Rauner says taxpayers could save $3.5 billion if consolidation recommendations enacted

Rauner says taxpayers could save $3.5 billion if consolidation recommendations enacted

·         By Greg Bishop | Illinois News Network

Gov. Bruce Rauner talks about government consolidation in DuPage County Monday July 23, 2018

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Illinois taxpayers could save more than $3 billion a year from government consolidation and mandate relief, according to Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Rauner signed House Bill 5123 Monday in DuPage County that allows for affected county clerks to absorb the county’s election commission, a move the governor’s office said will save $300,000, improve efficiency and streamline election reporting in DuPage County.

DuPage County had some election reporting problems on election night for this year’s March 20 primary. The Daily Herald reported elections officials with the county’s election commission failed to test ballot-like cards for it’s optical scan voting machines.

County Clerk Paul Hinds, who will be taking over elections operations for the county under the law Rauner signed, said Monday the consolidation will be good for taxpayers and voters.

“I look forward to a smooth transition moving the duties from the election commission to the county clerk’s office and I will work with the chairman and the county board to administer secure and accountable elections,” Hinds said.

County Chairman Dan Cronin said DuPage County has been a testing ground for consolidation for the past 6 years, saving taxpayers $120 million.

“We have focused on service and cost sharing, collaboration and working with our local and state partners to imagine new ways to deliver public services in the most efficient manner possible,” Cronin said.

Rauner said this needs to happen all over the state. If lawmakers passed all of Rauner’s proposed recommendations, he said taxpayers would save big.

“The estimate was we’d save Illinois taxpayers $3.5 billion per year,” Rauner said. “$3.5 billion per year if we actually implemented the 27 recommendations our task force laid out.”

The Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force created by a Rauner executive order issued a report in December 2015 that laid out ways “to reduce the heavy burden on Illinois taxpayers by empowering citizens and government officials to streamline local government through consolidation and eliminating unnecessary state mandates,” Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti said in the report.

Among the 27 recommendations was a mix of ideas to consolidate and to reduce mandates.

For consolidation, recommendations included, among others, a moratorium on creating new local governments, expand DuPage County’s pilot program to all 102 counties, allow township consolidations with coterminous municipalities, incentivize school district consolidation, and encourage sharing of public equipment, facilities and other resources regionally.

Mandates to be repealed, the report suggested, included prevailing wage laws, providing third-party contract mandate relief for school districts, making collective bargaining permissive rather than mandatory, eliminating minimum manning from collective bargaining, merging downstate and suburban public safety pension funds into a single fund, and others.

“I do want to thank members of the General Assembly on a bipartisan basis, (House Bill 5123) got passed, also 10 other bills got passed that took small pieces of our recommendations and got them into law,” Rauner said. “All steps in the right direction. We need to keep working every day, every session, get more legislation passed to lift the mandates, allow consolidation of government, and bring more efficient, effective government to the people of Illinois.”

Illinois has nearly 7,000 units of local government, hundreds more than any other state, something Rauner said goes hand in hand with the state’s second-highest property tax burden.

“We suffer In Illinois from some of the highest property taxes in America and it is not a coincidence that we also have more units of local government that any state in America,” Rauner said.

But Rauner doesn’t just want to give consolidation power to local elected officials, he wants voters to have also have a say.

“People are outraged,” Rauner said. “If we give power to the people, give power to the homeowners and the voters, rather than only elected officials, we’ll see dramatic change and lower property taxes as a result.”