I'm not sure there is such a thing as unincorporated territory in Cook County. But consider that each skyscraper downtown is paying millions of dollars a year

I'm not sure there is such a thing as unincorporated territory in Cook County. But consider that each skyscraper downtown is paying millions of dollars a year in taxes. There are a lot of large industrial sites in the city - for example, the factory that makes the Ford Explorer and the supplier park surrounding it - is inside the city of Chicago. It's a huge tax base; not to say that the city is better run than the suburbs or anything. Consider also that there is only 1 fire chief (and his salary and pension) for 2.7 million people, etc. The suburbs aren't sharing their administration staff with other suburbs ;)