Editorial: Suburbs make early progress on Illinois effort for consolidation

Only two months have passed since the governor's Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandate Task Force issued its 27 recommendations for making local governments more efficient, so it's obviously too early for a trend to emerge. But there are some good signs - and they're coming from the suburbs.

It might not be entirely accurate to say that the budding movement toward consolidation in Illinois started with DuPage County, but the county, spurred by County Board Chairman Dan Cronin, was an early leader of the movement even before Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, of Wheaton, was put in charge of the state panel studying the options. Last week, two more suburban officials had the opportunity to show how their towns are getting into the act.

At a joint breakfast to report on the state of their communities, Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer and Wheeling Village President Dean Argiris hailed the process and the products of communities working together to operate more efficiently and save taxpayers money.

An immediate case in point was the Old Town Sanitary District, over which Prospect Heights officially assumed control last summer. Created before Prospect Heights was incorporated as a city, the district wasn't able to keep up with the costs of maintaining its sewer lines. Following a failed referendum, the city petitioned the state for legislation allowing it to take responsibility for the district's approximately 3,000 households. When it took control in July, the district's remaining funds were shared with Prospect Heights, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, and Wheeling.

And Prospect Heights is not done yet, Helmer said, praising his working relationship with Argiris and the benefits that come from looking for consolidation opportunities.

Gov. Bruce Rauner noticed as well. Rauner, who has made consolidation a centerpiece of his administration, appeared at a Wheeling/Prospect Heights Chamber of Commerce meeting last week to congratulate local leaders on becoming the first to put the commission's recommendations into action.

Earlier in February, Rauner also appeared in Naperville to announce four pieces of legislation intended to facilitate efforts of governments that want to advance the trend. One, called the DuPage County Consolidation Powers Expansion, would let county boards dissolve or consolidate units whose boards are appointed. Another, the Evanston Township Consolidation Expansion, would let counties and townships with the same boundaries move on their own to consolidate.

These are all promising signs. The state's immediate crisis, of course, is to approve and implement a spending plan, and it shouldn't be distracted from that aim. But at the same time, in a state that holds far more government units - 7,000 - than any other, it's great to see communities working on their own toward goals of efficiency and taxpayer relief that people have talked about for decades but never, until now, rolled up their sleeves to accomplish.