(The Center Square) – In addition to the presidential race and other state and federal offices, Illinois voters on Election Day will be deciding a number of local issues around the state as well.
Champaign County voters are being asked to consider an increase to a sales tax to fund public safety. The question on the ballot asks if the tax should be raised a quarter cent for every $100 spent in the county.
The Effingham County Board passed a resolution in January saying they would not use local tax dollars to support illegal immigrants, and now local voters will weigh in on the non-binding question.
Voters in several downstate counties are being asked if they should separate from Cook County, including Madison County in Metro East, which is home to over a quarter of a million people.
“Madison County is just as important to our state as Chicago is,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker when asked about the issue in May. “It’s too easy to let partisanship and regional divide us.”
Voters in Calhoun, Clinton, Greene, Jersey and Perry counties, all within about an hour’s drive of St. Louis, will also vote on the referendums. The question is also on the ballot in Iroquois County, located near the Indiana border.
Voters will see the following question on the ballot:
“Shall the County Board … correspond with the boards of other counties of Illinois outside of Cook County about the possibility of separating from Cook County to form a new state, and to seek admission to the Union as such, subject to the approval of the people?”
“It’s non-binding, and it’s not that we’re voting to secede from the state of Illinois, but we’re voting on whether we should investigate it further,” said Eric Ives, a member of the Jersey County Board.
Constitutionally, any deal to make downstate Illinois into its own state would require approval from the Illinois General Assembly.
Some county voters are being asked if the auditor’s office should be eliminated. An auditor acts like a fiscal watchdog, ensuring funds aren‘t misused or spent improperly.
In McLean County, a coalition of nonprofits are urging a “yes” vote on the referendum, saying it would save the county nearly $100,000 a year.
