Posted by Barton Lorimor

A recent poll of southern Illinoisans conducted by my colleagues down here at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows downstaters would like to see a smaller government…

Results show people have grown more frustrated at public officials and government in general in the last 30 years, when the last survey of this kind was taken.

Among the revelations: Gov. Pat Quinn is more unpopular than Gov. Jim Thompson was during his tenure in office. […]

The poll was taken Feb. 14 through 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.

Of course the thing to keep in mind is where the poll was conducted. Southern Illinois has its strong conservative areas. Quinn barely won Jackson County (Carbondale-Murphysboro) in the general, and the Tea Party’s base in the Metro-east area (as well as all along the Mississippi River) has gotten stronger in years. I was driving through Collinsville a few weekends ago and saw local campaign yard signs for school board candidates that made sure the voting base there knew they would NEVER raise taxes.

Not to mention that there is hardly any love for Chicago among southern Illinoisans. (Although, if you want to make the southerners happy you could show them you don’t want to take their guns away.)

But it’s Chicago that’s taking the first steps at reducing it’s numbers, as you may have already seen…

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has broached a touchy subject during private meetings with aldermen to solicit their ideas on budget and ethics reform: cutting the nation’s second-largest City Council in half.

Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were stunned when Emanuel opened the discussion by asking them point-blank, “What do you think about going down to 25 aldermen?”

It was a bold opening line for a mayor-elect who will need every vote he can get to reorganize the Council, pass his programs and solve a budget and pension crisis that literally has Chicago on the brink of bankruptcy. […]

Still, Emanuel said he was challenging individual aldermen by saying, “The public wants a set of reforms: budgetary, ethics, TIF, etc. Where are your changes you’re willing to make?”

Chicago taxpayers spend $19.5 million a year to maintain 50 aldermen and $4.7 million more for the 19 standing committees.

Any change in City Council structure would have to be made by the Illinois General Assembly or by Chicago voters in the form of a binding referendum. […]

If Emanuel decides to seriously pursue the idea of a smaller City Council — instead of tinkering at the margins by shrinking the roster of committees — he could find an ally in Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th).

Twice in the last 16 years, Burke has called the 50-member Council unwieldy, unproductive and unnecessary and proposed cutting it in half to save taxpayers $10 million a year.

So Burke is one, Michael Sneed suggested in her column earlier this week that Gov. Quinn was the one pushing this idea, but the mayor-elect says it’s a message he got from the voters…

The mayor-elect said it’s worthy of discussion, if only to demonstrate the sweeping nature of reforms that must be made across city government to solve a structural deficit approaching $1 billion-a-year when pension liabilities are factored in.

“It’s not about the City Council. That’s not gonna solve our problems even if they make big, radical change. To solve the type of structural challenges, we’re gonna have to do a number of things. The City Council can’t be immune from it. They’ve got to be part of it. But, if all we do is focus on that … you’re missing the bigger story,” he said.

Quite a message for the rookie mayor to send.

Related…

* Emanuel considers cutting down City Council

* City Hall on edge as Emanuel moves in

* Some call for deeper cuts to Kane board size

* Feds say DuPage Housing Authority misspent $5.8 million: The latest report indicates some of the money was spent to buy flowers, meals and clothes for authority employees and Christmas gifts for DHA board members.

Auditors concluded that the Wheaton-based agency failed to follow HUD guidelines and its own policies while administering its Section 8 programs. As a result, HUD officials “lacked assurance that the authority’s resources were used to benefit low- and moderate-income individuals.”

Blame for what happened was placed on the DHA board and former Executive Director John Day.

* Report finds sex, booze, sleeping on the job at Cook County water parks

* IG: Theft, sex on the job and improper OT at Cook County Forest Preserve pools

* Red-Light Cameras: Taxpayers Pay for CTA Bus Drivers’ Tickets

* Bill to get rid of township road districts worries some

* Accolades for Disclosure, But None for Chicago

* Watchdog group praises Preckwinkle, but dings her, too