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Local elections feature mayoral races around the state,
including in Aurora, Arlington Heights and the village of
Dolton, where embattled mayor Tiffany Henyard was ousted.
In Manteno, mayoral candidates took sides on whether they
support the Chinese-owned Gotion battery plant and how local
officials handled the project.
Dylan Sharkey, assistant editor at Illinois Policy Institute,
said over a half million residents will have the opportunity to
chime in on advisory questions that indirectly could affect
property taxes.
“One of the questions is regarding the pension crisis, another
involves gerrymandering of political maps, and then the third
one deals with unfunded mandates to local governments, and so
thousands of voters are going to see at least one of those
questions on their ballots,” said Sharkey.
Sharkey said while the results will not change state law, they
will send a message to state leaders to reform the policies that
impact taxpayers the most.
“These are advisory questions so they won’t directly change any
laws but what it will do is send a signal to state lawmakers
about how voters feel,” said Sharkey.
There are also sales tax questions in several communities. There
is controversy involving McLean County’s tax question, which
asks voters if they wish to add a 1% sales tax to most retail
purchases, including gasoline. The money would go towards
schools, but a complaint was filed with the Regional Office of
Education alleging that school districts were violating election
code by sharing the website that asked voters to approve the
tax.
Some communities will be asking if a 1% local grocery tax should
be implemented after the statewide grocery tax ends in January
2026. Over 40 communities around Illinois have already voted to
restore the tax.
There is a wide array of local questions on ballots around the
state, from whether ranked choice voting should be used in
Skokie, to whether residents in Winfield should be allowed to
own backyard chickens.
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