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The Self-Serving Nature of Cook County Township Governments
This time the focus is on the county's townships. The problem is summed up professionally in the abstract to a paper published last year. It's called Township Government: Essential or Expendable? The Case of Illinois and Cook County and it's by David Hamilton of the Roosevelt University Institute of Metropolitan Affairs Regionalism Project. The paper was given at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in April 2008.
- Township
government was developed for a rural
society in which transportation was slow and difficult. Illinois is one
of only 20 states that have township government. Even in Illinois, 17
rural counties and the city of Chicago do not have operating townships.
However, townships in suburban Chicago continue to thrive and spend
more than half of the $547 million spent by all townships in the state.
The author conducted an in-depth analysis of budgets of townships in
Cook County. The study revealed that township administrative costs are
high, and many social services offered by the township are also offered
by other governments. Comparisons of similar services offered by other
governments showed that township costs were substantially higher.
Moreover, township employment had no relationship to the population or
the programs offered by the township. The author concluded that at
least half of the township taxes could be saved by eliminating
townships and transferring their few services to other governments.
A new study by the Better Government Association in conjunction with Chicago's ABC television affiliate takes a more sensational approach:
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It's where some of Illinois' richest political land yields bumper crops
of patronage and paychecks year after year.
There are 30 "clout farms" in Cook County alone; townships with names including Barrington and Bremen; Niles, Norwood Park, River Forest and Riverside. They are funded by millions in tax money with only two mandated functions: roads and temporary aid to the poor.
But with most of their tax money for salaries and other programs, critics call townships a waste, especially in an urban county.
"Cronyism, nepotism, patronage...all in the service of taking care
of
friends and families and campaign contributors," said Andy Shaw,
executive director, Better Government Association.
But it's not just the good government and entertainment people who
are criticizing the townships:
"Once these units of government are created, they're like Frankenstein, they never go away," said Tony Peraica, Cook County commissioner.
And like Dracula, say critics, townships drain the tax blood for their own existence.There are even videos of what the BGA and TV station have found, as
well as a payroll database to see where the money is going.
Besides a lot of double-dipping, the biggest issue seems to be tax
assessor and collector offices. What's wrong with that? The assessing
and collection are done by the county, not the townships.
The Cook County townships are a perfect example of self-serving
conduct that doesn't fit under ethics code provisions, other than
patronage provisions, which do not appear in most ethics codes. One
interesting example is a state senator who also serves on a township
board. It is the services he provides through the township board that
make him popular and enable him to easily get re-elected to the state
senate. The township's excess funds essentially serve as the senator's
campaign fund. Only he doesn't have to raise the funds or get blamed
for the taxes required to get them. All he has to do is spend them.
It's also worthwhile to see how close cooperation between a local
good government organization and the local news media can work to
spread the word about local government unethical conduct.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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- Robert Wechsler's blog
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