Page 84 - Illinois Association of Park Districts Benefits of Membership 2017 - 2018

The issue
POSITION OF THE ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF PARK DISTRICTS
The consolidation of local government in Illinois
According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Illinois has 2,824 general-purpose units of local government and 3,145 special districts for a total of 6,904 units of local government. Illinois leads the nation in the number of units of local government with Pennsylvania running second with 5,032 units, followed by Texas with 4,785, California with 4,410 and Kansas with 3,888.1
There are currently 366 park districts in the state of Illinois, 13 forest preserve districts and five conservation districts.
Background
Why does Illinois have so many local governments and does this have a negative or positive impact on the delivery of local services?
There are two commonly referenced reasons why Illinois leads the country in this area. The first is based on geography and the need for specific governmental services in areas that are not coextensive with any general- purpose unit of local government. The second is that the 1870 Illinois Constitution limited the ability of a local government to borrow more than five percent of the assessed valuation of that unit of local government. Therefore, the creation of many special districts acted to circumvent this limit. In all likelihood, both of these rationales worked together to create this result.
The 1970 Constitution was designed to address these issues by removing tax limitations on home-rule municipalities and counties and by encouraging intergovernmental cooperation. The thinking behind these changes was to slow the growth of local government. However, the number of special purpose districts continued to grow from 2,407 in 1972 to 3,145 through 2002.2
1 2002 Census of Governments Vol. 1 No. 1, U.S. Census Bureau, December 2002. 2 2002 Census of Governments Vol. 1 No. 1, U.S. Census Bureau, December 2002.
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