Illinois State Senator Terry Links spent much of the spring session trying to find agreement on how to reduce the plethora of units of local government that swarm Illinois.

As such, Link said he was pleased to read recently that Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka shares this goal.

From Bernard Schoenberg’s May 29 column in the Springfield State Journal-Register:

Topinka also told me she could support a commission similar to the federal base closing commission to try to reduce the number of units of government in the state, which is in the thousands. The panel could “just independently start looking at all of these things and see where it takes us,” she said.

Read the entire column

That type of commission is exactly what Link proposed in Senate Bill 173. Specifically, Link’s proposal would have created a commission to recommend to lawmakers which units of local government should be abolished or consolidated

Unfortunately, that proposal was rejected by the Illinois Senate in early May. It needed 30 votes for approval and received just 14 in the 59-member chamber.

The roll call

“I look forward to working with the Comptroller to change minds and rally support in hopes of eventually advancing this issue because government isn’t likely to downsize itself,” Link said.

With more than 7,000 units of local government, Illinois has more local governments than any state in the nation.