Why some Illinois counties want to separate from Cook County

There's a growing movement across the state, especially among southern counties, to try and separate the rest of Illinois from Cook County. About a dozen counties have a separation referendum that will appear on their ballot. Joining us to talk a little bit more about it, we have Loretta Newland, who is leading the charge for the Illinois separation referendum. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. You bet. So let's start with the big picture here. Why do you believe the rest of Illinois would be better off without Cook County? Well, the state legislature tends to not take us into consideration when they're making their laws. And so many times what works well for Cook County, and particularly Chicago, is really detrimental to the rest of the state. So it sounds like that's the main reason here. I wasn't sure if it was politics, if it was taxes, or really just a feeling that people outside of Chicago are not being heard here. Actually, it's probably all of that. I mean, representation and constitutional laws was what really got Colin Clyburn to get it kicked off in 2016 with a Facebook page to see what the people think. And then he took it to the next level when the page got a lot of followers and he started doing referendums. So when you talk about separating from Cook County, what would that actually look like? Like, are you proposing creating an entirely new state, or what does that look like? Entirely new state. In spite of some media clickbait headlines, we are not being absorbed into Indiana. That's not our goal. Okay, so Cook County is a major economic engine for Illinois, right? There's no denying that. So how would the rest of the state replace the tax revenue and the economic activity that it would ultimately lose here? Well, a fun fact is that although they do generate a lot of income, income is only part of the story. I'm a business owner, and the other side of that is, what are your expenses? And Cook County is a very expensive, expensive county. And most recently, in December, they took money that should have gone to downstate roads, and they put it towards the Chicago transit system. now if they're the economic engine why do they need to borrow i'm sorry we call it steel um from our road fund when we've got about four times as many roads and we've got about four times as many bridges to maintain so the budget as it is has been based on population or um i think maybe registered vehicles. And so, yes, population-wise, it looks like they deserve it. But we have more infrastructure to maintain. So it was already lopsided. We were getting half as much to do twice as much, spread over twice as much. And then they took more from us. So now we're down to like 15%. Critics may say that this is more of a political statement than a realistic plan. What do you have to say to those people who believe separation wouldn't actually happen? Well, I wish I could remember his name. He's just recently been jumping into or being asked to comment. He's a professor in Springfield, and he studies secession movements. And he said that the thing about secession movements is they seem crazy right up until the time they actually happen. and we don't call ourselves a secession movement just because while it's an okay term in our part of the world um the civil war was really hot and heavy there were um families divided over that always bring that word brings up the connotation of civil war we aren't trying to start a civil war we're trying to avoid one so article 4 section 3 gives us the right to do this and it is a peaceful way to make people happier, actually. Okay, so let's go with it then. Let's say voters say, heck yeah, they overwhelmingly support this referendum. What happens next? Well, actually, 74% have already voted yes in approval. We haven't had a single fail yet, but things can change every election. So there's some counties I'm not so confident about this year but 74% approval is pretty good so far and the next step if if i could duck out of the way a little bit you can see there's a lot of white space where we haven't had the referendum on the ballot and that's not because there isn't any interest i've actually had contact from every county in the state even if they haven't had it on the on the ballot yet and that's where it starts it starts with one person reaching out and say hey i'm interested in this so what happens next after november 3rd there's not going to be a lot of activity that you'll be interested in but there will be people contacting our page saying hey can i get a referendum hey what do i need to do to talk to my county board and when can i start doing that the answer to the start you can't start doing the board presentations until October of 2027. So you've got a ways but you need to get in touch with us so that you can start learning the process and do it right. Illinois never does split into two states. What would you consider a victory here for this movement or is there no victory until it is split into two? I don't think about failure a whole lot but if it doesn't make it, at least the state legislature will know that there is a significant part of Illinois that is not happy campers, to borrow a little phrase. All right, Loretta Newland, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate your time. Could I add a little bit? Sure. Adams County has been left off of a lot of the news reports. There's 11 townships and a lot of the news reports are saying 11 counties, 11 counties. Well, that's true, but there's actually 11 and a half there's 22 townships in adams county and also the western part of Illinois hasn't gotten the most accurate information I don't think it was intentional but there there is a group that said that they are you know they've got a constitution and they do have but that's not our group we are waiting and to include the counties that want to be in the state to do a constitution and we don't have committees we don't have senators we aren't electing our own state reps. That's a totally different group. We appreciate them, but we don't want to confuse people that we are one and the same We are focused right now on the step we're on, which is finding out what do the people want And before we can become a state, we have to have approval by the Illinois General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. So we've got a long ways to go. All right. Thank you so much for your time. We got to leave it there, but we really appreciate you.