A proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution that would force the state to pay for more than half of the cost of public schools was headed for defeat late Tuesday in a close race.
With 72 percent of the votes counted, the so-called education amendment, which opponents had warned would force a large increase in the state income tax, was supported by 58 percent of voters, just shy of the 60 percent required for ratification.
The fate of local referendums on the ballot also was decided Tuesday.
Voters in Evanston, once a stronghold for temperance crusaders and a dry town for decades, supported an advisory referendum to expand the sale of packaged beer and wine.
Elsewhere in the north suburbs, doubts about the accountability of some elected officials, and residents` desire for a greater say in decision-making, prompted referendum questions Tuesday. In Wilmette, for example, voters told the Park District Board that it should seek their approval via a referendum each time the board plans to proceed with a major bond issue.
Locally, south suburban residents voted their pocketbook and rejected a flock of tax-rate increases asked for by school districts in both Cook and Will Counties.
The statewide referendum on the school funding amendment generated considerable debate about taxes, with opponents saying the state would be forced to raise the income tax if it passed.
The proposed education amendment was receiving the support of 73 percent of voters in Chicago, where perennially cash-strapped schools stand to benefit most from an infusion of state funds. Also, nearly 60 percent of Downstate voters were supporting the measure.
But more than half of voters in Chicago`s suburbs, where schools are generally better off at the price of high local property taxes, were standing between the amendment and its ratification
level.
In the collar counties, 56 percent of voters opposed the amendment. In Cook County suburbs, 52 percent of ballots were marked ”no.”
Another amendment adding a list of crime victims` rights to the state Constitution was sailing toward ratification, with 78 percent support. Despite its popularity, the amendment would do little more than laws already on the books guaranteeing victims` rights.
Also, an advisory referendum calling on the state to stop requiring local governments to adopt programs without providing any money to accomplish the tasks was attracting about 80 percent of the vote.
Despite vote totals showing the education amendment just shy of the ratification level, amendment supporters refused to concede defeat.
”I`m not going to concede anything; it`s very close. We knew it would be close all along,” said Christine LaPaille, spokeswoman for a coalition of school-district officials, teachers` unions and other supporters.
Similarly, amendment opponents stopped short of proclaiming victory.
”Man, it`s awfully close,” said Thom Serafin, spokesman for the opponents` coalition.
Besides the 60 percent ratification level, the proposed amendment also could be added to the Constitution if ”yes” votes amounted to more than half of all people who took ballots Tuesday. But the amendment was garnering well less than half of the total ballots cast.
Opponents of the education amendment, including several large business groups, had warned that the General Assembly and Gov. Jim Edgar would have to raise the state income tax by as much as 55 percent to generate the $3 billion extra that the General Assembly`s research unit said the state would have to provide for public schools if the amendment passed.
Opponents also had warned that the amendment carried no promise of a corresponding decrease in property taxes, which currently provide most of the funding for Illinois school districts.
But amendment supporters had pointed to the steady decline in state funding for education, from a high of 48 percent in 1975 to the current low of 33 percent.
The groups said an amendment requiring the state to bear the
”preponderant financial responsibility” for school funding was the only way to force a legislature and a governor fearful of voter backlash over tax increases to provide more money for schools.
In Evanston, with 92 percent of the ballots counted, voters supported 60.2 percent to 39.8 percent the idea of selling beer and wine in grocery stores.
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Packaged liquor sales are currently restricted to two stores in the central business district, and opponents of the advisory referendum proposal said it was the wrong time to ease the availability of alcohol. They cited crime, gangs and the lethal mixture of liquor and teenage drivers.
Evanston voters were also polled about whether the city should adopt a primary system when electing a mayor. The vote was 54.8 percent in favor and 45.2 percent against with 92 percent of the vote counted.
Questions about trust in elected officials, an issue that President Bush tried to use against Gov. Bill Clinton, also echoed in referendums across the north suburbs.
In Wilmette, voters said the Park District should be required to consult taxpayers each time it planned to issue bonds.
