Mayor makes case for home rule

Home Rule is coming to Prospect Heights.

I'd like to take this opportunity to write about my vision for home rule and respond to Bonnie Guiffaut's letter last week.

She states, "nothing changes in Prospect Heights," but then rails against the Nov. 4 home rule referendum, which would unquestionably be a change, and a good one at that.

Right now we can't fix our streets. Home Rule will allow the city to fix its roads. Period.

Prospect Heights gets most of its operating funds from sales tax. We have no property tax for city operations. We do have a hotel tax and six hotels in our borders. We collect approximately $700,000 per year in hotel tax.

But guess what? Because we are not home rule, we can only use that hotel tax revenue to promote tourism! What's more, we have $1.5 million of collected hotel tax sitting in the bank for tourism promotion, and nothing sitting in the bank for street repair.

Regular cities can use hotel taxes only for tourism promotion. Home rule cities can use it for any governmental function, including streets.

Ms. Guiffaut's letter states only $30,000 is available from the city's tourism budget for street repairs. While I have not yet stated exactly how much money would be used from the tourism fund, I believe a portion of that fund's $800,000 budget as well as the $1.5 million reserve could be shifted from "tourism" (a rather obscure concept in Prospect Heights) to fixing our roads - something most of us use every day.

Folks like Ms. Guiffaut dislike our government and can't stomach giving it any more options. She gives no facts against home rule, just the same anti-city vitriol. I truly hope we'll be able to convert Ms. Guiffaut to work for change. If we can't do that, I hope Home Rule supporters prove her wrong.

I look forward to a Prospect Heights that helps homeowners keep property values up by providing well-maintained streets in front of our beautiful half-acre lots. I also look forward to making our community the best that it can be with Home Rule.

Mayor Patrick Ludvigsen

Prospect Heights