Part II
Township Government By Illinois Law
By James Middleton
In the opening article of this series that had examined
township government in Illinois we sought to answer why
American government is arranged in layers of jurisdiction.
American government is arranged with overall coverage
by federal law followed by law that emerges from the
sovereign states. State law is further subdivided into
local units of government. The Federalist Papers was a
series of 85 essays written by James Madison, John Jay
and Alexander Hamilton that offered their view of how
an American government and a Constitution would be
conceived to create the democratic republican system of
governance that prescribes a series of division or layers
to attain a reasonable method to protect the public safety,
welfare and liberty.
This second article examines local government and
townships. Local units of Illinois government are divided
between counties, townships and municipalities with
townships perhaps the least abstract and least understood
layer. Many wonder what townships actually do. Some
ask if townships are any longer relevant. Others ask why
there is a need for townships and claim that townships
are a redundant hold-over from an ancient day that more
resembles Medieval England than our “Internet Age.”
This second article examines township government
as identified in the Illinois Constitution and detailed in
the Illinois Compiled Statues at 60 ILCS 1—155. The
Compiled Statutes define how townships operate. Across
America there are 20 states like Illinois that retain townships
conforming to a variant common law scale of 36 square
miles in size. Some ask, without townships who cares for
rural roads, who aids the poor, who funds rural cemeteries
and who produces assessments of real property values—all
are responsibilities of Illinois townships.
**
The foundation of Illinois township government arises
in the Illinois Constitution at Article VII and in Section 5.
The Constitution identifies how townships are created and
how they may be dissolved;
“The General Assembly shall provide by law for the
formation of townships in any county when approved by
county-wide referendum. Townships may be consolidated
or merged, and one or more townships may be dissolved or
divided, when approved by referendum in each township
affected. All townships in a county may be dissolved
when approved by a referendum in the total area in which
township officers are elected.”
The question of a potential dissolution of a township has
arisen as an item of community interest here. It is in Section
5 that the Constitution identifies that dissolution can occur
under Illinois law.
Further, Section 11 specifies activities that require a
referendum be approved to decide certain questions that
may arise from a resolution enacted by a unit of government
or resulting from voter petition. In Belvidere, one city
alderman has sought to persuade his colleagues that the
city should enact a resolution supporting the idea that
an advisory referendum should seek voter approval to
determine if a majority of Boone County residents believe
that one township should be dissolved.
When this matter was presented to the City Council
during a Committee of the Whole meeting, the measure
passed by a vote of 7 to 2. However, the City Council later
voted to put the question on the table with no date certain for
reconsideration.
In Section 12 the Constitution stipulates:
“The General Assembly shall provide by law for the
transfer of assets, powers and functions, and for the payment
of outstanding debt in connection with the formation,
consolidation, merger, division, dissolution and change in
the boundaries of units of local government.”
Yet, this broadly viewed section does not answer
many questions regarding how the duties of a township would
be managed if dissolution occurred. These considerations
will be viewed in greater depth in the third piece of this
three-part series.
In a broad stroke, duties ascribed to Illinois townships
include maintenance of rural cemeteries and parks where
applicable, funding of aid to the poor and the elderly through
the general assistance fund, maintenance of township roads
and bridges and the assessment of real property values to
calculate the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of all real
property by which property taxes are based. However, there
are other duties enumerated at 60 ILCS 1/85-5, “Township
Corporate Powers, Generally.” The Code cites that “Every
township has the corporate capacity to exercise the powers
granted to it, or necessarily implied and no others. Every
township has the powers specified in this section.”
Some powers granted to townships include acquiring
property by purchase or gift, holding of property for rent,
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entering into contracts with corporations, non-profit groups
or governmental entities. Townships may borrow money,
bring eminent domain actions, create law enforcement
and fire protection agencies, engage in sanitation and
pollution abatement activities, create public transportation
systems, libraries and other services. Article #85 indicates
that all of the enumerated powers of townships also carry
implied powers. Township powers are broad in nature
and compliment ideas promoted in the Federalist Papers
that state that local governmental entities have the closest
connection to the citizens.
The community has been awakened by Letters to the
Editor and news articles. One elected official proposed
entering a question on a general election ballot asking in an
advisory referendum if Belvidere Township government is
a redundant layer of government and should be dissolved.
The official contends that Belvidere residents do not benefit
from tax collections that accrue to Belvidere Township.
Some here support taking the next step after an advisory
referendum to have the question of dissolution placed
before county voters for them to decide.
