An Indiana bill would set up a commission to evaluate changing the state’s boundary with Illinois to welcome counties who have approved exploring seceding from the Land of Lincoln.
The bill would establish the Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission, which would be made up of representatives from Illinois and Indiana and would be tasked with evaluating potential actions to adjust the borders between the two states.
The proposed legislation comes as more than 30 Illinois counties have approved referendums that would allow elected officials to explore the possibility of seceding from Illinois and either forming their own state or joining another state.
According to the Indiana General Assembly’s website, the bill passed out of committee earlier this week, paving the way for further debate on the measure. Several amendments were proposed on Wednesday, including provisions allowing counties to decide whether they wanted to leave Indiana and be absorbed into Illinois, but those Democratic Party-led measures were defeated by wide margins.
The bill was authored by Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, marking the first time that he has proposed a standalone piece of legislation since taking over the leadership role in the House, according to the NW Indiana Times.
Huston has been outspoken in his support of the bill in recent weeks.
“To all of our neighbors in the west, we hear your frustrations and invite you to join us in low-cost, low-tax Indiana,” Huston has said, according to the Indianapolis Star.
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Critically, even if the Indiana bill were to pass and be signed by Gov. Mike Braun, it would face an uphill fight. Illinois’ General Assembly would have to pass a similar law to allow officials to participate in the commission’s discussions, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker has dismissed the bill as a “stunt” in recent comments.
"It's not going to happen, he recently said. "But I'll just that say 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.”
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If Illinois were to pass similar legislation, the commission would be required to meet at least once per year. Any recommendations passed by the commission would have to be approved by both state legislatures, and then would have to be approved by the United States Congress, who holds the final authority on changing state borders, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Indiana officials have been encouraged to pursue the legislation by a series of votes in a number of Illinois counties, with voters tackling the question of whether they would want to explore the idea of seceding from Illinois.
The referendum text, which has been put to voters in more than 30 counties, reads as follows:
“Shall the board of (the county) correspond with the boards of other counties of Illinois, outside of Cook County, about the possibility of separating from Cook County to form a new state and to seek admission to the Union as such, subject to the approval of the people?”
In the 2024 general election, seven more counties approved the non-binding referendum, including Iroquois County, which is located roughly 75 miles south of Chicago.
The reasoning behind the referendums, according to supporters, is that the city of Chicago and Cook County have a sizable impact on the policies enacted by the state legislature, and rural counties share different interests that are not being represented by the actions of the General Assembly.
Many legal experts have expressed skepticism that such an effort could ever be successful.
