Madison County Board votes against property tax cap referendum on November ballot
Madison County Board shut down a proposed referendum aimed at limiting property tax growth during a meeting on Monday night.
The proposal was pushed by Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler who hoped to add the referendum to the November ballot.
The referendum, known as the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law(PTELL) was defeated in a 18-6 vote, and effectively killed its chances of going before voters this year. State law requires county government to place the referendum on the ballot 79 days before the election. The deadline is August 15.
“I’m disappointed,” Prenzler said in a press release. “Yes, PTELL is complicated, but I believe the people who pay the taxes, not the politicians, should be the ones voting on it.”
The legislation limits the amount that taxing districts can increase property taxes each year, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. If the motion was passed, citizens would have been able to vote on proposed tax increases. PTELL is active in 39 Illinois counties which represent about 80 percent of the state’s population.
Madison County Board Member Michael “Doc” Holliday, Sr (D-Alton), who voted against the motion, said there wasn’t adequate information given about the legislation.
“If you want people to vote on something, they need to get all the information they can so they can make a concerned vote about what they’re voting on,” Holliday said. “If you’re not going to give people the opportunity to find out everything you’re trying to put on the ballot, that’s going to put them at a disadvantage when they go to vote, so that’s what was trying to happen.
“We need to find out the pros and cons of it and to let citizens make a sound decision about the PTELL.”
Prenzler introduced the legislation to the board in 2018, but it was denied by 14-8 vote. He called for a special meeting last week to discuss adding the referendum to the Nov. 3 ballot, but not enough board members attended to reach the mandated quorum.
Holliday said the lack of time needed to consider the legislation was another factor in his voting against it.
“It was looked at in 2018, and since then there was nothing brought up about it,” Holliday said. “The chairman brought it up then and he should’ve investigated the pros and cons of it and then brought it back to the board to make a decision, and he only brought this back up about 9 or 10 days ago with no information and so we were needing information about this before we could make a concerned decision.”
Holliday said taxing districts likely would hike their rates once PTELL passed, but before it became law. How much and how long would it take for taxpayers to see relief are among the questions he says property owners should know before before considering the referendum.
“Immediately after it passes, taxes are going to go up. Everybody says that, so it’s not a tax reduction that’s going to help immediately. We know that,” he said. “We don’t know how long it’ll be before we can make up the difference. It will affect fire districts; it’ll affect schools. It’s going to affect a lot of things if it was to pass. So all of those things needed to be looked at before we can make a decision to about it.”
Tom McRae (R-Bethalto), was one of the six republicans who voted on Monday’s motion. Although he acknowledged that the legislation was flawed, he thinks the referendum is crucial enough for voters to have a say on.
“I don’t necessarily disagree with [those concerns], but ... we have a property tax crisis in Illinois that has been around for 20 years and our state legislatures do nothing,” McRae said.”One of the biggest problems in our state is property taxes, and we desperately need property tax reform. I’m tired of being pandered to as most citizens in Madison County are. We need to hold our state legislatures accountable.”
McRae said he agrees with complaints concerning the lack of information regarding the referendum.
“That’s true to some extent, but they would have 90 days between now and the election to educate themselves,” McRae said. “My point is that people should have the opportunity to vote on it. It’s an important issue and we need property tax reform. I think that voters are as smart as I am and they can figure out if they want it or not.
“Whether you like PTELL or not, I think we should’ve allowed voters to vote on it.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 12:43 PM.
