According to early returns in South Elgin, voters were rejecting a tax increase for a municipal pool by a 3-1 ratio as voters across the northwest suburbs went to the polls on Tuesday.
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In hopes of giving residents a place to cool down in the summer, South Elgin asked voters for permission to issue $6 million in bonds to build the village’s first community swimming pool. To fund the project, owners of homes valued at $150,000, for example, would have to pay an additional $101 a year over 20 years.
In other communities, taxpayers were asked for financial help for everything from wooded land for a park to a summer festival.
Petitions from open-space supporters convinced the Barrington Park District to place a tax rate increase on the ballot. The proposal, if passed, would mean the tax bill on a home valued at $275,000 would increase by $80 a year. The increase is projected to generate $3.8 million over 20 years. Early returns showed voters supporting the measure.
“I’m very encouraged so far,” said Terri Jennings, director of the Barrington Park District.
The Park District intended from the start to use the funds to purchase the Jewel Tea property, a wooded Barrington parcel owned by Arlington Heights-based Northwest Community Healthcare.
The Arlington Heights Park District told voters it would retire some of its debt next year. But that would create a shortfall in district revenues, to be made up by a 0.15 percent tax rate increase that voters were asked to approve. Because taxpayers would pay less debt, they would not see an increase in their tax bills should the referendum measure pass. But a failure on the ballot meant the tax bill for a house valued at $200,000 would drop by $44.
In Des Plaines, voters were supporting an advisory referendum question by a roughly 2-1 ratio, with 87 percent of precincts reporting. It asked voters whether the city should negotiate revenue-sharing agreements with other communities to accept money from a casino outside the city.
The Des Plaines City Council had refused to accept expected casino revenues from Rosemont in exchange for supporting a riverboat casino in the village. Opponents in Des Plaines, who live just a couple of miles from the proposed casino site, feared increased traffic and crime.
But the city hoped voters would approve the referendum measure so that talks could get under way with Calumet City, which also is hoping to attract a casino. Des Plaines could see more than $300,000 a year from that casino, and those funds would be used to hire more Des Plaines police to handle any crime that might overflow from the casino in Rosemont.
In early returns Des Plaines voters were rejecting by a 3-1 ratio a measure to make the city clerk position an appointed post.
“I think the voters have sent a message that they want to control their government, and that’s the way it should be,” said Vince Powers, a Des Plaines resident who led efforts to defeat the proposal.
In its referendum question, Prospect Heights residents were voting by a 2-1 ratio against a sales tax rate increase of a half-cent for every dollar from transactions at city businesses. The $340,000 a year estimated to be generated from the tax increase would be used for road improvements and other infrastructure needs.
Businesses protested the proposed increase because it would add to the 7.75 percent sales tax already levied in Cook County.
The referendum question in Inverness didn’t ask for a tax increase. But village officials did ask for home-rule powers, which would put the village in a position to impose taxes in the future.
In its advisory referendum question, Carpentersville asked voters whether it should jump-start the Spirit of Carpentersville Days, a festival that proponents say had improved the community’s image since it was started in 1980.
Local sponsors pulled out of the event in 1998, after they lost thousands of dollars when rains kept the crowds at home. Since the referendum question was non-binding, the Village Board will make the final decision on the issue.