The War of Cook County Aggression

It looks like Ole Miss fans aren't the only ones who support the rebels. Yesterday, the citizens of the Palatine township–upset over sales-tax increases and tired of feeling as if they're pulling more than their own weight in taxes–voted to secede from Cook County. But as the Chicago Tribune notes:

…Don't expect the county border to be redrawn any time soon. The referendum measures in the townships of Palatine, Barrington and Hanover were advisory, not binding.

It's not the first time these Illinois residents have gotten ornery:

In the 1970's, those three suburbs, along with Wheeling, Schaumburg, and Elk Grove Village considered breaking away to form Lincoln County. Former Palatine mayor and state senator Wendell Jones was long a proponent of the idea. And in 2004 a group of 55 south suburban municipalities tried to organize around secession as well, although they were motivated by economic development, an issue they felt Chicago politicians were ignoring. Neither proposal went far.

Palatine citizens are so upset with the way things are going that they have begun shopping in the next county, where the taxes are lower. And mayor Rita Mullins said it was silly that Palatine "sends $18 million to Cook County…and [gets] only $4 million back in services."

The residents, however, have plenty of walls to scale before they can properly secede. Mullins, the most public proponent of secession, was "soundly defeated "by former Chicago Bear Jim Schwantz yesterday, and a majority of the county would have to approve the secession, too.

The success of actual secession are slim. But perhaps the citizens of Palatine will immortalize the defeat in a wonderfully melancholic song, like, say, Levon Helm and the boys:

Contributor Hannah Metchis covered other Yankee groups that have pushed for secession. In 2006, contributor Robert Nelson welcomed the privatization of local government. And as Senior Editor Radley Balko shows, secession talk can often come across as spousal feuding.