The Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission had its first meeting today at Indiana State University to hear testimony about changing state border lines.
Four people spoke in support of conservative southern Illinois counties joining Indiana or creating a 51st state called New Illinois.
How serious is this? Indiana lawmakers mandated the commission. But Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called it a “stunt” by his state’s neighbor.
The commission has six members representing Indiana and appointed by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun: Greg Newman, Don Lehe, Clay Andrews, Jeff Papa, Ray McCammon and Mark Seib. There are five seats open for Illinois but all are unfilled.
The testimony included claims that southern Illinois’s values are not fairly represented. There were also calls to be excluded from Illinois’s laws, like on abortion and immigration.
“Lack of representative government has brought has brought this corruption and it's destroying our state,” said GH Merritt, chairman of New Illinois. “We're being put at risk by the irresponsibility and incompetence of Chicago and Illinois leaders.”
The testimony also discussed how Indiana would benefit from more electoral votes and tax revenue.
Merritt expressed gratitude toward Indiana for “recognizing our pain.”
Testimonies also brought up potential barriers like debt.
Commission chair Jeff Papa said it could be managed.
“If you're already planning to take that debt with you, if you were to come in Indiana, I think there would be a way to say, okay, that debt needs to be paid off by the new counties from Illinois themselves over time, and then once it's gone, everybody's equal, but until it's paid off, you know, that's a burden you had because you incurred it as being part of Illinois,” Papa said. “So I think there's a way to handle that.”
At the end of the meeting, Papa said any move to change borders would not be an annexation, it would be an equal agreement.
“It's got to work for everybody,” he said. “It's not a taking, not that I know of.”
The next meeting could be in early January. The commission must submit a report to the General Assembly no later than 60 days after it completes its duties.