With the municipal elections arriving in the Chicago area, several communities are facing “home rule” questions on their ballots, prompting both support and opposition among various groups.
Within the NBC 5 viewing area, at least four communities are faced with home rule questions in the April 4 election, including the village of Lyons in suburban Cook County. Lakemoor, located in Lake and McHenry counties, is also voting on home rule status, as are Wauconda and Bull Valley.
According to the Illinois Municipal League, there are currently 221 home rule communities in the state.
So what exactly is “home rule”? According to the state constitution, a home rule unit of government 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.”
Such units are also allowed to levy specific types of taxes, and can create licensing laws, and perhaps most importantly of all, are allowed to incur debt, which must be paid off in specific ways.
Any community that has over 25,000 residents in the state is automatically declared a home rule unit under the terms of the state’s constitution, but any community under that threshold can still opt to adopt that form of government via a referendum.
Most communities that seek to obtain home rule status do so in order to levy taxes or to issue bonds, according to proponents. Under the Illinois Constitution, non-home-rule communities can apply sales taxes in 0.25% increments, but are limited to a 1% sales tax on top of that assessed by the state or the county.
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Home rule communities are also limited to increasing sales taxes by 0.25%, but are not capped at the additional 1% above the state and county rate, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
In addition to being able to levy and collect taxes, home rule units can also incur debt, which can be used for public works projects and other budget items.
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According to the IML, debt can only be incurred by home rule units if it is payable by property tax or sales tax receipts, meaning that communities cannot incur unlimited debt.
While home rule status is automatically conveyed to communities that exceed 25,000 residents, or that specifically vote to utilize it, it can also be removed if a community dips below the population threshold. In those cases, communities are given the choice on whether to retain home rule status, with suburban Kankakee voting to keep home rule status during the 2022 midterm elections.
Proponents of home rule say allowing local governments more freedom to levy taxes and to craft laws specifically for their communities can be a positive, while opponents criticize the move, saying it enables local governments to impose unlimited tax increases and to incur debt.
Under the terms of the state’s constitution, any community that adopts home rule via referendum can also eliminate it via the same process, should they choose to do so.
