Eye On Illinois: Proposed flag designs might not draw many votes for change

A challenge I’ve been pondering since Tuesday afternoon is the precise way to convey the sound of a sad trombone in print.

On Monday, the Illinois Flag Commission met to select 10 finalists from almost 5,000 submissions for consideration as our new state flag. Tuesday, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias released images of those finalists, posted along with all the other details at https://apps.ilsos.gov/stateflag/.

Bookmark that website, because it’s where online voting will take place, a key component for the commission’s recommendations to lawmakers, which are due by April 1. In addition to the new designs, we’ll be able to choose to keep the current design or adopt the 1918 centennial or 1968 sesquicentennial flags.

In October, I suggested the flag contest provides an excellent opportunity to give Illinoisans experience with ranked choice voting: “The idea is consensus. It’s impossible for everyone to have their favorite win, but ranked choice allows a broadly acceptable compromise at the expense of more extreme and polarizing options.”

While that concept remains true in practice, it struggles in theory because – at least behind this keyboard – there isn’t a “favorite” among the entire group.

Despite a long-held agreement the current flag is lacking because it’s simply the state seal on a white sheet, and with no offense intended toward the artists, the finalists don’t inspire much of anything beyond a desire to see the few thousand other options out of irascible curiosity.

Yet in the spirit of positivity and optimism, it’s worth remembering this process has cost very little in terms of public resources, we retain the chance to preserve the status quo while also engaging in low-stakes citizen activism and, if it all ends up with nothing changed, at least folks can say they learned the grass was not indeed greener across the fence.

HOUSING HURDLES: Following a report from his Ad-Hoc Missing Middle Housing Solutions Advisory Committee, Gov. JB Pritzker Wednesday signed an executive order creating the position Director of Housing Solutions to coordinate efforts among state agencies.

Though smaller in scale than other efforts – in June the state formally created the Department of Early Childhood – this move represents a continuation of Pritzker’s strategy to deal with a challenge by putting someone new at the top of a confusing organizational chart. It’s an understandable approach, but one often overlooked measure of success is whether there are downstream efficiency gains by realigning responsibilities.

Also notable is Pritzker’s deployment of the adjective “attainable” to supplant “affordable” in the housing context. One story to watch in 2025 is how the administration aims to solve the problems it identifies in this arena and what meaningful goals can be accomplished without increasing spending in a cash-strapped budget cycle.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.