Legislation aims to dissolve small townships

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Three bills targeting townships were recently referred to committees in the Illinois General Assembly.

Senate Bill 2217, sponsored by state Sen. Suzanne Glowiak Hilton, D-Western Springs, mandates that all townships with a population less than 5,000 are dissolved and must either consolidate with an adjacent township or the county containing the geographic boundaries of the dissolving township.

A second bill, SB 2504, also filed by Hilton and assigned to the Executive Committee, states that in counties with a population under 50,000, the offices of township assessor and multi-township assessor will be abolished once the current term expires.

Under the proposed bill, the county assessor will assume all duties and responsibilities of these positions, including managing assets, liabilities and public records related to property assessments.

Senate Bill 2504 also includes a provision, upon petition of “at least 5% of the voters in the township election immediately preceding the petition in each adjacent township subject to proposed consolidation, each township board shall certify and cause to be submitted to the voters of the township, at the next election or consolidated election, a proposition to consolidate the existing townships.”

“Sen. Glowiak Hilton indicated to Rich Miller of Capital Fax that SB 2217 will not be moved forward, but she didn’t really mention SB 2504 in that Capital Fax article,” said Jerry Crabtree, Township Officials of Illinois executive director. “Eighty-five percent of our townships represent populations of 5,000 or less.”

A third township-related proposal, House Bill 2515, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Sosnowskif, R-Rockford, mandates that all townships with a population of less than 500 be dissolved two years after the effective date of the bill and transfer their responsibilities to the county the then-former township is located.

The county will assume all rights and duties previously held by the township, acting solely on behalf of the residents within the dissolved township’s boundaries.

Under HB 2515, counties will have the authority to levy property taxes within the boundaries of dissolved townships to fund the services they assume.

Road districts entirely within dissolving townships also would be dissolved, with their powers and responsibilities transferred to the county. However, municipalities within these areas may choose to take on the duties of the road districts.

Elected and appointed township officers and road commissioners would cease to hold office upon dissolution, with no compensation or legal recourse for the loss of their positions, according to HB 2515.

The proposed changes aim to reduce administrative redundancy and potentially lower costs by centralizing certain functions. However, they also raise questions about the impact on local governance and community services.

Multiple Concerns

“One of the things SB 2504 does is it responds to the narrative of the governor’s budget address and it’s something that he did not speak about from the podium, but it’s included and followed up by these bills that were introduced by Sen. Glowiak Hilton,” Crabtree said.

“I’ve been fighting this every session the entire 20 years I’ve been here. This probably, though, has been the most difficult attack. A pretty strong message was sent. We’ve never been included in the governor’s budget narrative.”

“Continuing the pledge to make government more efficient, the governor’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal included the following initiative: Empower taxpayers to reduce or eliminate duplicative taxing bodies, saving taxpayer money by implementing legislation that enables community-led township consolidation in counties with populations under 5,000. Township functions could potentially be absorbed within an overlapping county or city government,” according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget summary.

“SB 2504 also reduces the petition of signatures required for consolidating adjacent townships from 10% to 5% of voters in each affected township. It allows a referendum to be initiated solely by the county board,” Crabtree said.

“So, in essence, one unit of local government has the authority by this legislation to eliminate another unit of local government without public input which can create problems.

“With that, our objections have been that first of all it does not include public input. We have never been opposed to any type of consolidation as long as it was initiated and confirmed by the general public that are asking to do it.”

Roads, Services

Illinois has 72,000 miles of roads that are maintained by township highway departments. A bill dissolving townships under 5,000 could reduce that to 55,000 miles of road under township jurisdiction.

“Township road commissioners across the state make a fraction of what county laborers make. A lot of the township road commissioners do not have retirement or health insurance. So, the county board system in Illinois is very concerned because this would potentially set them up to take on a lot of liability, not to mention debt,” Crabtree said.

The third prong among the opposition to this legislation is the multitude of services that townships provide.

“This is allowing a county board to unilaterally consolidate a unit of government without taking into consideration the services and/or costs of those services,” Crabtree said.