However the trade organization “Township officials of
Illinois” contend that township spending has grown at a
slower rate than any other government since 1992. Further,
the group claims that townships, statewide, have the lowest
labor costs and that debt is almost non-existent in smaller
governments such as townships. Finally, townships,
according to the group, have exclusive geographic service
areas and this refutes the claim that too many local
governments provide duplicate services.
At 60 ILCS 1/25-5 the section identifies the law governing
the “Discontinuance of Township Organization.” To an
extent Article #25 mirrors citations from the Constitution
but this section identifies the actual steps that must occur
before discontinuance of townships within a county could
occur.
The Code at 60 ILCS 1/25-5 cites;
“Upon the petition of at least 10% of the registered
voters of each township of a county,,, the County Board
shall certify and cause to be submitted to the voters of the
county at the next general election, the question of the
continuance of township organization.”
This section does not mandate that a County Board must
recommend voter approval of a referendum to dissolve the
township unit of government. The section suggests, upon
certain legal thresholds being met, the County Board must
certify that the question of dissolution should be given to
the voters for them to answer.
The language of the proposition to be placed before
the voters would read, “Shall township organization be
discontinued in (the name of the county)?” If the proposition
fails to attain voter approval, four years must lapse before
the question is returned. A simple majority of the votes cast
is needed for the proposition to pass.
The Code at 60 ILCS 1/25-10 cites:
“If it appears by the returns of the election that a majority
of the votes in at least three-fourths of the townships,
containing at least a majority of the population in the
county, cast on the question of continuance of township
organization at the election are against the continuance of
township organization, then the township organization shall
cease in the county as soon as a county board is elected and
qualified. All laws relating to counties not under township
organization shall be applicable to the county, the same as if
township organization had never been adopted in it.”
At 60 ILCS 1/25-25, the Code identifies what should
occur when townships are dissolved;
“When township organization is discontinued, in any
county, the records of the several townships shall be deposited
From Page 4.... Township Government
in the county clerk’s office. The county commissioners
of the county may close up all unfinished business of the
several townships and sell and dispose of any of the property
belonging to the township for the benefit of the inhabitants
of the township, as fully as might have been done by the
townships themselves. The county commissioners may
pay all of the indebtedness of any township existing at the
time of the discontinuance of township organization and
cause the amount of the indebtedness, or so much as may be
necessary, to be levied upon the property of the township.”
However because a referendum was approved in a
general election ballot by a majority vote, that result does
not mean that the process of dissolution is finished. Myriad
elements of the process remain to be executed including a
method to distribute motor fuel tax that accrue to counties,
townships and municipalities according to differing systems,
how the general assistance fund would be managed without
township jurisdiction, or what would result for a township
assessor and road commissioner that are elective offices.
A popular claim has been voiced suggesting that residents
of Belvidere do not benefit from property taxes collected
by Belvidere Township but this claim is not supported by
fact. The website managed by the Boone County treasurer,
Curtis Newport, shows that funds are transferred annually
from Belvidere Township to the City of Belvidere.
In 2011Belvidere claimed they were due, for road and
bridge work that was executed by the city but that was the
responsibility of the township, $275,033.97. The county
clerk calculates the extension of revenue due the city and,
based upon property tax collections, the county treasurer
wrote a check for $274,676.72 that was extended to
Belvidere by Belvidere Township.
The county treasurer also reports that lesser amounts of
revenue from Bonus Township and Flora Township were
extended to the City of Belvidere for similar reasons.
Another means by which Belvidere residents benefit
from taxes collected by Belvidere Township is witnessed in
the management of the township general assistance fund that
aids the elderly and the poor. No unit of local government,
other than townships, is mandated under Illinois law to aid
the elderly and the poor other than townships. Further,
Belvidere Township grants funding through a contractual
relationship with the local chapter of the Salvation Army
that allows them to provide assistance to those in need from
Belvidere and Belvidere Township.
Providing financial assistance for those in need in Boone
County and in Belvidere is not a duty that accrues to the
city or the county. Providing public assistance is vested
with townships and state government through the general
assistance fund at the township level and public aid offices
as managed by Illinois. Both townships and Illinois state
government manage public aid and that absolves cities and
counties from offering similar levels or types of assistance
and that too could be construed as a benefit.
We have identified here township duties and
responsibilities. Illinois law provides for the merger,
combination and/or dissolution of municipalities and units
of government. Because the question has arisen regarding
the dissolution of township government this article has
focused on identifying the various steps that must occur
before dissolution of a township could result.
In the final part of this series we will examine the practical
results to residents if all townships in Boone County were
dissolved by popular vote. Some of the questions resulting
from a vote to dissolve townships have yet to be challenged
or decided within courts of law because such activities
attendant to a formal dissolution of a unit(s) of government
are rare.
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