Indiana House Bill 1008

Members of the Indiana House of Representatives have proposed a bill to establish the Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission. The commission’s responsibility would be to reevaluate and redraw state lines between the two states.

Indiana House Bill 1008 was introduced in late January by Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R-I.N.) and has since been referred to the Public Policy Committee by the state senate. Its first reading was scheduled for Monday. 

Huston and representatives Jack Jordan (R-I.N.) and Shane Lindauer (R-I.N.) proposed the bill after a wave of discontent from parts of Illinois was highlighted in last November’s election.

“We don’t want to see our neighbors to the west languish,” Huston said before the House government committee. “To Illinois counties and residents feeling unheard and underrepresented, we hear you. We’d like to invite you to come back home again to Indiana.”

According to NBC Chicago, seven Illinois counties voted in favor of leaving the state in last November’s election. Calhoun, Jersey, Greene, Iroquois, Clinton, Perry and Madison County all voted in support of parting ways with Cook County.

This trend highlights the frustration among downstate Illinois voters who feel that Cook County dominates state government and leaves rural counties overlooked.

“If those Illinois counties want to separate from their state, we think they should consider joining Indiana,” Jordan said in a press release. “Indiana offers a great quality of life and for those Illinois residents who feel like they are being ignored, we would happily welcome them to our state.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responded to Huston’s proposal by dismissing the idea of secession and calling the move a “stunt.”

“It’s not going to happen,” Pritzker said. “But I’ll just say that Indiana is a low-wage state that doesn’t protect workers, a state that does not provide healthcare 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.”

Since 2020, nearly a third of the state’s 102 counties have voted to leave the Land of Lincoln, initially suggesting the creation of a 51st state.

“To me, Indiana is home, and it’s the best state to work, live and raise a family,” Jordan said. “Our door is open, and we would love to see even more Illinois residents choose to become Hoosiers.”

Brad Halbrook (R-I.L.), representative of Illinois’ 107th congressional district, filed a bill (HB1500) in response to Indiana’s proposal that would require Illinois to participate in the formation of the boundary adjustment commission.

The legislation details how Illinois would respond should Indiana pass its corresponding bill. It includes the mandate that a final report be submitted to the general assembly within 60 days of the commission’s completion.

Kenneth Owen, history professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield who specializes in Illinois history and secession movements, commented on the proposal. He detailed two types of secession conversations: publicity stunts and serious legislative efforts.

“I think this movement is much more in the publicity stunt category because it’s not clear to me what could meaningfully happen from this,” Owen said. “It’s tapping into a broader sense of grievance, but because that sense of grievance is so broad, it’s difficult to see exactly how it might lead to something concrete.”

History of regional division in Illinois

Since its founding in the 1800s, Illinois has experienced repeated efforts to redraw its borders; however, the idea of joining another state — instead of forming one — is new. 

Owen explained that this situation is unusual. Until now, secession discussions have typically remained within one state or have involved a group of counties from different states organizing to form a new state.

“It’s very rare that you would get something like this, where one state is essentially trying to add the territory of another and make direct overtures to say, ‘We would like you to come and join us,’” Owen said. 

One of the more recent discussions on this topic occurred in 2020 when some Illinois voting ballots included a referendum asking whether the voter’s county should collaborate with others to form a 51st state and break off from Cook County. The referendum was not on all Illinois ballots.

However, talk of secession began long before this when Illinois’ northern neighbor underwent the process of becoming a state. 

In the late 1800s, Wisconsin’s boundaries extended into what is now northern Illinois and included regions like Rockford, Galena and Chicago. The borders set by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 influenced some northern Illinois residents to consider joining the Badger State.

The next push for secession came during the Civil War when some of Illinois’ southern counties advocated joining the Confederacy. 

Roughly 60 years later, in 1925, the Chicago City Council — frustrated over a lack of redistricting — approved a resolution to explore the idea of separating from Illinois.

“There was disproportionate downstate representation by the 1920s, as they hadn’t changed the number of representatives for Chicago,” Owen said. “That wasn’t even resolved until about 1960. The problem was that both sides dug in their heels.” 

Another secession movement occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s when west-central Illinois residents felt neglected by state leadership. Residents in the region jokingly proposed forming their own state: “Forgottonia.” 

“A huge amount of stuff around Forgottonia was a publicity stunt, but the broad point is that counties in western Illinois felt that they weren’t getting the infrastructure spending that they needed,” Owen said.

Forgottonia encompassed 16 Illinois counties between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. The movement cited frustration over the lack of transportation initiatives and economic development in western Illinois after World War II.

In the following decade, State Senator Howard Carroll of Chicago sponsored Senate Joint Resolution No. 48, which urged Congress to admit Cook County as the 51st state. Downstate legislators’ refusal to help fund Chicago’s mass transit system prompted the proposal of the resolution.

Recent pushes for secession have taken the form of other legislative proposals, as was exemplified in 2011 when Illinois State Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-I.L.) introduced a joint house resolution urging Congress to make Cook County a separate state.

“This concept has been baked into Illinois politics for over 100 years,” Owen said. “If there were an easy solution, we probably would have found it by now.”

Secession in a national context

One example of secession is West Virginia, which attained its statehood in June 1863 after a longstanding intrastate conflict.

“It took a civil war and some constitutional arrangements and the fact that there was an active secession going on for the boundaries of Virginia to be written like that,” Owen said.

The intrastate disputes between the eastern and western regions of Virginia centered on 27 counties feeling underrepresented and overtaxed. However, the primary source of frustration came from Virginia’s decision to secede from the United States in 1861.

“Any (state) boundary adjustments that have taken place outside of West Virginia have been done in a carefully negotiated process with the agreement of all parties,” Owen said. 

Several states have emerged from larger territories, with Maine once being part of Massachusetts and Kentucky once being part of Virginia. 

“We’ve also talked about Idaho and upstate New York having had a number of these movements for a long period of time,” Owen said. “There are quite a few places where this idea has existed in some way, shape or form. So you don’t have to look too far to find states with that dynamic.”

Moving forward

Regarding Illinois, Owen explained that discussions of state-splitting will likely continue as they have historically.

“There isn’t an easy solution,” Owen said. “This is something that requires more dialogue, more willingness to work together, and unless the political environment changes, we’re going to see more publicity stunts like this come up.”

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