By Mavis Bates
Kane County Board member, District 4
To the voters of Kane County:
Thank you for coming out in record numbers for the recent municipal elections.
The Kane County Public Service Sales Tax Referendum went down badly, 75% against and 25% for. As one of the leaders of this cause, I have to ask myself, and you, the voters, why this failed. The movement for the referendum was led by a small group of volunteers, including many members of the Kane County Board. After months of struggling with our budget, and looking at our reserves being eaten up to the tune of $29,000,000 for this year alone, we felt we had to find new sources of revenue. The Retailers Occupational Sales Tax was one alternative to raising property taxes. We felt that a sales tax would be more fair to our taxpayers. It did not include food, medicines, or vehicles—some of the most basic needs of our families. It would have been paid for partly by visitors to Kane County, such as those who come to shop at the Premium Outlet Mall, our biggest sales tax generator.
Kane County’s duties have expanded over the last few years, especially in the area of public safety and judicial. Employees’ salaries have gone up as we have tried to keep up with other surrounding counties, who sometimes pay almost twice as much as we do for attorneys, accountants, etc.. With a very lean budget over the last decade, there is little waste in Kane County. Those who would tell you otherwise may be politically motivated.
Maybe the referendum failed because people don’t understand the many services that we provide and how it will hurt all of us if they have to be cut. Some people seem to think of any taxation as a form of theft, but we all know that being part of a community and using the services of that community means sharing in the support of those services. The tax haters came out loud and strong. This referendum was not about stealing money from our taxpayers. It was about maintaining public safety and public service.
I think another reason for the failure of the Public Safety Sales Tax Referendum is the sense of an impending economic crisis in our country and the world. The uncertainty this has created forced many of the government believers in our county to vote “No”. Even the $100 to $200 per year price tag per family seemed overwhelming. When you are already struggling, even a small increase is too much.
We had no funds with which to do preliminary polling to find out if Kane County was ready to support this referendum. Well, now we know. Many programs and jobs will probably have to be cut in order to balance our budget for next year. These cuts may affect our quality of life. There are many hard decisions yet to be made.