Who Needs Townships?

FOR YEARS, DUPAGE COUNTY BOARD CHAIRMAN DAN CRONIN LED A QUIXOTIC struggle to reduce taxes by cutting Illinois’s enormous roster of local governments — nearly 9,000 publicly financed entities, by one count, far more than any other state. In DuPage, Cronin eliminated or absorbed seven: underutilized fire districts and water sanitation agencies, a dedicated street lighting office, an election commission, and an authority devoted to helping put on the county fair.

Those moves will save taxpayers more than $100 million over 20 years, the county estimates. Even so, political interest in slimming local government is