Township government is the oldest existing form of government in North America, dating back almost 400 years.
Peoria County is one of 85 counties in Illinois where townships continue to operate. But is it still a functional unit of government, or an outdated relic?
Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich points out that although city council members also serve as Peoria Township trustees, the government units are totally separate entities.
“It harkens back to really our nation's founding where township government was one of the units of government that was closest to the people, where you would have a town meeting and the electors would gather together and — really in the spirit of direct democracy — items could come up for them to discuss,” Urich said.
While all of Peoria Township is contained within Peoria city limits, the city extends into other townships, including Richwoods, Medina and Radnor.
Under Illinois law, township governments are tasked with three main functions: general assistance for those in need, assessment of property for tax purposes, and maintaining all roads and bridges outside of other jurisdictions.
Peoria Township Supervisor LaTrina Leary notes they have no roads or bridges of their own to maintain.
“However, we do have a township assessor and a township supervisor who — the assessor does the assessments of properties throughout Peoria Township, and the supervisor is a supervisor of general assistance that provides some assistance within the community,” Leary said.
Over the years, various efforts have pushed to abolish townships as a way to save taxpayer money. But Leary said transferring Peoria township duties to the city would not be cost effective.
“The services that we do provide are not provided in any other branch, so it's not a redundant responsibility with the things that we offer,” she said. “There are some things that could be updated, but I do not think that it’s outdated to where we should no longer have a township.”
Currently, Peoria County has 19 townships after West Peoria Township was dissolved in May 2021. West Peoria’s Jim Dillon served 14 years on the township board before becoming the city's mayor.
“I think that being on the township board helped me because it is an efficient form of government and it's kind of more grassroots than anything,” Dillon said. “But once we became a city, the city took over the road and bridge district and that left the township with not much left to do.”
Dillon said West Peoria already had a contract with Peoria County to handle tax assessments before the township was dissolved, and like Peoria, the roads and bridges were under city jurisdiction.
“In some areas of the state, the township governments work very well. But when it's within another municipality, sometimes it's just a duplication of government that's really not needed,” he said.
Peoria County Administrator Scott Sorrel said the county has a long history of partnership and cooperation with the townships, particularly in the rural areas.
“They're the maintainer of a good chunk of the rural roads in Peoria County, so that really provides a direct link to the citizenry and the taxpayer,” said Sorrel, adding some townships still have collectors who receive property tax payments and transfer them to the county treasurer.
Sorrel noted current county board members Matt Windish and Dan Kelch also are township road commissioners, and former board chairman Bill Prather was the Chillicothe Township road commissioner for many years.
He said much of the discussion about eliminating township government has occurred around the Chicago area.
“The issues in those urban and suburban counties are very different than the issues that that we face here, and as I've told county board members, anecdotally, over the course of time while this conversation has been evolving, we at Peoria County government have no desire to take over the road maintenance duties,” said Sorrel, adding the county already has barely enough funding to maintain its 350 miles of county highways.
“If we were to take on the township road network as well, it would be completely overwhelming and we would absolutely see the quality of the township roads deteriorate. So from that aspect, township road commissioners play a vital role and I really can't envision us ever wanting to get in that business.”
Township origins
Illinois State University professor emeritus Michael Sublett has studied the history of township governments and written several books and articles about their place in Illinois government.
“They originated in the eastern part of the United States, particularly New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and they came westward with settlers,” Sublett said. “Illinois did not have townships until 1850; prior to that, every county had a commission.”
Sublett said in some areas, like the Chicago and St. Louis suburbs, townships have expanded their roles.
“They'll take over cemeteries that are having a hard time maintaining themselves,” Sublett said. “Some townships do recycling. One or two have airports. Libraries, senior citizen centers, daycare centers — they've looked for all sorts of ways to make themselves relevant.”
Unlike Peoria, the West Peoria City Council and West Peoria Township Board have different members. But Dillion said they still had a smooth transition in folding the township rolls into city government.
“We all worked together anyway, and especially the last few years, the trustees didn't have much to do. So they kind of did our cleanup days and they did some miscellaneous things,” Dillon said.
“I hated seeing it go, but it made sense at the time because there wasn't a need. As everybody always says, ‘the government's too big,’ and this was a way that we could do away with one of them and save the taxpayer money — and it worked out.”
Leary said eliminating Peoria Township wouldn’t result in much of a tax break for residents.
“We have one of the lowest tax levies in Peoria Township, so with the work that we do, we do it at a minimum cost to taxpayers,” Leary said.
Sorrel said abolishing township governments likely would require making Peoria County government bigger.
“We really don't do general assistance, so if townships were to get out of that business or townships were to be eliminated, that would be a role that would fall to a municipality like it does in West Peoria,” he said.
“In the unincorporated areas, that would have to be an entirely new service line that we would have to start up from scratch because we don't do that today. Then on the assessment side, that actually would potentially be the easiest transition, but we're not advocating for that. It would likely mean an increase in staffing for us.”
