Rockford Sun

State Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) is applauding the General Assembly for passing legislation that strengthens a law that requires taxing bodies to disclose its efficiency.

Keicher reacted to the passage of House Bill 4228 in a Jan. 6 press release.

“Too often Illinois taxpayers have been beaten up by the number of local units of government that are able to levy residential property taxes. What my original bill and this new bill does is to make sure that we right-size local government units at the property tax level so that every ten years we put it in the hands of the taxpayers to decide whether or not they want to be taxed for that function of government," Keicher said in the release. "This is the best piece of good government legislation we will see come out of Springfield this year."

House Bill 4228 was filed with the clerk on Nov. 23, 2021, and passed both Houses on Jan. 5, 2023. It forces local taxing bodies to review and report on their efficiency every ten years. Those taxing bodies then must look at whether consolidating operations would bring greater accountability and financial savings to the taxpayers.

Under the law, governmental units must form review committees by June 10, 2023 and at least once every 10 years after that date. The committee would include the elected or appointed members of the governing board of the governmental unit, and any chief executive officer or another officer of the governmental unit. Each committee must meet at minimum three times.

According to the release, Keicher's original bill, which this law was built off of, was House Bill 4691. He originally filed that bill on Feb. 6, 2020.