House Passes Bill Making It Easier to Dissolve Townships

Last week, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill that would amend Illinois’s Township Code. House Bill 496, which would take immediate effect if passed, proposes to amend the Township Code to make it easier for a city council of a township and/or registered voters of a township to dissolve a township that exists within the same or substantially the same boundaries as a municipality.

Specifically, the bill removes existing threshold requirements for dissolution, including that:

• the municipality’s city council exercises powers and duties of the township board, or in which one or more officials serve as an officer or trustee of the township;
• the township be located within a county with a population of 3 million or more
• the township contain a territory of seven square miles or more.

For a proposition to dissolve a township to be placed on a ballot, the Township Code still mandates that the township’s city council pass an ordinance allowing for such a resolution, or a petition supporting dissolution of the township must be signed by a minimum of 10 percent of the registered voters of the township. If a township were to be dissolved, by operation of law, the rights, powers, duties, assets, property, liabilities, obligations and responsibilities would vest in and be assumed by the municipality.