Government we could do without

Illinois not only has a reputation for being among those states with the most corrupt government.

It also is among those states with the most government, period.

Last we checked, Illinois had more than 6,000 units of government.

For taxpayers with ever-growing tax bills, that is several thousand too many. You just don't need this much government.

For example, why is it essential to have both a state comptroller and state treasurer? It's not. The duties of these offices are so closely aligned that the offices could be combined. The treasurer invests the state money that comes in and the comptroller signs the checks for the money that goes out.

If the offices were merged, it could save taxpayers up to $12 million annually. And many millions more would doubtlessly be saved over time from improved efficiency in the delivery of fiscal services.

This is not a revolutionary thought. The idea of merging these offices has been around a long time. It has been supported by the current state comptroller, Dan Hynes, and was also backed by former state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.

But efforts to accomplish this reasonable and cost-saving merger have gone nowhere.

Those who oppose the consolidation of the treasurer and comptroller argue that this would somehow weaken accountability, that the state needs both agencies to serve as fiscal watchdogs. Not so. The real reason for wanting the keep the offices intact is to maintain a source of patronage.

Other states haven't bought the argument that their citizens would suffer the loss of a state treasurer and state comptroller. In 1998, voters in Florida approved consolidating these offices. Both Minnesota and Texas have abolished their state treasurer offices.

Blending the offices of comptroller and treasurer in Illinois is fiscally prudent. We are confident that the two offices can be consolidated without a decline in services or a weakening of financial safeguards.

And the savings from such -- up to $12 million a year -- can't be overlooked at a time when the state is consistently in the midst of a financial crisis.

The two offices can be merged only through a change in the state constitution. This, in turn, would have to be approved by voters.

If voters were given this chance, we suspect they'd view having a state comptroller and state treasurer as an antiquated and duplicative way of managing state tax dollars, and would act to merge the offices and keep a little more of their hard-earned income.

In fact, we'd think they wouldn't want to stop with the merger of just these two offices. Not when their tax bills, like the number of units of government in Illinois, are in the several thousands.