Time to secede from Cook County?

Recently, five members of the Illinois General Assembly reached out to Hanover Township Supervisor Mike Kelly and several other township supervisors in Northwest Cook County. The legislators asked the supervisors to shepherd their boards toward placing two advisory referendum questions on the ballot: one to consider repealing last year's county sales tax increase, and another to consider seceding from Cook County altogether.

As a small-business man working and residing in the farthest reaches of unincorporated Cook County, I feel keenly not only the higher cost of doing business and the higher cost of living, but also the disappointment and resentment in receiving far fewer and vastly inferior services than Chicagoans and their immediate neighbors.

Take, for example, police protection: Cook County's neglect of Hanover Township - and its extreme neglect of the unincorporated portions thereof - is nothing short of dangerous when response times can reach as high 45 minutes. Add to that a rapidly disintegrating infrastructure, lack of public transportation, inaccessibility of county agencies and services (e.g. courts), and it's easy to believe State Sen. Matt Murphy's estimates that say for every $7 we send to the Cook County treasurer, we get $2 of services in return.

Now that Supervisor Kelly and his peers have responded positively, giving us a voice, I suggest we use it to our fullest advantage. Whether or not secession is practically feasible, we need to send Mr. Stroger and his fellow Cook County commissioners an unambiguous message. Please join me in doing so on April 7.

Kurt Sikora

Elgin