四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants"

Thomas Jefferson

Taxpayers get soaked by layers and layers of gov't

December 12, 2011

"Kill the townships, the regional school superintendents, the county recorder, the state comptroller, half of the school districts in Illinois. If you need more, call me back. I mean it."

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley in a Tribune editorial, Feb. 12, 2010

We hoped Quigley's blunt words — and the state's looming financial Armageddon — would galvanize Illinois politicians to start the gargantuan task of stripping away redundant and wasteful layers of government.

No such luck.

Illinois lawmakers had a chance this year to shut down some useless offices — the regional school superintendents — and save $11 million.

A move to eliminate the lieutenant governor's office (savings: $2.5 million) fizzled. So did the idea of merging the comptroller into the treasurer's office (savings: $20 million).

Gov. Pat Quinn said he wanted to shrink the state's 868 school districts to no more than 300 districts, saving an estimated $100 million in salaries. Went nowhere.

Cook County Board member John Fritchey wants to put a binding referendum on the November ballot to fold the Cook County recorder of deeds office into the county clerk's office. Savings: about $1 million. An upcoming vote in the board's finance committee will be close, Fritchey tells us.

Here's our favorite recent example of hysterical overreaction to efficient government.

DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin is wisely moving to close the county's juvenile detention facility. DuPage would send youths to a facility run by Kane County and save about $900,000 a year.

DuPage County Judge Robert Anderson got so incensed over that plan that he threatened to send troubled juveniles to Cronin's home. "I do want to let you know that I happen to personally know where Dan Cronin lives," Anderson said at a Nov. 22 finance committee meeting, "and so when we get to the 25th kid I'll be figuring out if I can send that child to Dan's house. And I happen to know where some of the rest of you live and so I'll be looking for that as well."

Anderson was under the mistaken impression that DuPage could send no more than 24 youths at a time to Kane.

Really, that kind of threat from a judge? The DuPage County board narrowly approved the agreement with Kane on a 10-8 vote. The plan goes to the Kane County board this week.

Cronin has had the temerity to ask why DuPage has more than 400 units of government, such as the Salt Creek Drainage Basin Sanitary District and the Century Hill Street Lighting District. A private firm is evaluating the cost and functions of dozens of taxing districts in the county and will report its findings in January.

Illinois has almost 7,000 units of government, yet the defenders of the bloated status quo across the state just can't imagine how that number could ever be reduced.

What would we do without 44 regional school superintendents, who process teacher certifications and push other paper around?

Quinn zeroed out the budget for the superintendents' salaries this summer. But state lawmakers granted them a reprieve.

A commission will recommend whether and how to streamline these offices. The commission will be filled with appointees chosen by political, school and union officials, most of whom have a strong vested interest in the status quo. So you can count on this going nowhere.

How about township government?

A recent Better Government Association investigation of the 20 largest townships in Cook County found that township officials stockpile millions of dollars in property taxes and overpay for repairs and maintenance on a small number of roads.

Townships exist to preserve political jobs. Townships spend almost $1 on salaries and administration for every $1 in services they deliver, about twice as much as other local governments, according to a 2008 report by Roosevelt University professor David Hamilton.

Evanston voters will get a chance to register their disgust with this. Evanston aldermen, who also serve as township trustees, recently decided to ask voters in a 2012 advisory referendum if they want to abolish township government. Dumping the township would save $500,000 to $700,000 a year.

Township government "is a waste. It's archaic. We need to move forward," said Evanston Ald. Ann Rainey. "I know very few people — unless they are township recipients or township employees — who really understand and embrace the township form of government."

You can say that about a lot of the layers of government in this state.

There's so much financial pressure on taxpayers and so much financial pressure on the legitimate services provided by government. Yet we tolerate throwing millions of dollars at useless government shells because, well, because that's the way it has always been.