The Chicago Tribune reports on big government in Illinois:
Orland Hills has a library board, but no library. Norwood Park has a paid three-member board with the sole job of overseeing 40 streetlights. And a southern Illinois tuberculosis board has amassed more than $200,000 yet it treats only one patient every two to three years, the Massac County Board chairman said.
In Norwood Park, three women run a board with the sole job of overseeing 40 streetlights in a one-mile sliver of unincorporated Cook County.
There's more:
Illinois has the most units of government in the nation, and the Tribune acquired and combed through a list of each one — nearly 8,500 by the state comptroller's count, from well-known townships to obscure drainage districts.
Southwest suburban Orland Hills has a library board but no library. And a southern Illinois tuberculosis board has amassed more than $200,000 yet treats only one patient every two or three years, according to the Massac County Board chairman.
No one can say how much all the government in Illinois costs taxpayers, but experts who have studied the state's bloated bureaucracy say the price tag is astronomical.
"Illinois is really kind of a poster child for excessive governing bodies," said David Hamilton, director of the Texas Tech University public administration program, who has criticized the inefficiency of Illinois townships. "Once a government is there, it's easier to keep the status quo than it is to try to change."
Obama "the reformer" wasn't big on reforming government in the corrupt state of Illinois.
