August 14, 2015
To the Honorable Members of
The Illinois Senate,
99th General Assembly:
Today I return
Senate Bill 781 with a specific recommendation for change.
This bill
would provide that a fire protection district is not required to assume
responsibility for fire protection services for an adjacent municipality that
elects to discontinue its municipal fire department without consent by the fire
protection district.
Illinois is
suffering from too many units of local government. For government to be more
efficient and responsive, we need to enable, not hinder, consolidation of local
governments. This bill adds one more hurdle to the consolidation of services
and governments.
Real reform
requires bolder action. In 2013, the General Assembly passed legislation to
permit DuPage County to dissolve and consolidate county-appointed districts,
including so-called “paper” fire protection districts that tax residents but do
not employ firefighters. The Local Government Consolidation Commission recommended
that the authority granted to DuPage County be extended to all counties if, as
has been the case, the DuPage County effort proves successful. The change
recommended below would incorporate the legislative revisions recommended by
the Commission in its report.
Consolidation
of local government is a meaningful step to reducing property taxes in
Illinois. The proliferation of taxing jurisdictions is a direct cause of our
high property tax rates. By extending the authority granted to DuPage County to
all counties, counties will be able to reduce the number of taxing
jurisdictions, streamline services, and control costs.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(e) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return Senate Bill 781 entitled “AN ACT concerning local government”,
with the following specific recommendation for change:
On
page 3, immediately after line 10, by inserting:
“Section 10. The Counties Code is
amended by changing Section 5-44010 as follows:
(55 ILCS 5/5-44010)
Sec. 5-44010. Applicability. The
powers and authorities provided by this Division 5-44 apply all counties in
the state of Illinois only to counties with a population of more than
900,000 and less than 3,000,000 that are contiguous to a county with a
population of more than 3,000,000 and units of local government within such
counties.
(Source:
P.A. 98-126, eff. 8-2-13)”.
With this
change, Senate Bill 781 will have my approval. I respectfully request your concurrence.
Sincerely,
Bruce Rauner
GOVERNOR