Would Route 53 pass with a tax increase?

While last week's vote expressed support for an extension of Route 53, the referendum was missing any qualification such as "would you support a property tax increase to extend ...". This qualification nearly always squashes funding requests by schools, park districts or firefighters. On Tuesday, every single referendum that cited a tax increase or a direct cost to citizens was voted down, but virtually all referendums that didn't refer to tax increases got approved. Wonder what the result would have been had the same question been asked in connection with a 20 percent property tax increase for all Lake County residents.

The vote also killed one of the biggest myths about "powerful" Long Grove stopping the expansion. It seems that for every Long Grove resident, at least an additional nine other Lake County residents were opposed to the extension. Less than 1,900 votes were registered on the Lake Michigan water referendum for Long Grove residents (which would represent roughly 50 percent of Long Grove's households who voted), but over 20,000 voters said no to the extension of Route 53.

Clearly it's not just Long Grove residents who are opposed to irreversible wetland and prairie destruction, and a $2 billion highway that won't relieve traffic anytime soon.

Let's get realistic and widen the roads we already have for much more targeted and more immediate relief.

Frank Tiemann

Long Grove