The Feb. 2 SV Weekend editorial on townships [“Horse-and-buggy government needs greater public scrutiny”] misses the point completely. It is consistent with the increasingly discredited “bigger is better” theory that seeks to abolish smaller local governments and consolidate their functions with larger governments. The data indicates the opposite.

Wendell Cox of Demographia reviewed the financial performance of all city, town and township governments from the files of the state comptroller for the Township Officials of Illinois.

Overall, the data indicated that larger municipal governments spend much more per capita than smaller municipal governments. It also shows that smaller governments borrow less per capita than larger governments. The data also shows that many smaller governments avoid borrowing altogether, saving their taxpayers financing charges.