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Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill last week that takes county boards out of the process for setting up school sales taxes.
School districts representing a majority of students in a county may put a referendum before the voters asking to establish a sales tax for building construction or renovation. However, under the old law the referendums were put on the ballot by county boards, who had the power to block a sales tax increase resulting from the referendum even though it was approved by a majority of voters in the county.
The new law strips the veto power of county boards and gives final say to voters.
This change in the law could be significant for Saline County – the Harrisburg School Board spearheaded an effort recently to put the question on the ballot in the March primary. Resolutions still need to be signed and paper work still needs to be done, but county voters will almost certainly consider the measure in March 2012.
But now they can consider the referendum without the possibility of a county board undoing the will of the voters. Having covered county boards for a while, I am inclined to think the current board would have followed the will of the voters and not stood in the way of a sales tax. But on a strictly philosophical level, I am not sure why county boards had veto power over the public referendum in the first place.
Eric Fodor covered local politics and the court system since 2001 for the Daily Register/Daily Journal -- until he recently became an employee of Saline County. Before that, he dipped his toe in the water in Carrier Mills village politics, first as a village board member, then as mayor from 1996-1998. He then came to his senses and went back to college before joining the newspaper. While no longer an employee of the newspaper, he has indicated he intends to continue blogging from time-to-time.
