Indiana House Speaker's proposal to absorb 33 Illinois counties advances
A measure aimed at allowing Indiana to absorb 33 counties in Illinois that have voted in recent years to leave the state has cleared its first legislative hurdle, but the effort faces a major uphill battle.
An Indiana House committee has approved House Bill 1008, sponsored by Speaker Todd Huston, to establish an Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission, which would be tasked with researching the possibility of redrawing the states' boundaries.
Huston, a Republican from Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb, proposed the legislation after he learned 33 counties in Illinois have voted to leave the state since 2020.
"For those who wish to escape Illinois' political and economic mire but haven't yet moved to Indiana, there might be an alternative. Instead of forming a new state, the counties that voted to pursue secession should join us in a state that shares their values and economic interests," Huston wrote in a recent editorial for the Indianapolis Business Journal.
In order to make any changes to the current Illinois-Indiana border, the U.S. Constitution requires approval from both state legislatures and then Congress.
Although Illinois State Rep. Brad Holbrook, a Republican from Shelbyville, has filed similar legislation in the Illinois House, Gov. JB Pritzker has dismissed the notion, making its passage extremely unlikely with Democrats holding supermajorities in both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate.
"It's a stunt. It's not going to happen," Pritzker said last month in response to Huston's proposal. "But I'll just say that Indiana is a low-wage state that doesn't protect workers, a state that does not provide health care for people when they're in need, and so I don't think it's very attractive for anybody in Illinois, where wages are higher, where the standard of living is higher, and where we do provide healthcare for people who are in need."
Also complicating Huston's proposal is the fact that many of the Illinois counties that have approved ballot initiatives supporting bids to leave the state are nowhere near the Indiana border. A handful border Missouri.
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