Voters reject Villa Park home rule effort

There's no going home in Villa Park, at least not when it involves the specter of taxation.

Voters on Tuesday sent a strong message to village leaders who wanted to bring back home rule authority and the power that comes with it.

With all 33 precincts reporting, unofficial totals showed 3,981 votes cast against reinstating home rule, with only 1,922 supporting it.

Village President Joyce Stupegia said although they must wait nearly two years before presenting the question again, they plan to do so.

"This gives us time to go back and do a lot more education," she said.

Villa Park officials wanted to bring back the home-rule powers voters eliminated in 1980. Town leaders sought the change because they wanted to crack down on bad landlords and get rid of criminals who rent property in town.

A mandatory crime-free program would have allowed the village to license landlords and revoke the license if units weren't up to code.

"We still want the crime-free program, but it's going to be on a volunteer basis," Trustee Tom Cullerton said. "The bad landlords who we constantly have problems with aren't going to do it."

Those feel-good crime-fighting issues just weren't going to be enough to sway voters skeptical about the potential taxing powers home rule also carried, opponent Joyce Daly said.

"I think people of Villa Park were afraid," she said. "They can't afford to have their taxes go up."

Though trustees passed resolutions giving residents more power in overturning any taxing ability, it wasn't enough to outweigh concerns.