Rep. Coffey Slams Democrats over Capital Township Bill

Uh, leader, may I ask uh how this came about? I believe that it had been it passed the uh Senate a few years ago and uh uh we called it here and it was a little short and it came about as a result of a um initiative of Senator Doris Turner. Uh so we decided we would run it here in the House first and then uh Senator Turner would would carry it in the Senate. So, this is an initiative of Senator Dor Sterners because that's news to me. I I didn't know that. Okay. Uh to the bill. Uh ladies and gentlemen, this bill uh is terrible. It creates useless positions. And what I mean by useless positions is it creates a township commissioner, township road commissioner for a township that isn't responsible for any roads. It then will take one other job and create three jobs to do the job of one person right now. This will cost the people of Capitol Township over $700,000 to do this. A tax increase to the people of Capitol Township with these elected officials. Their new pay, not like the officials that are now, will get a 600% tax increase. a six they will get a 600% pay raise as we sit here today and we raise taxes. The people of Capitol Township aren't asking for this. And we're going to give new elected officials a 600% pay raise. That's insanity. This undermines everything that Capitol Township has done right here. The last four years, they've reduced taxes 80% in the last four years. This is a total waste. It reverses everything that we've been trying to do here in Capitol Township in Sangaman County. Just this last election, Sangman County in a referendum voted to get rid of an elected official because they want to downsize government. They don't want seven more politicians to do what one person can do. This bill has no benefit whatsoever to the taxpayers of Capitol Township. If this body wants to get involved in local politics, then maybe we should have the elected officials in Sangaman County come down here because we can learn a lot from them. They know how to reduce taxes. They know how to do more with less. and they know how to represent their own people. They don't need any help from the state of Illinois. That is for sure. I asked for a no vote.