATTOM Data
Solutions. That’s more than double the national average. Allowing
taxpayers to exercise control over how much government they wish to
pay for is a necessary step toward relief.
While the most urgent reforms must ultimately come from state
lawmakers, municipalities should continue giving taxpayers a voice
in shaping the local government they fund.
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