Northwest suburban voters gave small taxing bodies a vote of confidence this week, as they overwhelmingly approved tax-rate increases and bond issues.
In recent elections, nervous public officials in the suburbs whittled down their spending requests, worried that voters would continue to reject anything that could raise taxes.
Yet Tuesday, most area park districts, libraries and other small units of governments fared well.
“I am at a loss as to how we got the number of voters to show up. Was it was a strong showing because of (President) Clinton?” said Eric Burns, director of the Prospect Heights Park District, whose voters approved a tax-rate increase.
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Streamlined sales pitches, voter confidence in the economy and the possibility of getting extra state money for voter-approved school construction projects all played a part, said Joe Kaczanowski, deputy superintendent in the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education.
The sweetness of victory did not touch every town, though.
In a Rolling Meadows advisory referendum, voters rejected plans for a senior citizen housing project that would have cost about $4 million.
Mt. Prospect Park District voters narrowly rejected a 25-cent increase in the corporate tax rate, to 35 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation. The increase would have raised roughly $11 million over four years for land improvements.
Park officials said the pool, field and building projects still will get done with borrowed money, but could take a decade longer to finish and could cost more because of interest payments.
Park Board President Bill Walters said the vote was so close that the district may go to voters again in April, but convincing cash-strapped senior citizens of the need for higher taxes will continue to be difficult.
“We have a very mature community, many people on Social Security, and any increase in taxes they find unconscionable,” Walters said.
Bartlett Park District voters approved a $16 million bond sale that will pay for a new recreation center. In the Elk Grove Park District, voters supported a 15-cent increase in the corporate fund tax rate, to 25 cents per $100.
Voters in the Prospect Heights Park District supported a 25-cent increase in the corporate fund tax rate, to 35 cents per $100.
Only two school districts in the northwest suburbs put questions on the ballot, and both succeeded.
Voters in Mt. Prospect-based River Trails Elementary District 26 approved a 50-cent increase in the education fund rate, to $2.60 per $100, while their counterparts in Huntley Consolidated School District 158 agreed the district should sell $18 million in bonds to fund the construction of two new schools.
Voter support this election for school issues was unprecedented, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
State officials attributed the success to the state’s roughly $1.4 billion cash incentive program for growing, needy districts. Through it, the state can fund up to 75 percent of a project’s costs if local voters approve a bond sale.
In other initiatives, Des Plaines voters overwhelmingly supported a binding referendum limiting elected officials to two 4-year terms. The new law applies to the eight-member City Council, the city clerk and the mayor.
Long-time council critic Jack Flynn called the strong vote “retribution” for several controversial actions by the board in the past year, including raising the local sales tax a quarter-cent to pay for a new, $13.5 million downtown library.
In Kane County, Dundee Township Park District voters rejected a 25-cent increase in the corporate fund tax rate, to 35 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Gilberts voters rejected village participation in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which would have raised taxes.
In two Sleepy Hollow advisory referendums, voters rejected an increase of up to 5 percent in the village levy as well as the creation of a police pension fund.
On the other hand, voters in the East Dundee and Countryside Fire Protection District, and the South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District, both approved identical 10-cent hikes in their corporate tax rates, to 40 cents per $100.