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* An unincorporated subdivision needs to hook into Joliet’s sewer system. So, it creates a board which eventually has property tax authority.The last member of the Greenfield Sanitary District Board died about 10 years ago. The last payment made to Joliet by the district was in 2009. Now, Joliet wants the rest of its money, totaling $197,000.

Confusion follows…

Withers and a couple of neighbors in Greenfield, located in the area of Rowell Avenue and New Lenox Road, have been trying to find out more about the status of the Greenfield Sanitary District.

They know the district existed at one time, because they used to pay bills to it. The Greenfield Sanitary District still appears on their property tax bills, but it does not levy for money.

“We wanted to see who the board members were and how many homes there are,” Withers said. “We haven’t got any answers.”

When Withers picked up the latest copy of the annual Will County Directory, the page that lists sanitary districts in unincorporated areas did not include Greenfield.

Joliet officials said they have had trouble getting information.

Moral of the story: We apparently have so many local units of government in this state that we can’t even keep track of them all.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 2:58 pm

Comments

For over a half century the definition of Easy was “creating a unit of government”.
For time and eternity now the definition of Difficulty is “eliminating a unit of government”.
Ugh.

Comment by A guy Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:06 pm
No living members for 10 years, no payments for six years, disappearance from the directory, yet a local taxing authority that never fully goes away.

Sounds like Illinois.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:07 pm
We still seem to be creating new ones, too:
http://evanstonnow.com/story/government/bill-smith/2015-08-05/71678/candidates-sought-for-tax-district-election
This seems like a City function to me.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:09 pm
Our local township officials used to meet once per month. But their compensation, per meeting, was fixed. So they just started meeting every two weeks instead.

Comment by Downstate Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:10 pm
Should be an area of great bipartisan agreement to start to tackle this. Need not be that difficult the state can use state aid payments as an incentive for counties to address this on their own.

Comment by Very Fed Up Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:10 pm
So what is the problem? This is no big deal.

Comment by Liberty Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:11 pm
Makes you wonder how many of these (no board, no taxes) units of government there are. My guess is north of 50

Comment by OneMan Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:19 pm
Tonight on Ron Swanson’s Scary Campfire Tales: The story of the ghost sanitation district- levying taxes from the great beyond!!!!
Seems like this should be an easy legislative fix- let the nearest municipality or such roll the duties and taxes into their purview.

Comment by Shark Sandwich Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:19 pm
==So what is the problem? This is no big deal.==

Did you read the story? Finding out that you may suddenly owe nearly $2,000 per home, but the last member of the local government unit who could answer those questions died 10 years ago without any follow up, might be a big deal to the people paying it.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:20 pm
We have all these bodies, in part, because of the limits on debt by public bodies in the 1870 Constitution. To adjust to the need for debt, one simply created more public bodies that could incur debt. Once those genies are out of the box, tough to get them back in.

Comment by D.P.Gumby Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:23 pm
I recently met a fella that also thinks we have too many local government units. I thought I had a friend and then I mentioned the idea of consolidating fire districts and I was informed that one could not trust the residents of so-and-so to provide fire services to the town of such-and-such. The people of so-and-so will let their neighbor’s houses burn.

It was pretty illustrative of why this issue is so hard to address.

I would imagine that simply annexing the authority of that area’s sewer district to the Joliet folks would turn into a real brouhaha about giving up freedom.

Comment by Anon Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:24 pm
I wonder if the developer of that subdivision had something to do with this. Saw a quick buck in developing an unincorporated parcel and no individual septic systems.

Comment by Sir Reel Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:24 pm
I had heard that the number of taxing bodies in Illinois proliferated when there was a tax freeze during the great recession. Solution: create a new taxing agency. Over 7000 now in Illinois. There is a task force to review consolidation. Patronage and fiefdoms will be difficult to overcome in this State. This is a turn-around agenda item that makes sense.

Comment by Midway Gardens Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:29 pm
To me, this is just another reason to consolidate some our tiny local units of government.

Comment by Tomlinson Times Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:29 pm
There’s one right close to the capitol that doesn’t need to exist:

Capital Township’s budget for the current fiscal year is $2,638,579.

EMPLOYEES–
Capital Township currently has 11 full-time and 18 part-time employees.

Editorial comment. And what do they do? Nothing that couldn’t be done by the city of Springfield, which shares the exact same boundaries as Capital Township. They provide checks for general assistance to the poor.

Comment by Anon Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:30 pm
Many years ago Frank Giglio, a State Representative from the Chicago Area (Calumet City) introduced legislation to abolish township government….it was killed faster than immediately.

Comment by Outsider Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:38 pm
Try to find a unified directory of all the drainage districts in Illinois. These have 3 commissioners by law and have the ability to order work done and levy taxes, and in some ways have more power than the townships. They often go inactive or disband, with no good record of when they do except by the disappearance of a levy on the tax bill. Some counties keep better track than others.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:44 pm
Formerly Know As- I did read the whole story plus other articles written on the issue.

