We urged outgoing Gov. Bruce Rauner in early December to grasp one last opportunity to advance the effort to right-size Illinois government.

But rather than signing a hard-fought bill that would give McHenry and Lake counties the power to eliminate some township governments, the maverick governor who claimed to be a champion of getting rid of unnecessary Illinois taxing bodies killed the bill outright.

That’s unfortunate since the key component in the bill would have given voters in McHenry County the power to determine how they are governed by creating a process that would have allowed voters to petition for a referendum to abolish a township. If at least 5 percent of that township’s residents signed  the petition, it would have been placed on the ballot and publicly debated, not only by politicians, but the people they are elected to serve. The township would be dissolved, and its duties assigned elsewhere, provided a majority of voters said yes to axing it.

Rauner not only rejected the bill for all the wrong reasons by issuing the amendatory veto gutting HB4367, he also displayed one last time the all-or-nothing, dictatorial approach to running the state that made him an unpopular and ineffective one-term governor.

“While I applaud the effort to create a clear process that aligns with the Illinois Constitution’s vision that townships may be dissolved if approved by referendum, this is a process that should be available with equal clarity across the state,” Rauner wrote in a veto that made it much harder for proponents of consolidation anywhere else in the state to make it happen.

And because he rejected the bill too late for the adjourning 100th General Assembly that passed it to overturn his veto, Rauner sent the hard-won reforms contained in HB4367 back to square one. In doing so, he also killed, at least temporarily, the development of an effective path other Illinois communities could use to get the power to decide how they wish to be governed.

In his amendatory veto, Rauner also rejected a common-sense provision that would immediately have saved township taxpayers money by mandating abolition of township road districts in Lake County that manage fewer than 15 miles of road. The Chicago Tribune, citing mileage statistics, said six of Lake County’s 18 township road districts — which include between 1.8 to 13 miles of roads — would qualify for an abolishment referendum under the legislation.

Surprisingly, Springfield observers say, HB4367 wasn’t supposed to make it to Rauner’s desk at all. The bill was supposed to be held for consideration by new Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Proponents hope that all this unfortunate mistake will cost the reform movement is time.

And here are hopeful signs that Rauner’s veto will only slow this key consolidation effort, not kill it. Indeed, within days of Rauner’s lame-duck veto, HB4367’s sponsor, state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, filed House Bill 344, which he said is virtually the same bill as the one that Rauner rejected. Sen. Terry Link, D-Vernon Hills, quickly signed on again as Senate sponsor.

Both men have said they are optimistic that the bill will be quickly passed — perhaps as early as April — and then sent to Pritzker, who they believe will sign it.

We urge lawmakers to approve the bill again without delay and get it to the new governor’s desk, so that Pritzker can do what Rauner should have done: Seize the opportunity to make a real dent in  the worst-in-the-nation glut of Illinois governments, while inspiring residents throughout Illinois to demand the power to do the same.