Government consolidation was the focus of the most recent Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force, which met in Wheaton on April 8.
DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin outlined consolidation measures that were pursued and implemented in DuPage County as part of the County’s ACT Initiative (Accountability, Consolidation, Transparency), which is projected to save taxpayers more than $116 million.
The ACT Initiative was undertaken to address a lack of accountability and transparency identified in an assessment of 24 independent agencies in DuPage County. The program was also organized to provide a roadmap for agencies to explore consolidation and share services.
During the meeting, members of the task force discussed the feasibility of mimicking at the state level the same sort of consolidation measures that DuPage has successfully implemented, and also talked about legislation that would place a moratorium on creating new units of local government.