Politics & Government
Bill That Would Lop Governments, Like Townships, Has Folks Jittery
Illinois has nearly 7,000 governments, many of which are like Plainfield Township.
Township officials all across Illinois are getting job security jitters.
Supervisor John Argoudelis voiced his at this month’s board meeting.
The source? Senate Bill 173, a measure designed to trim the state’s record-setting number of municipal boards, highway departments, counties, park districts, townships -- even mosquito abatement districts.
Find out what's happening in Plainfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Our state has the dubious distinction of supporting nearly 7,000 governmental bodies, far more than any other state. Pennsylvania ranks a distant second with about 4,870.
SB 173, which moved out of the Illinois Senate Executive Committee early this month, creates a commission of eight to slate 250 taxing units for the chopping block each year. The bill is on the way to the full Senate for consideration, probably next week.
Find out what's happening in Plainfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The population explosion of governmental bodies has its roots in a law from the 1800s that put a cap on the amount of debt a governmental body could carry. The law is no longer on the books, but the governments it spawned live on.
Township officials were calling state senators in “droves” to oppose SB 173, Township of Illinois Legislative Consultant Tim Bramlet said in a statement on the organization’s Web site.
No kidding. Cutting jobs in the state’s 1,433 townships could trim some serious cash from the tax rolls.
In Plainfield Township, for example, taxpayers shell out annual salaries of about $28,000 to pay Supervisor John Argoudelis and about $7,900 for each of four trustees, according to information Plainfield Patch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Andi French, who serves under the supervisor as township administrator, makes $42,000, Oddly enough, her administrative assistant Monika McMillan makes more than $43,000 a year.
In the Plainfield Township Highway Department, we’re paying Highway Commissioner Sam Reichert more than $60,000 to maintain about 50 miles of road. On top of that, Reichert has a payroll of more than $210,000, including one crew member who makes $52,000 a year, another who makes $45,760 and three who make more than $37,000.
A governmental unit could end up on the purge list by a majority vote of the commission. Then it moves to the General Assembly for a fate-deciding vote without any options for attaching items to the measure. If lawmakers fail to vote on an elimination item, it passes without a vote.
