Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The organization which represents Illinois’ nearly 1,300 villages, cities, and towns is out with its State Capitol wish list for the spring.

Illinois Municipal League president Sheila Chalmers Currin (pictured, left), the village president of Matteson, is upset about the governor’s proposed 0.19 percent cut in the state’s payment into the Local Government Distributive Fund. That’s the share of state income tax proceeds shared with municipalities.

“While that percentage change may sound small, the impact is not,” said Chalmers-Currin at a news conference announcing the IML’s Moving Cities Forward agenda. “Based on income tax forecast growth, this reduction represents approximately $67.5 million less for local governments across Illinois in the coming fiscal year.”

The LGDF is now 6.47 percent but used to be ten percent.

And while it may help to serve in local government before becoming a state lawmaker, IML chief executive officer Brad Cole (pictured, right) looks at it another way.

“Every member of the General Assembly lives somewhere,” he said. “They live in a community, whether it’s urban or rural. They live in a home or an apartment, or a condominium — some thing. And they understand what the character of their neighborhood is. And they understand that if I live in an historic district and I live in a home that was built 150 years ago, what forcibly adding an accessory dwelling unit to that lot would mean to the character of their community.”