Home Rule English

Home Rule: In 1970 The Illinois General Assembly passed their updated constitution and it included

home rule authority for municipalities over 25,000 in population. They did this because they knew they

could not legislate broadly for all municipalities because some municipalities are urban, other rural,

some have a population of 30,000 and others have a population of 2.7M.

We are the largest City in Illinois without Home Rule. We believe the status quo of highest property

taxes, highest violent crime per capita and being known as a miserable community is not where we

should be, could be or deserve to be. Home rule is a tool we can use to improve our great City.

Simply put: A non-home rule municipality can only do those things the Illinois Legislature allows them to

do. A home rule municipality can do nearly anything it wants except for those things the Illinois general

assembly states they cannot do. Therefore home rule communities have far great local co troll to adapt

to their challenges and opportunities.

What we want to do with Home Rule Authority:

1. Decrease our reliance on property taxes – since we lost HR our City property taxes have went up

79%.

2. We want to stop depending on Springfield. We need to ask their permission to do nearly

everything and they are the most dysfunctional body in the country. They took two years to

pass a budget – when they passed their budget they increased our income tax and cut the

amount of funding they provide to municipalities. The night they passed their budget they

added nearly $3M to our deficit.

3. We want to put in place a local preference ordinance which would give Rockford area businesses

the opportunity to meet or beat bids coming in from outside the area. This year alone we have

given nearly $5M in contracts to out of state vendors. We want our tax dollars to stay local as

much as possible.

4. Gaming – State mandates the most we can charge for an annual license fee for gaming

machines in $25 per machine. Our comparable charge $250-$500 per machine.

5. Lift Assist – We currently cannot charge corporations who own private senior citizen homes

when we send our Fire Dept. Out to lift assist (pick up and stabilize seniors who have fallen).

6. We do not need to get rich, but I do want to charge them, because since we can’t that charge is

placed on all of us property owners.

7. Hotel Motel Tax – We can generate about $4.5M if I increase this tax by 1%. This still keeps us in

the middle of the pack when we look at comparable… some hotels charge 19% in Peoria… this

would have us charging 15%.

8. Land Bank – We want to create a land bank which we only can if we have home rule. Land banks

allow us to get these vacant foreclosure and abandoned properties in the hands of home

owners and investors… right now these properties drag our property values down and are

havens for criminal activity and homeless.

Guard Rails/Self Limiting Ordinances: We have agree to imposes the most strict self-limiting

ordinances of any home rule City in the State.

1. Cap Property taxes – We agree not to increase property taxes higher than what non home rule

communities can do.

2. Property and Sales Tax increases – we agree we will hold a public hearing, have an automatic

layover at Council, publicize and require a super majority any time a property or sales tax

increase is being contemplated.

3. We agree to have our self-imposed debt limit to be 20% more restrictive than the States policy

for non-home rule communities.

4. We agree any citizen can have the right to recall me as Mayor.