Manley Introduces Legislation to Consolidate Local Units of Government, Save Taxpayer Dollars

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – As part of her efforts to make government more taxpayer-friendly, state Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, introduced legislation last week that would create a uniform process to dissolve units of local government.

“While local government provides many crucial services for residents, the sheer number of units of local government that we have in Illinois create inefficiencies and wastes taxpayer money,” said Manley. “Many of these services can be folded into county government, eliminating redundancies and making government more transparent. My bill will ensure that there is a process that will allow local government units to be dissolved with a plan in place to save taxpayer dollars while continuing to provide services to residents.”

While it is difficult to pin down the exact number of units of local government in the state, Illinois continually ranks as one of the states with the most local government units. In order to consolidate these unnecessary local government units, Manley introduced House Bill 5050 last week. The bill allows counties to dissolve a township road and bridge district, sanitary district, drainage district, mosquito abatement district, or street light district. To ensure that there will not be a lapse in services for residents, the county must provide a plan on how they will take over the services provided by the district and show the long-term savings for taxpayers. The State Comptroller will then be able to approve or deny the request to dissolve the unit of government. If the plan is approved, the county must provide quarterly updates to the State Comptroller to ensure that the implementation plan is being followed and that services are being provided to residents.

“There is no reason that Illinois should have more units of local government than the vast majority of other states, including ones that have a significantly higher population than we do,” said Manley. “Passing commonsense consolidation legislation will go a long way in improving government transparency, improving services provided to residents, and cutting property taxes.”