This is a single subdivision of 101 home where owners didn’t apparently think they need to pay sewer fees. Makes you wonder why Joliet let it go on this long. Nearby South Ridgewood also is negotiating after not paying since 2004 because of disputes over usage. They are negotiating with Joliet to take over the systems. http://www.theherald-news.com/2015/07/23/joliet-seeking-819-000-from-two-township-sanitary-districts/afkf4ry/

Comment by Liberty Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:50 pm
Guessin’ there be county clerk and county treasurer for not catchin’ the Will County problem…unless they did it on purpose….Where is Slip&Sue”s Rapid Response Swat Team Gov-o-liminator? Shouldn’t they be racin’ to scene and puttin’ a stop to this abuse. Unless some GOPie lawyer was grabbin’ a bi’ fee.

Comment by Anonin' Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:53 pm
Since Joliet is in possession of the district’s records, it sounds like previous city management at some point agreed to take on responsibility but never followed up to collect from residents.

That’s their problem. I doubt they’ll be able to claw anything back for their own failure to bill.

Will County definitely should have records. The circuit clerk takes the petition to establish the district, a circuit judge signs off on the map, there’s public notice, a referendum, a tax levy, etc.

Comment by Wordslinger Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:54 pm
Liberty - fair enough. Did that lead you to a similar conclusion as Rich and some others here? That we may have so many local units of gov that it is a problem properly keeping track of them all? You may have a different take.

It sounded like you didn’t think there was any issue here, for the state or those families who received those letters.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:58 pm
I am in favor of consolidation. However, I find it ironic that folks who advocate for greater local control also advocate eliminating bodies of local control.

Comment by Demise Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 3:59 pm
Wasn’t Lt. Gov. Sanguinetti going to make recommendations on reducing layers of government, with help from experts at the DuPage County Board?

Now that would be a real “restructure.”

Comment by walker Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:01 pm
The money is probably going to Leroy Van Duyne.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:17 pm
Anon @ 3:30 pm states == Capitol Township does nothing that couldn’t be done by Springfield==

The Township collects & processes the property taxes as well as providing the general assistance aid. I don’t believe the City Springfield performs either of those functions.

The General Assembly Mandates the townships offer General Assistance.

Comment by LarryMullholland Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:18 pm
Formerly Know As, This doesn’t rise to the level of justifying the claim we have too many taxing districts is my point. The impact of this is only on 101 homeowners who should have been more involved. They will work out a solution with Joliet.

Local taxes for local services.

Comment by Liberty Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:18 pm
Like I posted the other day, there is a library district on my bill where the story goes that they thought they would build a library. They never did. Never levied any taxes. Don’t know if any officials were ever in office. Just try to get rid of it. Maybe a sunset provision should be in place where the unit loses its charter and ceases to exist if nothing happens for ten years.

Comment by Excessively Rabid Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:19 pm
The most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Ronald Reagan

Comment by BIG R. Ph. Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:21 pm
AA, Leroy, that’s a blast from the past, lol.

The 101 homeowners created the district via referendum. You’d think someone in the neighborhood would know what’s going on.

Comment by Wordslinger Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:23 pm
There are 4 separate school districts in the little town of Washington Illinois. With a grand total of 7 schools. please tell my how that is efficient.

Comment by Do It Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:33 pm
Rumor on the street. Ex-commissioner Kovarik going to run as an Independent in the U.S. 12th. This could be a huge game changer.

Comment by Blue dog dem Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:53 pm
U sure blue dog dem? I heard Kovarik was considering the vacant GSDB chairmanship instead.

Comment by Robert the Bruce Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 5:06 pm
The most terrifying words in the English language are: “I think quoting Ronald Reagan makes me look smart and I vote.”

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 5:14 pm
I can just see it;

Ole Silp and Sue, and her Crew, wearing Firefighter helmets with a single light in the top, everyone driving Shriner’s Go-Carts, circling the office, with Slip and Sue getting out, slipping then suing the governing body to “teach a lesson”, like she told us all why she sued before… to recoup the monies owed.

Fun stuff…

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 5:15 pm
Don’t know what GSDB is, but big money Independents lining up to back Kovarik if he gives the green light.

Comment by Blue dog dem Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 5:29 pm
I knew Leroy, one of the great characters of the Illinois GA.

He also had the greatest political buttons ever - Reelect VD He’s contagious!

Comment by Stones Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:02 pm
Word, Leroy’s best scam was when he and his wife bought an old school building in Joliet and then claimed it as a “school district” for tax exemptions, getting State surplus property, etc.

I don’t remember him being a “GOPie lawyer,” though.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:07 pm
BIG R. Ph:

Strange. Those words do not inspire any feelings of terror in me. However, I find the idea that the government could inspire such feelings to be slightly amusing.

Comment by jerry 101 Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:18 pm
With Leroy having the best coif this side of Jerry Lee Lewis. Awesome.

Comment by Lt. Guv. Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:20 pm
Do It - Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 4:33 pm:

“There are 4 separate school districts in the little town of Washington Illinois. With a grand total of 7 schools. please tell my how that is efficient.”
Similar situation for Ottawa in LaSalle County — at least four. I’ll bet there are more just like them.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:24 pm
Ronald Reagan? Wasn’t he the actor that played the President during Dick Chaneys first two Adminstrations?

