WurfWhile

From State Representative Paul Froehlich (all links are mine):

Dear Mr. Byrne:

After reading your March 31st column in the Tribune, I looked up what my colleagues Sen. Murphy and Rep. Bassi introduced to facilitate secession. It’s SB2591 and HB6307. What’s significant here is that these are normal bills rather than proposed constitutional amendments. As you know, a statute cannot amend the constitution; only a constitutional amendment may do that. Consequently, were someone serious about trying to change the constitution, he and she should have introduced a HJRCA, not an HB or SB, to change the constitutional provision requiring approval of county boundary changes in a countywide referendum.

I think this choice of a house and a senate bill reveals the sponsors aren’t serious. That’s because they know it’s not politically feasible anyway; they’re pandering and getting publicity while raising false hopes that will never be fulfilled.

To have a little fun, however, let’s play out the fantasy. Suppose that somehow, due to extreme anger about higher taxes, six northwest townships could secede. What then? The choices would be to annex to a collar county or to form a new county.

Since the collar counties assess residential property at a higher level than Cook, homeowners who paid property taxes in, say, Lake County would pay more than they pay in Cook. Since property taxes are even less popular than sales taxes, the secessionists wouldn’t be happy.

Since that wouldn’t work, how about forming a new county? Well, Cook County would surely expect compensation for the forest preserves, roads, courthouse and other county facilities in the six-pack. In addition, the new county would have start-up costs. It would have to quickly build a jail and acquire an administration building, hire prosecutors and public defenders, and so on, as well as pay a whole new set of elected officials. In short, the costs would be huge. No tax savings there either.

I agree political reality can be pretty grim nowadays. That’s no excuse, however, for legal fantasy that dupes the uninformed.

Sincerely,

Paul Froehlich