INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Senate passed a bill 36-13 today that, if signed by the governor, will create a commission to study the possibility of a relocation of the Illinois/Indiana state line. The bill, HB 1008 “Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission,” was amended by the Senate and so awaits assent from the House, which passed the original version of the bill 69-25 in February. The amendment allows the commission to issue reports even if Illinois does not pass a similar bill. [UPDATE: the House concurred Thursday, April 17 by a vote of 64-23.]
Illinois Representative Brad Halbrook has introduced HB 1500, a bill that would complement HB 1008 by supplying Illinois representatives to the bi-state commission, but it is languishing in the Rules Committee of the Illinois House.
So far, since early 2020, 33 counties of Illinois have passed non-binding referendums calling for separation from Illinois. No county has voted down such a referendum, and the election results average 74%. The counties are in central and southern Illinois, and most are rural. Central and southern Illinois, with a population of 2.8 million, gave 1.7 votes to President Trump for every 1 vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, which is even more than Indiana did. Illinois currently has 102 counties.
Illinois’ state budget is primarily dependent on personal income tax, and so would benefit from the loss of southern and central Illinois, according to an analysis published at RedStateSecession.org. However, the analysis shows that certain groups of counties would be a financial benefit to Indiana, such as the eastern half of central Illinois with 1.1 million people, because they have a higher average income than Indiana does. The analysis also proposes that, if Indiana wanted to take a larger group of counties, then Indiana might want to design legislation that would require the whole group of counties to pay their share of Indiana’s state’s taxes.
During debate, Sen. Shelli Yoder (D – Bloomington) cited a Ball State tabulation that found that the 33 counties that have already voted to split Illinois would be the second-lowest income state in the country if they were a state. However, Sen Scott Baldwin (R – Noblesville), said that the economies of the counties would grow under Indiana’s low regulation, low-tax business environment: “the grass is always greener on the other side is what I hear a lot, but really the grass is always greener where you water it. We water it here in Indiana, that’s why 33 counties want to come here. Indiana is open for business.”
Moving a state line might be more palatable to Congress and to Illinois than creating a new state, which would add two Republicans to the US Senate. Although Illinois officials dismissed the idea this year, a debt crisis could force Illinois to reconsider the option, as relocating state lines could provide an immediate influx of cash to state coffers.
These images are public property, uncopyrighted, screen grabs from Indiana Legislature website. Senator Baldwin’s closing speech is here.