The issue came up when the Park District presented plans to spend $2.4 million to redevelop a community playing field. The redevelopment was controversial from the start, and a group called Wilmette Friends of the Park proposed voter oversight through the scheduling of referendums for all major bond issues.
With all the ballots counted Tuesday night, 83.4 percent of Wilmette voters supported citizen oversight, with 16.6 percent voting against the advisory referendum proposal.
Friends of the Park leader Carol Bobrow said approval of Tuesday`s proposal would give residents a bigger voice in deciding what projects the district pursues as well as direct input on financial matters.
In Niles, voters said the village should dissolve the Park District and take over its duties. The tally was 64.6 percent in favor of shutting down the Park District and 35.4 percent opposed, with all the ballots counted.
A group called Citizens for a Better Niles said a village-run recreation department would do a better job.
Opponents of the move said the five-member Park Board is more responsive to park needs and that putting parks under the control of the village would mean that parks would take a backseat to more pressing concerns such as police, fire and garbage collection.
In Lyons, the question wasn`t whether to get rid of the Park District. A group of petitioners just wanted to toss out the name of the city`s largest park and replace it with something that doesn`t carry some of the baggage of the past.
The William G. Smith Park was named several years ago after the village`s controversial president of 28 years. Smith, who died after the park was named for him, was known for turning a blind eye to the illegal gambling, adult nightclubs and the narcotics trade for which Lyons was once famous.
Voters decided 58.7 percent to 41.3 percent Tuesday night to re tain the park in Smith`s name.
Although Joliet residents were warned by school officials that one of the two high schools in the city-either the West or Central campus-could be shuttered if a boost in the tax rate were not approved, two proposals to increase the tax rate were rejected by nearly a 3-1 ratio.
Meanwhile, voters in five south suburban Cook County school districts also voted against tax-rate boosts, although voters approved a bond issue that may keep a one-school district in Chicago Heights in business.
According to unofficial returns, voters in the small Sandridge School District 172 turned down a 60-cent tax increase by 85 votes, but approved a plan to sell $300,000 in bonds by 73 votes.
The split may have averted the closing of the school, which was being threatened by school officials if both proposals failed.
Unofficial returns in Lincoln School District 156 in Calumet City showed that an attempt to get a tax-rate increase of $1.50 lost by a 3-2 ratio.
It was the third time in four years that the one-school district has failed to get a tax-rate increase passed.
According to School Supt. George Obradovich, the task of winning approval was made more difficult because ”about 93 percent of the voters don`t have kids in the school.”
This time, the district was asking for an increase of $1.50 from $1.47 per $100 of assessed valuation to $2.97. In 1990, a similar proposal lost by a 3-1 ratio, and in 1992 it went down by a 2-1 ratio.
School officials in Burbank School District 111 waged an aggressive campaign trying to boost the education tax rate 75 cents, but with all but two of the district`s 35 precincts counted, it was losing by a 2-1 ratio.
Worth Elementary District 127 wanted to pass a 50-cent increase, but in final unofficial returns, the measure lost 2,421-1,772.
Prairie Hills Elementary District 144, with schools in Hazel Crest, Oak Forest, Markham and Country Club Hills, appeared to have downed a 95-cent boost in its tax rate by nearly a 2-1 ratio.
Meanwhile, voters in Joliet overwhelmingly rejected a 10-cent rate in the building fund and a 37-cent boost in the education tax rate from the current 98 cents.
Similar referendums previously have been turned down six times. The last was earlier this year and forced school officials to slash $3.5 million from their budget, eliminating more than 50 teaching positions and cutting a number of programs.
Another defeat will force another $1.5 million budget cut, and, according to Assistant Supt. Charles Baird, ”closing (one of the schools) will be all that`s left to do.” But Baird said a citizens committee recommended that such a move be delayed at least one year.
Incomplete returns in nearby New Lenox showed Lincoln-Way High School District 210 voters approving a $27 million bond issue to double the size of its East campus to accommodate a booming enrollment by about 500 votes out of about 11,000 votes cast.