Cities and villages across the state are raising taxes or implementing new ones for a variety of functions, from attracting a fast-food restaurant to catching up on rising pension costs.
Illinois is taking small steps toward consolidating some of its duplicitous local governments, but bold reforms are needed to start addressing the state’s nearly 7,000 taxing bodies, the most in the nation.
Though Illinois Democrats insist Gov. Bruce Rauner’s reform agenda has nothing to do with the state’s budget, Rauner’s original proposed spending reforms would allow the state to balance its budget without hitting up taxpayers for more revenue.
A new law signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner on Aug. 5 gives McHenry and Lake counties the authority to consolidate and dissolve units of local government within their boundaries, a power granted to DuPage County in 2013.
DuPage County is projected to save millions of dollars through government-consolidation authority it has enjoyed for years. Now, the Illinois House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill that would expand these capabilities to all counties statewide.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.