Joining Illinois among states with the highest tax burdens are New York, Pennsylvania and California, which also rank among the top 10 for units of local government.
The taxing districts -- parks, libraries, fire protection and others -- make their presence known in the small print on tax bills, through property and other assessments. Residents in the Cook County suburb of Roselle alone pay into 14 separate districts.
Small-government activists such as the Tea Party concentrate on cutting federal and state spending. Cronin, a Republican running the second most-populous county in Illinois, said he’s puzzled by their inattention to the growth of local government, calling it “an astonishing inconsistency.”
Financial Footprint
The broadening financial footprint of special districts comes as Illinois struggles to maintain solvency and has the lowest credit rating among U.S. states. The five major public employee pension systems have a combined unfunded liability of $97 billion as of June 30, 2012, according to the Civic Federation.
Many special purpose districts share a common trait -- maintaining cash balances that are twice what they spent, on average, in 2011, according to state records of districts with less than $850,000 in revenue.
In Waterloo, Illinois, on the southern edge of metropolitan St. Louis, the local cemetery district spent $57,000 to tend the burial grounds in 2011, while its bank balance sat at $775,000.
Dan Kennedy, who manages the Waterloo Cemetery District, said he doesn’t know where the money came from. “It was there when I got here 10 years ago,” Kennedy said, adding that the funds could be used to purchase land to expand the grounds. When asked if the district has plans to do so, Kennedy said no.
While the fund balance includes some private donations, civic watchdogs say the amounts are indefensible.
“There is no justification for any local government to be levying property taxes when they have fund balances in excess of one year’s expenditures,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that tracks state and municipal finances. “It’s a violation of the public’s trust.”