Village needs advantages of home rule authority

A home rule community is one that has the ability to self-govern above and beyond the powers granted to it by the state.

The home rule act was enacted in 1971 and is a right automatically granted to those municipalities with populations of 25,000 or more. It is an arbitrary number; I believe chosen because there were only a handful of municipalities with that population in 1971 and those with populations under that number generally did not have professional management. In 53 years, a lot has changed.

The Roselle Village Board is asking its citizens grant them home-rule powers in the upcoming referendum. As I was the mayor of Roselle for 24 years, I wholeheartedly endorse this referendum. After I retired, I moved to Huntley, which is a home-rule community. The sky has not fallen.

In all the years I served, our biggest financial drain was keeping both sewage treatment plants updated and in compliance with never ending EPA and IEPA mandates. As of now, the board’s only recourse is to collect the cost for this work by increasing the extra tax on your water and sewer bills, collected almost entirely from Roselle residents.

As a home rule community, Roselle could enact a local gasoline tax and an entertainment tax, as all of the surrounding communities have already done. With these taxes, the village would capture revenue from anyone using our gas stations on Nerge, Roselle Road, Irving Park and Lake Street. That is a number way beyond Roselle residents. The same is true for all those who come into the village to dine.

The board has promised not to raise property taxes any more than they are currently allowed to by law. They, and their professional staff, have managed the village in a fiscally responsible manner for many years. These costs are not going away. The only questions left is: do you want help paying for them?

Please vote to allow Roselle to become a home-rule community.

Gayle Smolinski

Huntley