Indiana lawmakers advance plan to take counties from Illinois
INDIANA (WTHR and WFIE) - A plan to have several Illinois counties join Indiana has advanced to the Indiana Senate.
House Bill 1008 passed out of the House on Thursday.
It now heads to the Indiana Senate, where it has been sponsored by Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-District 20).
The bill would create a commission of people from Illinois and Indiana to discuss the possibility of Indiana annexing counties from Illinois.
At least 33 Illinois counties have held “advisory referenda,” where voters chose their desire to not be in the same state as Chicago.
But the process of getting those counties into Indiana goes through both state houses and, likely, Washington, D.C.
(NOTE: Counties marked in purple have voted to leave the state of Illinois in a variety of “advisory referenda.” Seven of them made that vote in 2024.)
Huston’s proposal for Illinois counties to join Indiana was a surprise to the organizers pushing for secession across the border.
“I think it’s awesome that he’s taking this seriously,” G.H. Merritt said. She is the chairman of the board of New Illinois, a grassroots group in Illinois pushing for counties to leave the state.
“But there are things about this that it didn’t seem he was aware of,” Merritt said, in a phone call with our NBC sister station, WTHR.
Merritt said that under the U.S. Constitution, you need the approval of a state legislature and Congress for counties to leave a state, and for states to redraw their borders, “you’d need the consent of both legislatures and Congress."
That would be tough. Illinois state Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-District 107) has introduced a bill that would cover the Illinois side of a possible commission.
However, while Republicans hold a supermajority in Indiana, Democrats hold a supermajority in Illinois.
Leaders in the Illinois Democratic Party have expressed no interest in allowing counties to leave the state.
In a statement, Huston acknowledged that the plan would need to pass through both legislatures and Congress to move forward.
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