Residents in the Aurora area will vote on a number of referendum questions on election day Tuesday.
Kendall County voters will decide if they want a new 1 percent sales tax to benefit local school districts.
The Oswego-based School District 308 school board last summer approved placing the Kendall County-wide school facilities sales tax referendum question on the ballot. If approved, revenues from the sales tax will be divided up with public schools in the county based on enrollment.
The funds can be allocated toward outstanding health and life safety bonds and paying for facility projects, which would otherwise have been paid for with property taxes, District 308 Superintendent John Sparlin said.
The funds can also be used to abate property taxes, which the District 308 school board has decided to do.
Officials from the district’s financial consultants, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., a St. Louis-based investment banking firm, said the countywide school facilities tax is known as “The Walmart Tax” because anything consumers purchase from retailers and gasoline stations would include the additional tax.
Items exempted from the sales tax would be medicine and unprepared foods such as a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread.
Big ticket items, namely cars, trucks and motorcycles, as well as services, are exempt from the sales tax as well. Farm equipment is also exempt.
Residents in Batavia will vote on a referendum question on the future of the city’s status as a home-rule community.
The city was automatically granted home-rule status in 2009 when a special census showed the population exceeded 25,000. Although the city cannot use public resources to advocate for or against the referendum question, it has created a website to give voters information.
According to the Illinois Municipal League, a “municipality with home-rule status can exercise any power and perform any function unless it is specifically prohibited from doing so by state law.”
According to the state constitution, “a home-rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur debt.”
Those in favor of home rule say getting rid of it would impact the city’s finances. The potential loss of home-rule powers would mean an end to home-rule tax revenue of an estimated $3.3 million to $5.2 million annually, city officials said.
Those in favor of ending home-rule say that the status let’s the government ignore taxpayer input, especially when it comes to tax increases.
Also in Batavia, residents will vote on a question concerning a tax increase of seven cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation to be used for operations at the Batavia Public Library.
However, according to information from the library, if the measure passes residents would not see much of a change in the overall tax rate, because the library’s current rate for paying off construction bonds of a little more than seven cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation will be eliminated when the debt is retired in December.
In Blackberry Township, residents will be asked if they want to spend more money for road repairs.
The question asks voters to increase the Blackberry Township Road District tax by eight cents per 100 dollars of equalized assessed evaluation, which is about $80 a year on a house worth $300,000.
The money would be used for repair and maintenance of the township’s 60 miles of road.
In DuPage County, residents will vote on a non-binding referendum question that asks “Shall DuPage County continue to dissolve and consolidate units of local government to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and increase accountability?”
