Indiana Considers Boundary Shift and Agricultural Impact as Illinois Counties Push for Secession

Since learning that almost one third of Illinois counties are in favor of exploring seceding from their home state, the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives wants to give citizens in those counties another state to call home. If his “Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment” bill, which will soon face a committee hearing and then a House vote, ultimately becomes law, there could be major implications for both Indiana and Illinois farmers and the agriculture industry at large.

Representative and House Speaker Todd Huston is the author of Indiana House Bill 1008 (HB1008), which would establish the so-called “Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission.” According to the bill itself, the purpose of the commission would be “to discuss and recommend whether it is advisable to adjust the boundaries between the two states.”

The idea for the bill came after seven Illinois counties approved non-binding referendums in November 2024 to explore secession from Illinois. Only after those elections did Huston realize that, including those seven, a total of 33 Illinois counties had passed similar referendums since 2020.

“We just thought, look, obviously there’s an interest on the other side by a lot of [Illinois] people,” said Huston. “We just wanted to raise our hand and say, ‘We might be interested too.’”

Huston said the feedback for HB1008 has been really good, with “a lot of people interested in it, a lot of people not aware of it.” 

“When we initially introduced the bill, I think people wondered what this is about, and then they’re kind of stunned to learn that 33, or almost a third of the counties over there, have gone this path,” Huston said. 

“It’s allowed us to tell the story about all the good things going on in Indiana,” he added.

Impact on Agriculture

According to the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, these 33 counties make up:

• Nearly 23,000 farms;
• 7.7 million acres of farmland; 
• Over 27% of agriculture sales in Illinois.

Huston considers agriculture a major piece in this movement. “Look, one of the things that we think is unique about this is, obviously, Indiana’s a strong agricultural state. We are a proud agricultural state, and most of these counties that have expressed their interest in seceding from Illinois are agricultural counties,” said Huston.

“I think [Indiana has] really done a lot to make sure we’re one of the top tax climates in the country. We’ve made sure that we’ve supported our agricultural community. We think there’ll be a very nice symbiotic relationship between the type of economy in these counties and what Indiana offers,” he said.

Representative Brad Halbrook, the sponsor of a complementary bill in the Illinois House of Representatives, believes Illinois farmers are already doing a lot of business in Indiana for logistical reasons. “It just may be easier for them,” said Halbrook. “I can’t speak specifically to every instance, but I would assume that’s the case,” he added. 

Although Halbrook shares Huston’s opinion that Illinois counties that become members of Indiana would fare better because of Indiana’s climate, he admitted there would be a lot to work out. 

33 Counties … And Counting?

The county-by-county secession movement has a name: the Illinois Separation Referendum. The group spearheading this movement of counties seeking to leave Illinois has a Facebook page that boasts more than 3,000 followers. 

In a recent post, the group describes itself as “a movement to correct the imbalance of representation in our state government, an imbalance that keeps resulting in laws detrimental to Downstate. We are supposed to be a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ However, the balance of representation is heavily Chicago/Cook County and focused on them.”

The social media page offers exact referendum wording and other advice for Illinois residents to get the referendum on their county ballots.

Loret Newlin is the current director/coordinator of the Illinois Separation Referendum movement. Newlin, who lives in Jasper County, in the southern half of the state, said the next opportunity for another Illinois county to vote on a referendum is November 2026, but she’s learned from experience not to make predictions about which counties will successfully get the referendum on the ballot.

Regardless of how Indiana’s HB1008 plays out, Newlin said her group will continue the work it has been doing for years. “The Illinois Separation Movement will keep putting the Illinois Separation Referendum with the same wording on the ballots as we have been. There is no guarantee that [HB1008] will pass, and more counties may want to join us in creating a completely new state.”

Limited Window of Opportunity

According to Huston, there will be a committee hearing for HB1008 in the next two weeks. “Then we go to the House floor,” said Huston. A House vote will need to happen soon. “The calendar requires us to have all bills pass out of the House by Feb. 20,” said Huston. He believes it will reach that point. 

“If it passes out of the House, then it would go to the Senate. The Senate would go through the same process, and then it would go to the governor to sign,” said Huston. 

Companion Illinois Bill in the Works

In Illinois, a complementary bill that has been introduced – Illinois House Bill 1500 (HB1500) – if passed, effectively “creates the Illinois-Indiana Boundary Adjustment Commission Participation Act.”

Indiana HB1008 won’t do any good without Illinois HB1500, according to Huston. “It’s a process in which both states would need to agree,” he said.

According to the Illinois bill text, HB1500 “provides that, if and only if House Bill 1008 of the 124th Indiana General Assembly becomes law, then, no more than 60 days after receiving a specified notice from the governor of Indiana, the governor shall appoint 5 members to the Illinois-Indiana Boundary Adjustment Commission.” 

“Both states would have to pass bills that create a commission,” said Halbrook. “The commission would then be appointed to work through what the process is … basically to change the borders of two states. So, that commission would do that work. They would come back and make a recommendation to the state’s legislative bodies. The legislative bodies would then have to pass the bill around those recommendations, and then the United States Congress would need to agree to it, too.”

Representative Halbrook is the House sponsor of HB1500.

“I’m not sure if it’s going to move, and, if it does, how far it would get,” said Halbrook about the bill. Right now, HB1500 is with the Rules Committee, which will decide if it will be assigned to a substantive committee for a hearing, said Halbrook.

Halbrook’s home county of Shelby, which is in the southern half of the state, approved the non-binding separation referendum in 2020.