A bill that would create three and potentially four new elected positions in the government of Capital Township would give township residents more direct representation, the bill’s Democratic sponsor said.
But Republicans in Sangamon County government who currently handle those jobs and would lose the responsibilities said Monday the bill needlessly expands bureaucracy and would create confusion for taxing bodies and financial burdens for Capital Township taxpayers.
State Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, who previously served on the Springfield City Council and Sangamon County Board, said constituents of the township have told her that they were unhappy about not being able to directly elect several township officials.
“It’s a simple issue,” she said. “People in Capital Township were being disenfranchised.”
More: Butler gives explosive speech in Illinois House after Dems block Capital Township bill
Turner’s legislation, Senate Bill 826, which passed the Illinois Senate on Thursday with no Republican votes and remains pending in the House, calls for township-wide elections for the Capital Township supervisor, assessor, clerk and tax collector.
Based on state legislation adopted more than 100 years ago and only pertaining to Sangamon County, those jobs are spread between the Sangamon County treasurer and county clerk, both of which are elected by voters in Capital Township and the rest of Sangamon County.
Capital Township is contained within the boundaries of Springfield and shares most boundaries with the city. The township’s services include general-assistance programs for low-income residents and services related to collecting property taxes for all of the taxing bodies in the township’s borders.
Republican county treasurer Joe Aiello gets $14,200 per year from the township to be township supervisor and collector in addition to his county salary. He has a vote on the township board.
The board also includes four township trustees elected township-wide. The current roster of trustees is made up of three Republicans and one Democrat.
Republican county clerk Don Gray gets a similar amount to be the township clerk and assessor. Gray doesn’t have a vote on the township board.
When including the $100 per meeting that Aiello and Gray each receive for attending township board meetings, the total cost to the township is about $31,000 per year.
Aiello and Gray said it would be unwise for the General Assembly to start unwinding a consolidation of township and county services that has provided efficient services and saved Sangamon County taxpayers money.
“You’re creating more bureaucracy, more elected officials and more tax dollars that taxpayers have to pay,” Aiello said. “The math on this one, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make sense.”
Based on the full-time township salaries given to officials in Peoria Township in Peoria County, Aiello estimated that creating four new salaried, elected positions for Capital Township would cost taxpayers $300,000 per year.
It’s unclear whether Turner’s legislation would reinstate the collector position, a job that is being phased out this year in Sangamon County as part of state legislation passed a few years ago.
Turner said she didn’t know whether creating the elected positions would necessarily add cost to the township’s operations. But having voters countywide elect some township officials reduces the “voting franchise of the people of Capital Township.”
Aiello said efficiencies achieved by the township helped reduce the township government’s levy by 37% over the past two years.
Turner’s bill also conflicts with the will of the voters, Aiello and Gray said, pointing to the 74% of township voters in a 2018 advisory referendum who cast ballots in favor of a merger of the township government with Sangamon County.
Turner said the referendum wasn’t an accurate depiction of voters’ views because the referendum question didn’t ask whether voters preferred a merger with the county government or Springfield city government.
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder, a Democrat in a job that is officially nonpartisan, tried unsuccessfully in 2019 to persuade the City Council to authorize a referendum on whether township residents wanted the township to merge with the city.
Landfelder’s proposal was defeated 7-3, mostly with votes of Republican aldermen on the officially nonpartisan council.
Turner, the former Sangamon County Democratic Party chair, acknowledged that removing the assessor responsibilities from the county clerk’s job could make more Democratic candidates eligible to challenge Gray, who took office in 2015.
Gray said it appears the goal of Turner’s bill is to help more Democrats win elections.
“I see nothing more than pure politics rather than good government,” Gray said.
Neither, Gray, Aiello nor state Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, said he has heard complaints from Capital Township residents about the current arrangement between the township and county government.
“They don’t want to pay more in taxes,” McClure said.
After Turner’s bill passed the Senate, it now is sponsored by Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, in the House. At the same time, a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, to allow Capital Township residents to cast votes in a binding referendum to merge with Sangamon County, has been denied a full House vote.
Butler threw a paper legislative calendar during a fiery speech Thursday night when he complained he was never told why Democrats who control the House and Senate put House Bill 2994 “under review.”
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Chicago, declined to comment on the bill’s status Monday.
When asked whether he was surprised by what happened to Butler’s bill, McClure said:, “When you’re a Republican in the super-minority, this sort of thing happens. It’s not good for government.”
Turner’s bill would have to pass the House and be signed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker to become law.
Contact Dean Olsen: dolsen@gannett.com; (217) 836-1068; twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.
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