Prairie State Wire

G.H. Merritt had been contemplating selling her property and leaving the state due to rising taxes and a lack of economic opportunities. However, when her father died, she decided to stay put.

“I don't want to be forced out of where I want to live and I don't want to be forced to sell something that's very meaningful to me,” she said. “I've lived in Lake County most of my life.”

Instead of relocating to another state, Merritt co-founded New Illinois State 2 1/2 years ago. The group is made up of state residents who are taking steady actions toward the formation of a new state of Illinois with its own separate government for 7.5 million current state citizens and does not include Chicago. 

“We already this fall had a formal public declaration of independence from the State of Illinois, which doesn’t mean we became a new state the next day,” Merritt told Prairie State Wire. “It’s just a step in the process, and now we're in the phase of publicizing regularly grievances against the State of Illinois. We’ll be putting them up on social media and YouTube. Sometime this year, we will start having sessions of a constitutional convention.”

WGN Radio reported that 23 of more than 60 counties that make up the existing state have organized to the point of ratifying the state charter of New Illinois State. However, there is the obstacle of needing final approval from the state legislature.

"There are two legislative steps,” Merritt said. “One is to get the consent of the Illinois General Assembly and the other would be to get the consent of Congress just like any other area of territory trying to become a state. Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) is going to be submitting a resolution to the Illinois House. What we are doing concurrently is lobbying different members of the General Assembly to co-sponsor it.”

New Illinois would be different from old Illinois, Merritt said, in that it is likely to have term limits so that a politician like former House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) would never control the Illinois House for decades.

“We will be writing a new constitution for a new state that includes safeguards to prevent the kind of systemic corruption that has always plagued the state of Illinois,” she said. “It's corrupt and it doesn't provide what our Constitution mandates, which is a smaller form of Republican government run by the people and for the people. That’s how we envision New Illinois as being different, but we wish Chicago well.”

The city of Chicago, which is within Cook County, is part of the reason that supporters want to form New Illinois. Cook County consists of 40% of the state’s population compared to the remaining 60% in rural counties.

“We're not trying to kick Chicago out of Illinois to make them a separate state,” she said. “What we're trying to do is follow Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution in creating a new state separate from the state of Illinois. We're trying to kick ourselves out of Illinois.”