For those of you who don’t know, there’s another local government entity besides the City and the County. It’s called the Township. Peoria County is divided into twenty townships (see map here), and these townships collect property taxes and provide a few services. You can read an excellent history about them in a report titled, “Township Government: Essential or Expendable? The Case of Illinois and Cook County,” by David K. Hamilton.
One of the services provided is something called “General Assistance.” According to the Illinois Department of Human Services, “The General Assistance (GA) program provides people with money and limited medical care to help take care of themselves when they do not qualify for other cash programs administered by the Department of Human Services (DHS).” Recipients of this aid can receive bus tickets; vouchers to help pay for utilities, prescriptions, dental and eye exams; and money for other medical needs. The General Assistance Fund also grants $50,000 per year to the Heartland Clinic and $10,000 per year to the Center for Abuse. All told, the General Assistance budget is $1.525 million.
Of that budget, $242,600 goes to administration. The head of the operation is the Town General Assistance Supervisor, an elected position carrying a salary of $80,796.71 per year. A salary schedule approved in 2008 shows that next year it goes up to $84,836.55. And starting in May 2012, it goes up to $89,078.38. In other words, it goes up 5% every year. At that rate, the position will rake in over $100,000 a year in taxpayer money by 2015.
And what does the Town General Assistance Supervisor do? Distribute taxpayer money. Hand out vouchers and other assistance to people who line up at the door.
So, what’s my beef here? First of all, the salary for this position — which is essentially a clerical position — is outrageous. There is no justification for it as it stands. Secondly, there’s no justification for annual 5% increases on top of it. Thirdly, why do we have this position at all? In southern Illinois they don’t even have a township government system and this function is fulfilled by the County. From an administrative standpoint, without passing judgment on the services provided, this is serious government waste.
There is a provision in state law for abolishing township government. However, it’s practically impossible to achieve. To force the question to a referendum, you have to gather signatures of 10% of the voters in each of the 20 townships. That would be a mammoth effort. And you can’t just get rid of one township — it’s all or nothing in the County. The only practical way to abolish townships is for State legislation to be passed that would do away with the antiquated and duplicatory system.
A mammoth effort that would be well worth the time and trouble. And, I might add, easier than getting the State to act.
You’re forgetting another very important function of Township governments: road maintenance. Construction, maintenance, snow removal, signage, etc. on rural unincorporated non-county highways falls to the townships. While this is less of an issue in, say, Richwoods or West Peoria townships, out in more rural areas of Peoria County, the township maintains the rural roads.
Considering the rural nature found in most Illinois counties, eliminating this intermediate level of road maintenance seems short-sighted at a time when Counties can’t afford to maintain the roads they have, let alone an influx of new rural roadways.
Out here in Hollis Township (south of Bartonville down to Mapleton) some of us refer to our Township Supervisor, Gary Thomas, as “Squire Thomas”. We call him that because of his cocky demeanor and superior attitude. Some day, soon I hope, this lib-Democrat will be gone from the political scene.
I have used some of these township services and found them to be very helpful. And the people administering them were so very nice and didn’t have a superior attitude that you find in the city services. And they are definitely a good deal for road maintenance out here in the county. Don’t be too hasty to dump them.
Sterling: Any funds currently allocated to road maintenance could continue to go to road maintenance. I think what C.J. is suggesting is that the overhead / administration is too much.
C.J. – this has been a pet peeve of mine for years. There are too many layers of government in Illinois with too many independent entities having taxing authority. i grew up in another state where all budgets were approved by the City Council (though the independent school board had day to day spending authority over the budget). In that community, the City was responsible for all typical municipal functions including (as is here: Police, Fire, Public Works, General Administration, Code Enforcement, etc.) BUT also for Bus Service, Parks & Recreation, Sewer, Water, Airport, etc. That community of 35,000 had a total budget larger than the City of Peoria’s budget.
What worked is that there was a single set of eyes from one board overlooking all expenditures and ONLY one board with the authority to level property taxes. Here in Illinois each entity can increase taxes a few pennies (arguing it’s only a small amount and no one will notice) and these add up. There is little to no accountability for many of the smaller boards that have taxing authority in IL.
While I’m not sure I’d like to consolidate this much power in the current council, in concept I think it’s the best approach to service delivery. The support services (finance, hr, purchasing etc) provided services to all these entities resulting in efficiencies. Plus, there was more coordination and consideration before indebting the taxpayers with bonds for capital projects.
Another peeve of mine is the amount that our city council get paid as “Township Board” for essentially holding one hearing a year. It’s criminal and if you recall, they voted themselves a raise through this process a few years ago rather than do it on the City side because it gets much less attention.
Sorry for the long post, but I’m convinced there are considerable savings here IF the political fortitude were there to make it so.
Welcome to the world of little fiefdoms.
The worst of them all is Richwoods Township. It has a full-time secretary and no roads to take care of. I repeat, NO roads to take care of. It functions only as a middle-man for what C.J. complained about. I agree that it’s time to do away with this highly questionable and mostly unnecessary branch of state government.
Most of the rural townships have a road commissioner, who gets very little actual pay and will spend many hours of his own time overseeing the part-time people they hire to maintain the roads (and not at inflated union labor rates). These road commissioners also tend to volunteer themselves as extra labor to plow the roads during snowfalls. I cannot imagine that the county will save any money over what these township people do in the name of road maintenance.
My Lord! Museum, City Council with cop layoffs, District 150, TIFs, and now this. What will we do?
“What will we do?” Hey look, America’s Got Talent is on. Wow that 10 year old can sing!
Wow. This happens rarely, but I agree with Mahkno (at least what I *think* he is implying.)
“(at least what I *think* he is implying.)”
The phrase that you are thinking of is “what you are inferring”.
CJ – Last week I was waiting in line at the Service Desk at Krogers on Lake & sheridan. In front of me was a white guy, 50-ish, overweight. He was fishing around for stuff in his wallet. I started paying attention to what he was doing. He took out a link card and used it for CASH. (I didn’t know they could do that!) He then took the CASH and bought a crap-load of lottery tickets. When it was my turn in line, I asked the cashier if that is what I just saw. She said “yeah, he comes here and does that all the time…”. I’m sorry, but that is total bull shit. If that is not illegal, it should be. If it is illegal, Krogers should be reporting it as fraud.
If you live in Illinois you can apply for CASH, medical and food stamp benefits online! If you have no money or you need help paying for food or medical bills then you should complete this application. The information you provide is kept private and secure. click to apply http://fspp.dhs.state.il.us/register/wb/wbHomePre.do