Chamber hosts forum for school funding

[March 02, 2011]  The Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce's legislative affairs committee will host a forum to provide community members more information about a question on the upcoming ballot in April. This free event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Washington-Monroe School, 1002 Pekin St.

The question on the April ballot will read:

Shall the County of Logan, Illinois be authorized to impose a retailers' occupation tax and a service occupation tax (commonly referred to as a sales tax) at the rate of 1% to be used exclusively for school facility purposes?

The purpose of the forum is to provide an opportunity for the Logan County Education Cooperation Committee, the group proposing this new school funding option, to inform the community about the details of the proposed sales tax increase for Logan County and how this will affect our schools and students. In addition the chamber is seeking feedback from attendees.

At this time the chamber of commerce is remaining impartial on this issue and is hosting the forum as an educational opportunity for the community to become more informed on a voting issue.

The chamber has selected attorney Jim Grimaldi to moderate the event, and the questions will be selected by members of the chamber's legislative affairs committee to provide objective opportunities for the panel to answer questions of importance to the average citizen and the business community.

On the committee are Andi Hake of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce; Deron Powell, State Farm agent; Jean Anderson, superintendent with the Regional Office of Education; Cody Atkins, Walmart; Greg Basford, Heritage Packaging; Jim Drew, Logan County Farm Bureau; Patrick Doolin, Integrity Data; Gene Frioli, MHCCI's Lincoln Mental Health; Jim Grimaldi, Grimaldi Law; and David Kirby, Illini Bank.

The chamber will accept questions from community members until 6:30 Thursday evening. Questions will be asked as time allows.

This will be a great opportunity for the public to interact and get questions answered from the panel. For more information, contact the chamber of commerce at 217-735-2385 or [e-mail].

The Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit agency that provides advocacy for business by providing leadership, programs and services that create, protect and enhance the business environment for the benefit of chamber members and Lincoln and Logan County.

[Text from file received from the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce]