From Monday, October 11 Register Star
Candlewick Lake incorporation would create another local government, and we need fewer, not more.
October 10th, 2010 01:56am Chuck Sweeny
Illinois has more than 7,000 local units of government, more by far than any other state. It’s one reason we are such an inefficient state, and why our property taxes are so high.
So you’d think that in a time when Tea Party conservatives across Illinois are calling for smaller government and lower taxes of all kinds, that some people in a conservative county — Boone, to be specific — want to form yet another government. They are called Candlewick Voice.
These people live in the private Candlewick Lake development, which is governed by a private homeowners’ association. Now to be fair, not all Candlewick folks want to become a village, and nearby villages Poplar Grove, Caledonia and Timberlane are fighting Candlewick’s incorporation. Also fighting are anti-incorporation residents in Candlewick, who have banded together as Candlewick Pride.
With taxes high enough already, and with the prospect of massive federal and state income taxes increase in January, we should be talking about consolidation, not more government. But it seems that some conservatives, who loathe big federal government, love big local government, or at least lots of local governments.