Century Hill Street Lighting District & Pension

Cronin has had the temerity to ask why DuPage has more than 400 units of government, such as the Salt Creek Drainage Basin Sanitary District and the Century Hill Street Lighting District. A private firm is evaluating the cost and functions of dozens of taxing districts in the county and will report its findings in January.

Illinois has almost 7,000 units of government, yet the defenders of the bloated status quo across the state just can't imagine how that number could ever be reduced.

What would we do without 44 regional school superintendents, who process teacher certifications and push other paper around? [snip]

A recent Better Government Association investigation of the 20 largest townships in Cook County found that township officials stockpile millions of dollars in property taxes and overpay for repairs and maintenance on a small number of roads.

Townships exist to preserve political jobs. Townships spend almost $1 on salaries and administration for every $1 in services they deliver, about twice as much as other local governments, according to a 2008 report by Roosevelt University professor David Hamilton.

And they all probably have fat pension benefits.

The schools are run for patronage, not the kids, state and local government is run for the employees and pols, not the taxpayers. The whole place is one big fat corrupt bankrupt system.

And it's been this way for more than a century.

The last time Illinois was honest was probably when Honest Abe was alive.

P.S. Gingrich Huntsman Lincoln-Douglas style debate rebroadcast tonight on C-Span.