Parts Of IL Could Join Indiana Under New Law: Here's How It Could Happen

ILLINOIS — A law that could see 33 Illinois counties interested in leaving the state and be absorbed by Indiana takes effect Tuesday.

The Indiana law, signed May 1 by Republican Gov. Mike Braun, establishes a commission to evaluate redrawing the line delineating the two states, with a Sept. 1 deadline for Braun to schedule the commission's initial meeting.

Since 2020, voters in 33 Illinois counties have approved ballot measures asking if they want to consider separating from Cook County to form a new state.

Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, who wrote the law establishing the commission, in an April news release touted the Hoosier State’s “lower taxes and more opportunity.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, responded to the possible state line change by calling Indiana “a low-wage state that doesn't protect workers, a state that does not provide health care for people when they're in need,” according to a video posted on social media in January by Heartland Signal.

A change in state boundaries would need approval from Illinois and the U.S. Congress. A bill in Illinois directing Pritzker to appoint five members to the boundary adjustment commission is sponsored by state Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, but the proposal has seen no forward movement since it was referred to the Rules Committee in late January.

Pritzker in the Heartland Signal video described the idea of a boundary change as “a stunt” that is “not going to happen.”

Organizers behind the effort for some counties to leave Illinois seem to agree their plans don’t involve joining Indiana, with The State Journal-Register reporting in April that G.H. Merritt of the nonprofit New Illinois and Loret Newlin of the Illinois Separation Movement both said the undertaking was about forming a new state.