“For example, I think there’s 27 mental health boards in northern Illinois, which is a huge component in local government. There are also senior services, parks, cemeteries, after-school programs, food banks. I do not believe in my experience that county government, depending on the area of the state, is prepared to take on, even with the transfer of a levy, services at the same level at the same cost.

“The Township Officials of Illinois has been very consistent that we’ve never been opposed to consolidation or elimination as long as it makes financial sense produced by an economic analysis and that the community wants it. There are areas of the state that I’m sure where some consolidation for a fiscal reason or a service reason could be addressed.

“This legislation is not taking into consideration a multitude of negatives that really we don’t believe, and I’ve talked to the Illinois Association of County Board Members about this — they’re not prepared to take this on.

“We’re not opposed to looking at it, but a incremental approach is a lot more palatable to the community because ultimately the public needs to be involved.

“These decisions are being made for rural communities by people in the legislature who aren’t familiar with what township government is and/or does.”

Illinois, the fifth largest state, has over 7,000 units of government, including townships, which is significantly more than any other state.

“We might have a large number of local governments, but it’s preferred by the local people in the communities,” Crabtree said.

“We are a heavily agricultural state. We’re also urban. But gravel roads and rural roads are maintained by counties and townships through intergovernmental agreements, and there are four counties in the state where the county contracts with the township to do all of the road work.

“There are county governments that don’t even have a piece of equipment to remove snow. They contract with the townships for that equipment.

“Township highway commissioners make 50% of what the county highway department maintainers make and they’re paid the same whether they plow snow 365 days a year or just the winter season.”

Long-Time Efforts

“I’ve been the executive for three years and I’ve been here for 20 years, and the Illinois Policy Institute repeatedly beats the drum that we are a state with the most units of government. Here’s my spin on that because I have a lot of experience in this and my graduate work,” Crabtree said.

“Yes, there is a number that’s very high, but when you compare the Department of Revenue’s number to the comptrollers to the census bureau to the Illinois Policy Institute, they’re all different and the differences range between three and 800 units of government.

“I don’t think we’ve ever adequately defined what a unit of government is and how it should be defined to be included on that list.

“For example, we have some water reclamation districts, mosquito abatement districts, you name the fancy district name that have existed, but they don’t produce money, they’re not audited, they were just at one time counted. No one every evaluates the categories on that list of local governments and I think that needs to be brought up.

“I think what this legislation is doing is trying to pinpoint those numbers provided by the Illinois Policy Institute since the 2020 census.”

Consolidating townships will not reduce the number of roads that need to be maintained via snow removal and repairs and the costs involved in that work. So, what is the reason behind these legislative efforts?

“I think the main reason is they want to reduce the number of local government that are reported in the Illinois Policy Institute’s reports in conjunction with the Department of Revenue and the comptroller. They want that number to go down. They want Illinois to stop being at the top of the list for the most units of local government,” Crabtree said.

“It’s not that we’re ignoring the idea of streamlining or being more efficient. They’re not taking into consideration that it’s not always the township consolidation that may work.

“What about municipalities? They don’t tend to come after municipalities or counties. What if we addressed a municipal population threshold that needed to be consolidated?

“Because, you have to remember, 2% to 3% of a property tax bill is all that funds township government. That 2% or 3% is not going to solve the property tax problem, but a mandated consolidation like this will make your numbers look better, but your services will deplete.

“We have county governments across this state that are already suffering financially. They can’t take on a township. As an example, one of my board members is from DeKalb and if they eliminated his township it would be 255 additional miles and DeKalb County can’t take on that kind of additional work.”

Existing Law

Illinois already has a law in the books that addresses township consolidation.

“There is a process in the township code that already allows a township to consolidate. If a community comes to them and they say for fiscal reasons or program reasons we need to consolidate into another township to save money, that process is there,” Crabtree said.

“The process is there and it’s been used. Since 1986 when they did the task force, nine townships have been consolidated. There’s 1,426 townships in the state. The process exists in 85 of the 102 counties.”