August 14, 2015
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois House of Representatives,
99th General Assembly:
Today I return
House Bill 219 with a specific recommendation for change.
Current law
permits a territory within a fire protection district to be disconnected from
the district and transferred to a contiguous district provided that certain
criteria are met. The proposed transfer is subject to approval by voters of the
territory. If this bill were enacted, the proposed transfer would be subject to
approval by voters of the entire district from which the territory is to be
disconnected.
Illinois is
suffering from too many units of local government. For government to be more
efficient and responsive, we need to enable, not hinder, consolidation of local
governments. This bill simply replaces one hurdle to consolidation with another
hurdle to consolidation.
Real reform
requires bolder action. In 2013, the General Assembly passed legislation to
permit DuPage County to dissolve and consolidate county-appointed districts,
including so-called “paper” fire protection districts that tax residents but do
not employ firefighters. The Local Government Consolidation Commission
recommended that the authority granted to DuPage County be extended to all counties
if, as has been the case, the DuPage County effort proves successful. The
change recommended below would incorporate the legislative revisions
recommended by the Commission in its report.
Consolidation
of local government is a meaningful step to reducing property taxes in
Illinois. The proliferation of taxing jurisdictions is a direct cause of our
high property tax rates. By extending the authority granted to DuPage County to
all counties, counties will be able to reduce the number of taxing jurisdictions,
streamline services, and control costs.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(e) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return House Bill 219 entitled “AN ACT concerning local government”,
with the following specific recommendation for change:
On
page 6, immediately after line 25, by inserting:
“Section 10. The Counties Code is
amended by changing Section 5-44010 as follows:
(55 ILCS 5/5-44010)
Sec. 5-44010. Applicability. The
powers and authorities provided by this Division 5-44 apply all counties in
the state of Illinois only to counties with a population of more than
900,000 and less than 3,000,000 that are contiguous to a county with a
population of more than 3,000,000 and units of local government within such
counties.
(Source:
P.A. 98-126, eff. 8-2-13)”.
With this
change, House Bill 219 will have my approval. I respectfully request your concurrence.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR