10/21/2022
Carbondale business leaders are urging voters to retain the city’s home rule status in the Nov. 8 election.
As a home rule community, Carbondale has the power to “regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; to license; to tax; and to incur debt,” according to the Illinois Constitution. In essence, the city can enact any code, restriction or revenue source not specifically prohibited by state law. Without home rule, it will lose those abilities.
Many say if the community loses home rule status, a number of programs already in place – rental inspections, for example – will stop as will a number of revenue sources such as increased sales taxes and license fees, too.
“We don’t necessarily like all of the taxes, but there is too much at stake to lose home rule,” explained Carbondale Chamber of Commerce President Steve Quinn, who said the organization’s board Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution to give full support to retaining home rule.
Quinn said the chamber was distributing information about the ballot question to members at meetings, but “it was time to do more than just pass along information.”
Others in the business community also are encouraging residents to vote “no” on the resolution, thereby hoping to retain home rule. One reason is the economic benefits of home rule.
“Carbondale specifically needs home rule,” said Justin Zurlinden, a Carbondale resident and broker at Keller Williams Realty Pinnacle. “We are set up with so many people traveling to Carbondale for school, for work or for shopping, those people, because of the way the sales taxes are set, share the burden of maintaining the public parts of Carbondale which they also use. If Carbondale were to lose home rule, we would lose some of those sales taxes and I expect that cost would get directly pushed to property taxes because the city still needs that money to function.”
Zurlinden added, “There is something to be said about looking for ways to cut the city budget and operate lean, but the city portion of property tax is very low. I pay more in property taxes to the park district, to schools and to the county than I do to the city itself. If we lose home rule, the money to care for our roads and facilities in Carbondale would have to come only from those who live in the city.”
He added that a lack of home rule would likely end the city’s regular inspection of rental properties, leading to more unsightly and more rundown housing.
Like Zurlinden, longtime Carbondale retailer George Sheffer is outspoken in his desire to keep home rule.
“I’ve studied the numbers and if Carbondale loses home rule there will be a deficit of at least $6 million. There’s just no way the city can cut enough to absorb that, so they’ll have to figure out how to get revenue, and the biggest area they’ll have to look at is real estate taxes,” he said.
He said he believes that if real estate taxes increase, it will be unlikely that new homes will be built in the community and that those trying to sell their homes in Carbondale will face a challenge.
A lack of home rule would require state approval for new programs and even changes to existing codes, even those as simple as reducing a speed limit, Sheffer explained.
“I’ve been to Springfield to try to get things accomplished, that’s very challenging. You have a much better chance of doing things locally such as with the city council,” he said.
Zurlinden said he does not agree with efforts from the statewide Illinois Realtors group to encourage voters to remove home rule from Carbondale. He said he does not know of a single realtor in the community who supports the organization’s campaign. In fact, he said the effort is a sort of small scale example of what could happen without home rule.
“This is exactly what it would be like without home rule,” he said. “A decision (to campaign for home rule repeal) was made in Springfield without considering all of the information about the nuances of our community and it is a decision that is going to hurt us. If we lose home rule, a lot of the decision making goes to Springfield and we won’t have a say in things.”
Carbondale business leaders are urging voters to retain the city’s home rule status, saying rejection of home rule will lead to property tax increases.
