Eye On Illinois: Readers offer insight on solar panels, consolidation and migrants

As you’re hopefully recovered from a holiday weekend, here are a few recent thoughts from my readers:

Caller EH, regarding solar farms:

“We have all these poles in Illinois, they could put solar-powered panels on all those poles. And they could put solar-powered panels on all the towers that they have all over, and they wouldn’t have to bother putting up farms.”

Bob Anderson, following Thursday’s column about the State Board of Education fielding increased funding requests and specifically responding to one sentence: “Although the ultimate reality is that the people government serves care about outcome, process remains an important component of administration.”

Anderson: “I’m one of the three leaders of We The People Campaign (Reform Without Delay). Illinoisans have about 9,000 units of government to fund, this is more than 3.500 more than any other state!

“We have four Proposed Solutions to save Illinois:

“Consolidate 102 counties to 50 counties.

“Consolidate 859 school districts to 50 county unified districts.

“Liquidate 1,429 governments, not the 1,398 township road districts. Note: Township government and the township road district are two separate units of governments, each with its own tax levy. Most taxpayers are not aware of this, even some members of the General Assembly.

“Remove school funding from property taxes.

“Are we stuck on stupidity? The funding of 9,000 units of government and funding public education with a property tax is stupidity. Does the Illinois General Assembly really care about the outcome? Stupidity!”

And finally, emailer TW, regarding a Nov. 18 column on additional funding for asylum seekers: “I agree with the plan Gov. Pritzker has for helping migrants who have been arriving in our state. I also disagree with the city of Chicago’s approach, in which it seems the best ideas are using park district fieldhouses (closing them to neighborhood residents), and erecting tents on property formerly housing a railroad yard and retail shops in advance of a Chicago winter.

“I also agree that the federal government needs to do more to address this crisis. I’m no expert in this subject, desiring to leave solutions to those who are.

“At the very least, it would be helpful for the government to continue its active foreign policy, and avoid regressing to an ‘America first’ stance with racist overtones. Migrants are leaving their home countries for a reason, and I trust the United States is making an effort to work toward solutions at the source.

“In the meantime, I choose to do what I can to welcome new arrivals as my immigrant ancestors were welcomed to this nation.”

As we approach the year’s final month, I’m interested in hearing what readers think will be the most important stories of 2024.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.