Present task force ideas to reduce govt., save billions “with a B”
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti were in Oak Brook on Monday, January 4 to attend a meeting of the DuPage County Mayors and Managers Conference (DMMC). At the meeting, Sanguinetti formally presented a 406-page document to Gov. Rauner containing 27 recommendations of the Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force, which she has led for the past 11 months. Working along with the Task Force were students from the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University, who helped collect and analyze data.
Governor Rauner said the goal of the Task Force was to present ways for government to operate more efficiently; to stop the proliferation of taxing bodies in Illinois, which has more units of government than any other state in the country; and, to allow decisions about consolidation or dissolution to be decided at the local level.
Among the recommendations is a four-year moratorium on new taxing bodies; giving residents the ability to consolidate or dissolve government entities by referendum; and, urging consolidation of units of governments especially where there is duplication or overlapping of services.
“It’s been wonderful to collect testimony and actually come to an accord on 27 proposals,” the Lt. Governor said. “The idea is to give power back to our local leaders and local residents so you and I can determine what’s right for our own communities, rather than big government.”
Governor Rauner stressed that the document was not a partisan effort.
“That’s very important, number one,” he said. “Number two, if we implement the recommendations [in this report], we could save billions of dollars every year – and that’s billions with a ‘B’ not an ‘M’ – billions of dollars every year, year after year.”
The governor echoed Sanguinetti’s comments about empowering local communities to make decisions without “big government” interference. He said he would never force his will on another community any more than he would want someone to force their will on his.
Rauner said business owners tell him it’s the property tax burden that makes it hard to do business in Illinois.
“It’s is dragging our economy down, it’s pushing great jobs away, our careers away, but most of all, it increases the overall cost of government. It’s money that could be going to our schools, our classrooms, our teachers and students, that’s where our money should be going. Instead we’re spending money on government and bureaucracy. It’s also money that could be going toward helping our most vulnerable families.”
Rauner called the report a “critical” document presented on one of the “most important days in the history of Illinois.”
“Today is a great day for the taxpayers of Illinois. We can transform our state through this effort,” he said. “This document, if we implemented it, the recommendations here could save billions of dollars every year for the people of Illinois. This is major, major transformation we’re talking about.”
The document can be viewed at illinois.gov/ltg/issues/localgovernments/Documents
