(The Center Square) – Zombie state boards and commissions undermine public trust, according to an organization dedicated to a “more ethical” Illinois government.
According to recent data from Township Officials of Illinois, the state with the most units of government per capita in the United States is Illinois.
According to an Illinois Auditor General report, it was found that over 100 state boards in Illinois were inactive, and 28% of active boards failed to meet the minimum number of times.
Reform for Illinois Board Chairman David Milton said the group believes there are too many state boards and that they should only be created when they are going to do something.
“I remember there were some prior commissions related to campaign finance reforms, those commissions basically issued reports that said essentially, ‘on the one hand, there’s these possibilities, on the other hand, there’s these possibilities,’ and with no conclusions, no recommendations, nothing really beyond that,” said Milton. “I think that [the campaign finance reform commissions] were proved to be largely useless, both from the legislators’ perspectives and from the public’s perspective.”
Milton said some commissions may create reports but those reports weren’t helpful.
“Obviously, it’s useless, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if people were taking it seriously and there was follow-up on the report so that it actually resulted in some sort of decisions or legislative action,” said Milton. “The problem is too many of these boards and commissions operate without any real action.”
The Illinois Reform Commission is an officially disbanded commission originally established by Gov. Pat Quinn in 2009 to closely examine government’s ethics rules and practices and then recommend needed reforms. The commission’s website used to allow citizens to suggest changes necessary to clean up the state government and eliminate wasteful spending. Now, visitors to the website see home improvement tips on a blog written by an electrician.
The Department of Government Efficiency, proposed by President-elect Donald Trump, will seek to reduce wasteful federal spending. Trump tapped two billionaires, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to spearhead the initiative.
Milton said he’s not in favor of putting billionaires in charge of analyzing wasteful government spending.
“I do think, however, that people have known for a long time that Illinois has too many units of government that really, if we were designing a system from scratch, we would not design this many units of government they’ve accumulated over the years,” said Milton. “There should be an effort to take a look at them and reduce the number of them.”
Milton said he doesn’t think taxing bodies will vote to officially put themselves out of business.
“I think it would make sense for maybe some of our elected representatives to come up with a real proposal for essentially right-sizing Illinois government units,” said Milton.
One example of a “zombie board” is the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. The ISFA has been accused of continuing to exist and act with limited oversight or meaningful impact.
The authority was created to oversee the financing and operation of Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. While its mission has been largely fulfilled with the development of the stadiums, the board continues to operate, and critics argue it lacks a clear purpose.
“The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority manages the debt-repayment on publicly owned stadiums, and as the Bears and White Sox look to build new stadiums their positions may be more relevant again,” said Bryce Hill, director of fiscal analysis for the Illinois Policy Institute. “This poses a bigger problem, Illinois taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for subsidizing stadiums for billionaire owners. These stadiums have historically been poor public investments, and taxpayers are still paying off the debt accumulated from the last time stadium owners wanted upgrades.”
