Norman Walzer is director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. Services currently privatized. Privatization exists on two levels in Illinois. Officials from larger cities are turning to privatization as a way to reduce costs while maintaining or improving the quality of services. In Illinois, privatization is fairly widespread, with almost every municipality reporting contracting at least one service and nearly every one of the 82 services listed on the survey was contracted in at least one municipality.
Many cities report contracting for a large number of services.
Some cities contract for nearly all services provided to the public. Crestwood has been able to rebate property taxes as a result of saving tax dollars through privatization. Statewide, 92.6 percent of respondents report contracting commercial solid waste collection and 87.7 percent have residential solid waste collected by private firms. The system had inefficiencies because companies with separate sets of similar equipment provided the same service. Some small towns have privatized all public works functions with a single source, private firm.