02/25/2014
Madeleine Doubek
Chief Operating Officer
As I told about 100 people and panelists who gathered at National Louis University in Lisle on a cold, windy night this week, some of the people nearest and dearest to me work in government public service jobs.
I am not a government hater. I know and appreciate the work many public servants perform. It’s hard, hard work. Often dangerous work. Frequently, it doesn’t feel very rewarding and, these days, it seems downright underappreciated and unvalued as there is near constant talk of cutting pension benefits and balancing budgets primarily on the backs of these workers who did nothing wrong while legislative bodies skipped payments and shorted plans. That is the harsh and unfair reality.
As I also told those gathered for a discussion in Lisle about “smart streamlining,” though, I also find myself agitated and more than a bit mystified whenever my local tax bill arrives in the mail as it just did a week or two ago.
My neighbors and I are paying to support 10 separate local governments. I’m sure many of you reading this pay for even more government entities than that. One of the panelists last night talked about an area of Elgin where 16 local governments show up on the tax bills. Three of the 10 I pay for are school districts, a grade school, a high school and a community college district. Then there’s a municipal government, a township government, a forest preserve government, a county government, a park district government. And then, there’s the water reclamation government and the mosquito abatement government.
Really? Think about it. Sure, I’ve heard a truck spraying for mosquitoes on a few summer nights, but should I really have to pay a separate government entity with separate human resource functions and separate overhead for that?
Why can’t some of these governments be combined and consolidated? Is there a smart way to do this that makes sense and might save a bit of my money and yours?
That was the subject of the discussion in Lisle hosted by the Better Government Association. BGA President and CEO Andy Shaw asked me to moderate that discussion that featured analysis and opinion from Brian Costin, director of government reform for the Illinois Policy Institute, Dan Cronin, chair of the DuPage County Board, Robert A. Porter, who consults with Township Officials of Cook County and has held various local government positions for 37 years, and freshman state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a lawyer and former school board member for Proviso Township High School District 209.
Cronin has launched a project to streamline some governments and agencies and got the OK from Springfield and courts to eliminate a few agencies and a sales tax levy used to fund the DuPage Water Commission, resulting, he says, in $80 million in savings for county residents. Yet, he said he doesn’t think it would be wise to dissolve the DuPage Election Commission, one of few separate such commissions administering elections in Illinois. Most elections are administered by a county clerk, but Cronin said he believes it’s wise to have a commission that requires both Republican and Democrat members.
That was an overarching theme last night. No one wanted to flat-out say that, for example, the oft-targeted township governments all should go across Illinois even though one audience member noted there are a handful of counties in Illinois that don’t have them.
Welch has a bill pending in Springfield that would merge River Forest Township with the village of River Forest because the two governments’ boundaries are identical. He also has a bill that threatens to create a water commission to set rates as part of what he said was his tentative version of an attempt to respond to Chicago hiking water rates for many suburbs.
Porter suggested all these governments were created by people who wanted them to provide services at some point or another. I’m not sure those people were always majorities of voters, but I am sure that just because they were created ages ago doesn’t mean they still should exist. A majority of people should not have to jump through arcane an intricate hoops to dissolve them if they wish.
Or, as Cronin noted, does it really make sense to have a snowplower pick up his blade for a few miles while he’s traveling over a county road to get to a township road? That’s just scratching the surface of the efficiencies that can and should be explored that make sense. Why are we duplicating so many government functions at a time when so many of us are struggling to pay that tax bill and make ends meet?
As Costin noted so well, how can we the people possibly be expected to hold 10 or 16 governments accountable? We can’t possibly and so it’s easy for too many governments to become havens of corruption, or at least havens of inefficiency.
The Better Government Association is shining a light and encouraging citizen discussion about “smart streamlining.” I was happy to play a small part. Any smart streamlining we can do, we should demand. And I’m pretty sure my loved ones in the public sector also would be all for it. After all, they get ridiculous tax bills too.
What do you think?
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