Lake County Gazette

Rep. McSweeney believes that the recent government consolidation law passed by Gov. Bruce Rauner will greatly benefit the state of Illinois.

House Bill 5123 that was passed at the end of July could potentially save the state around $3 billion and taxpayers money by cutting down on departmental expenses.

McSweeney is a proponent of government consolidation.

Rep. David McSweeney

"There's no doubt that consolidation will save money in most cases,” he recently told the Lake County Gazette. “We have over 7,000 units of local governments in Illinois and that's a major reason that property taxes are so high. Consolidation should be approved by voters. The savings will mainly come from eliminating duplicative administrative expenses."

The government consolidation will consist of liquifying some local units of government. The 7,000 units of local government will be slimmed down. It will also encourage sharing units of government and merge multiple positions amongst government staff.

McSweeney and other proponents of government consolidation believe that it will streamline operations, increase efficiency, decrease excess administrative costs and relieve taxpayer burden. Many proponents also believe the township form of government can be reduced, eliminated or consolidated to decrease administrative overhead.

Government consolidation will allow county clerks to head election reporting and streamline the election process for specific counties. Local districts will be able to be taken over by the county and road districts can be eliminated completely in some cases.

The idea of government consolidation has been often heavily criticized for removing services that people need or citizens worry that services will be less accessible if merged. Also, implementing the consolidation in a timely manner and doing it successfully is a major concern. Many antagonists of the idea believe that there is simply not enough research done on government consolidations to ensure that it will result in taxpayer savings and be successful.

McSweeney has been an active advocate of government consolidation early on, as he sponsored a bill for local government consolidation earlier this year. House Bill 4637 that proposed government consolidation for McHenry County in Illinois was introduced by McSweeney and passed in April of this year.