Homer Glen referendum proposes eliminating township government

Homer Township — Voters in the Village of Homer Glen have an unusual referendum on their ballots this primary election.

A yes or no ballot measure, which will be decided on March 19, asks residents of the village “should the village of Homer Glen take appropriate action and pursue appropriate efforts to potentially dissolve or discontinue township government?”

The referendum is solely advisory and the results nonbinding, though it is unclear what actions could even be taken to pursue the dissolution or discontinuation of Homer Township’s government in the village.

“This all started in September when Mayor [Christina] Neitzke-Troike said she wanted to take the village out of the township,” said Homer Township Supervisor Steve Balich. “It’s not a serious question. It’s a political move to see if she can have something to campaign on in 2025. She wants to see what people think of the position.”

At most the measure would only theoretically be able to remove the village from the township’s jurisdiction, since in order to “dissolve” a governing body all of its constituents would need to vote on it, and the ballot measure does not appear in other portions of Homer Township. In addition to Homer Glen, Homer Township covers some portions of the city of Lockport and the village of Lemont.

“You can’t remove a city from the township. The township can only unincorporate village territory,” said Balich. “It is impossible to get rid of a township, it’s a unit of measurement. They are all 36 square miles and they’re set by the state.”

Balich said he sent a proposal to Neitzke-Troike in November offering to unincorporate all the township-owned property within the village of Homer Glen to remove any overlap, however, he said the proposal was never brought before the Village Board or acknowledged.

In a brief phone call with the Herald-News, Neitzke-Troike said that the point of the referendum was “to give insight.”

“We want to see if residents want less government or if they are happy with the services the township provides,” she said. “All we’re doing is doing our own research on if this is even possible to do. The state of Illinois has a problem with too many layers of government. We can consolidate and save the taxpayers money. The township is obsolete because all the services are provided by the village.”

According to Balich, even if the village passes the referendum there is no way to separate the village, which makes up about 60 percent of the township’s property, from the township. Even if there was, it would not exempt its residents from paying taxes to the township, which manages unincorporated roads and provides services for seniors and residents with special needs.

“We’re not going to card people at the door,” Balich said of the new Civic Center the township is building for residents this year. “They’d continue to have access to our services, and they would have to continue paying taxes, which by the way, we have not raised in three years.”

Neitzke-Troike argued that the tax burden from the township was too great for the number of services it provides and the amount of road it maintains.

When asked how the village would potentially go about separating itself from the larger governmental body if the voters were in favor of the ballot proposal, Neitzke-Troike did not provide a clear answer.

“We won’t know all the answers until we get direction from the residents,” she said, before suggesting that if all the townships across the state were dissolved, county governments could pick up their duties—and that Will County could pick up the services now provided by Homer Township.

Balich suggested that dissolving township governments would be a disservice to residents.

“If you dissolve the township, you dissolve the level of government closest to the people,” he said. “If anything, you could argue the village government could sooner be dissolved. All they have is some parks and the roads, which they took over from us three years ago. Their police are from Will County, Lockport provides their sewers, Illinois American Water provides their water service. All the village does is charge taxes and pass regulations. If they were dissolved the township could handle the roads and parks like they did before the village existed.”

Neitzke-Troike did not answer further questions about the alleged unfair tax burden on the residents or the legalities of her proposed split.