Comment by Triple fat Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:30 pm
“Seems like this should be an easy legislative fix- let the nearest municipality or such roll the duties and taxes into their purview.”
————-

With sanitary districts in IL, there’s a lot more to this story than has been reported. A lot of the ‘phantom’ sanitary districts in IL goes back to the federal Clean Water Act back in the 1980’s.

When the Act was originally put into place, many places (small towns, larger rural subdivisions with community septic systems, and what are called ‘unincorporated towns’ (there’s lots of them out there, also with ‘community septic systems’), had the option to form sanitary/wastewater treatment districts. With the goal of getting federal coin to build regulation compliant systems. Community septic systems were not regulation compliant - not even close.

Well, the federal money dried up, and has never come back. But as part of the process of creating these sanitary districts, what is called an FPA (Facilities Planning Area) was created, which is the so-called service area for the sanitary district. A lot of FPA’s ended up being just big squares drawn on maps. So the end result was a whole lot of ’standby’ sanitary districts that did little, if anything except exist on paper.

Occasionally they would have contractors come out and pump the settling tanks for the community septic systems. So there was probably some taxes paid at some point.

One of the little unanticipated side effects of the federal Clean Water Act.

Actually, these ’standby’ sanitary districts did work out for some places. You had developers (before the 2008 crash) who wanted to build PUD’s (Planned Unit Developments) with higher density, and the bottom line requirement was a community wastewater treatment system and even deep wells & a potable water system. But only a very small percentage.

There’s the backstory…..

Comment by Judgment Day (on the road) Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:31 pm
I find it hard to believe that folks that think nothing about shoving every kind of issue into a court for a legal solution could just wonder how this kind of situation could be resolved.

Small potatoes. 101 residents.

Nothing a court could settle.

Ever see a ghost town? What happened to all those governments? This isn’t the first time we saw a government go belly up.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:31 pm
It’s been several years since I’ve done this, but as I recall, if a taxing authority wants to get money from the tax payers, it has to issue a levy, certify it, publish, send it to the County Clerk so it can get on the tax bill, and then wait for the money to roll in. Also, and this part is foggier, the levy has to be issued each year. So, if Joliet wants to assume the roll of Greenfield, then it should get down to business and forget about the all the years that didn’t get levied or collected.

(Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, I just work for ‘em.)

Comment by Cheswick Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 6:42 pm
We must cut our 7000 governments in half. This is
crazy on how our state operates. Does anyone in Springfield give a damn. We are losing people to surrounding states left and right. And Madigan just sulks. And defends Unions and trial lawyers.

Comment by mokenavince Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:04 pm
I thought the Lt. Gov. was assigned the task early on of evaluating all local units of government in IL, and make recommendations as to their worth. Any progress reports on this?

Comment by Tom K. Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:19 pm
Illinois is over the top on a lot of stuff. Besides the obscene # of local governments, the state has nearly 1,000 funds to account for its revenues and expenditures (general, special state funds , state trust funds, revolving funds, fiduciary funds, etc.). SB #1405 was introduced to consolidate some of those funds to a manageable level. It seems to me that is a bipartisan bill that should have been passed but it was sent to committee (where bills go to die).

The state comptroller collects local government tax data from all local governments and tries to make sense of consolidating nearly a thousand funds, but it’s nearly impossible.

We do thing the hard way in Illinois.

Comment by Soccertease Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:29 pm
If the district hasn’t been active in ten years and nobody missed it, doesn’t that lead to the bigger question of what exactly sanitary districts do? Where I live in the Downers Grove Sanitary District, as far as I can tell, we pay someone to read the meter and we pay someone to send out the bill. Not much else for them to do. Seems like a terrible waste of everyone’s time and money.

Comment by Michael Westen Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:44 pm
This reminds me about a story from Kentucky a few years ago: www.kentucky.com/2012/11/14/2407554/report-special-taxing-districts.html

Long story short, until the Kentucky Auditor did the work nobody had any idea about the number of special districts in the State.

Comment by MyTwoCents Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:58 pm
In all seriousness…

Undoubtedly we could greatly reduce the number of governmental units in illinois. I think the problem is there is no one size fits all approach. Those of us who live in urban areas could probably do away with townships and not blink an eye yet the township can provide valuable services to rural areas. On top of all that, you have the reluctance of political types to do away with a unit of government that they control especially if those services will be consolidated under a unit contolled by the opposite party. I’m not sure how you get around all that?

Comment by Stones Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 7:58 pm
…and Joliet was too living to high to miss their $200 grand?

Comment by Lurking MBA Monday, Aug 10, 15 @ 10:03 pm
amazing story. Illinois, the state with the most separately elected jurisdictions in the world. one big mess of too many taxes and pensions! is there a searchable database of these bodies somewhere? comptroller?

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Aug 11, 15 @ 12:25 am