Rauner lauds county effort to consolidate local government

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A "zombie" sanitary district was discovered, with no apparent purpose. A defunct fire district operated almost entirely on paper, having to contract with a nearby department for services.

Those were local units of government that DuPage County officials moved to eliminate as part of an initiative they project will save taxpayers more than $100 million over the next 20 years. Advocates say it's a model for how other Illinois counties can cut costs through consolidating government too.

"It's very difficult, tedious work, but it has the potential to pay huge dividends for tax payers," said DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin.

The initiative was heralded last week by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who reiterated the argument that Illinois has too many units of government and vowed to "empower" taxpayers and local officials to pursue such consolidation. The Republican governor made a point of inviting Cronin, a former GOP state senator from Elmhurst, to his first State of the State speech and lauding him for efforts that include sharing services, employee benefit changes and other reforms.

But success is far more complicated, as those who have tried it in Illinois will attest. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn eliminated dozens of what he termed unneeded state boards and commissions in 2013. But his 2011 plan to whittle down the state's more than 860 school districts to just 300 met with little support.

As Cronin notes, only a portion of DuPage's savings came from the elimination of government agencies. Some reductions came from consolidation of services, a state-ordered measure and budget reductions that included the firing of employees. And at least one critic questions the savings numbers and why officials haven't gone further by targeting other government units.

"We've never gotten hard core evidence of these savings," said Liz Chaplin, a Democrat on the county board.

In his speech, Rauner noted that Illinois has more than 7,000 units of local government, more than any other state. He is asking Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti to work to find ways to lower the cost of running those local governments by working with officials at that level.

DuPage County's Accountability, Consolidation, and Transparency Initiative was launched in spring 2012, with county officials vowing to focus on reducing waste while finding efficiencies and ways for local agencies to collaborate.

The most up-to-date initiative figures supplied by DuPage County officials show savings of about $116.4 million over the next 20 years. But much of the projected savings doesn't come directly from what could be called "consolidation" of local governments.

The largest area of projected savings - 31 percent - is $36.5 million from budget cuts made since fiscal year 2011, which included the termination of 45 employees, according to initiative figures. Cronin pushed for those reductions after his election as county board chair in 2010 after serving 20 years in Springfield.

A 2010 state measure, sponsored by Cronin when he was a senator, will repeal a DuPage County Water Commission sales tax in 2016. The repeal will result in $33 million worth of tax savings for residents - another 28 percent of the "consolidation" savings - according to initiative figures.

Cronin cautioned that government consolidation efforts won't yield immediate results. He said the challenge requires input from the community and taking a close look at services provided by districts.

In extreme cases, local governments existed entirely on paper, Cronin said.

The now-defunct Fairview Fire Protection District had a governing board but no equipment and contracted services through a neighboring fire department. The Timberlake Estates Sanitary District, dubbed a "zombie" district by Cronin and others, transferred its duties to the county in 1985, but residents were still seeing a line with zero charge on their property tax bill for years.

Chaplin, of Downers Grove, said she doesn't think getting rid of those agencies was the best way to cut costs. And she questions why officials have not gone further in some cases, for example, by examining the county's election commission, which oversees local voting instead of the county clerk, or the county's housing agency.

She said she intends to request an audit to study the initiative's savings.

In response, Cronin said details of the initiative are discussed regularly in county board meetings, especially during the annual budget process. He said departments and county officials present budgets to board members, highlighting the savings from reform.