What message will we send with our ballots Tuesday?

Suburbanites coping with job losses, pay cuts and foreclosures will march to the voting booth Tuesday to decide who should run their schools, parks, libraries and cities - casting votes for local leaders on the front lines of the economic meltdown.

"The fundamental issues that affect our quality of life are determined largely at the local level," says Jim Nowlan, a senior fellow specializing in state and local politics at the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs. "This is a way for voters to weigh in."

School district candidates are battling over how best to keep class sizes down as property tax revenues shrink and state funding is in jeopardy. Teacher layoffs in many suburbs are already planned.

Competitors for mayor and trustee posts are debating how to bring in new business as many companies shut down and sales-tax dollars dwindle.

Even library and park district board contenders are grappling with the balance between pressure for more services and reluctance to impose higher fees or taxes.

"People are now paying particular interest to their money and how it is being spent," says Illinois Library Association Director Bob Doyle, who adds that statewide library usage is up 20 percent so far this year.

While local officials cannot control the broader economy, they nonetheless find themselves coping with its fallout while facing greater scrutiny from suburban residents paying the bills.

For example, Arlington Heights mayoral contenders are dueling over what to do with a planned condo, townhouse and retail development that remains largely vacant two years after approval.

In Naperville, numerous candidates for city office are running on a plan to reduce the local sales tax on food and beverages. Supporters of the tax, though, argue the money funds nonprofit cultural programs that drive tourism and jobs.

In Lake County, two friends on the Round Lake Park board are opposing each other over a tax increase to develop the town's main business drag. Supporters say the money will jump-start local business while opponents argue now is not the time for a tax hike as more and more residents lose their jobs.

In Gurnee, mayoral hopefuls are debating what to do if Great America, whose parent company Six Flags is exploring bankruptcy, goes under. The amusement park brings in $2 million a year to the suburb.

Larry Fang, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, says decisions for local officials will increasingly come down to raising a tax or cutting a service in this recession. He says village or city governments, which often rely most on sales and income taxes, suffer before many other local taxing bodies in such a downturn.

"They are hit a lot faster," he said. "And like everyone else they have to live within their means."

Yet school districts are the local governments that tend to take the biggest chunk of taxpayer dollars. So it's no surprise that races for those posts are no less fierce this year.

"Schools are always high on everybody's radar because it affects them so directly in their property taxes and in their quality of life," says Jim Russell, spokesman for the Illinois Association of School Boards.

Districts dealing with teacher cuts include West Aurora District 129, Barrington Area Unit District 220, Elgin Area School District Unit 46, Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300, and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, among others.

Expected reductions in property tax dollars from declining home values and foreclosures, coupled with rising costs, have candidates for school board pitching out-of-the-box ideas to voters.

Contenders to run Woodland Elementary Elementary District 50, which may leave teacher posts unfilled to patch looming budget holes, have floated plans for a wind turbine and even merging with another district.

In the end, when voters cast ballots on Tuesday, experts say they'll be viewing candidates through the prism of today's economic hardships - or essentially, voting their pocketbooks.

Voters "are looking at their own finances much more closely," Russell says. "Everyone is paying attention to that."

Economy: Towns often hit first, but schools get attention