Lawmakers push to give one of Illinois' most highly taxed counties the ability to cut property taxes through consolidation
Illinois has more than 1,400 township districts. Each one is able to tax local residents for services. State Rep. Dave McSweeney, R-Barrington, said there is little need for them in highly populated places like McHenry County, where the taxing bodies often overlap and send property tax bills soaring.
“It’s a small step but we need to start consolidating these local governments,” he said. “They’re duplicative in a lot of cases and helping to bring about higher property taxes.”
His legislation, House Bill 4244, would make it easier for voters in McHenry County to get a question on the ballot asking to consolidate a township. It would reduce the number of petitions needed to place a consolidation question on the ballot by half. Current law requires 10 percent of the total voters in the previous election. If passed, McSweeney’s bill would reduce it to 5 percent. McSweeney has a bill that would do the same for all counties in Illinois but says there is too much pushback in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.
Bryan E. Smith, executive director with the Township Officials of Illinois, said townships are often the cheapest method of delivery for some services, since their workforce is often part-time and seldom unionized.
“It’s just going to drive the cost up,” he said.
Instead, Smith calls for efforts to absorb other units of government into local townships.
“You’d have one less special unit of government if the township has taken it over,” he said. “They’d be able to manage them very well.”
Townships in McHenry County have been under fire in the past for corrupt or unethical behavior.
Former Algonquin County Road Commissioner Robert Miller was often criticized for hiring family members to high-paying positions within the township.
McSweeney said that the thousands of units of local government leave too much opportunity for corruption to take place on the taxpayer dime.
Illinois has 1,800 more units of government than any other state.
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