In DuPage County, questions in pursuit of your money

Dozens of DuPage County municipalities will have a question or two to ask voters come next February.

Twenty-three referendum questions from 19 different governments will appear on the February primary ballot.

Most of the measures will ask homeowners to open their wallets wider.

The requests come from all parts of the county, including school and park districts, municipalities and DuPage County, which will ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase.

The money would generate more than $40 million annually to fund public safety and stave off massive layoffs.

DuPage County Board members already passed a so-called "doomsday budget" that would cut about 200 jobs, eliminate programs in areas such as public health and close the DuPage County Historical Museum. Implementation of those cuts, though, will be delayed until after the results of the Feb. 5 primary referendum.

"People live in the suburbs for two reasons: safe streets and good schools," DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said. "The bottom line is by paying attention to the little problems, we have kept crime very low compared to other large counties. That doesn't happen if we have to disband, for instance, our gang unit or our mental health programs."

"If this referendum doesn't pass," Birkett added, "it's going to be tough to perform our duties and obligations."

In several communities, the county's sales tax question will compete for attention with some big-ticket requests from area school districts.

In Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, for instance, voters will be asked for $58 million to build a new Hubble Middle School.

Naperville Unit District 203 will ask voters for a $43 million tax increase to pay for a variety of facility improvements, mainly to aging Naperville Central High School.

And Glen Ellyn Elementary District 89 wants homeowners to approve a $24.8 million borrowing plan to pay for technology and building improvements.

Besides the schools, both the Lombard and Addison park districts will ask their respective communities for money to build new aquatic centers.

The Addison Park District referendum, if approved, would allow the agency to borrow $14 million.

In Lombard, park district officials want to borrow $5.9 million to build a replacement for Moran Water Park, a 50-year-old facility permanently shuttered after Labor Day.

O'Hare International Airport expansion will be the focus of three advisory questions in Bensenville and Addison Township.

The two highly politicized advisory questions in Bensenville will ask voters if two local school districts should accept cash payments from Chicago for the property tax liability incurred from losing about 500 homes the city is planning to bulldoze to make room for new runways.

And in Winfield, residents will see two familiar ballot questions in April. Both Winfield Township and the Winfield Fire Protection District will again be placing referendums voters shot down last April.

Winfield Township will ask voters for a 2-cent tax-rate increase to pay for paving and maintenance projects for 48 miles of township roads. Six previous requests failed to win voter approval for the township.

The Winfield Fire Protection District, meanwhile, will again ask voters for permission to lift the tax cap for each of the next four years to allow for 12.5 percent tax increases to pay for three new full-time firefighters. It is the agency's third consecutive request.

"If we don't get this request passed, we're going to be in the hole with our budget," said Winfield Fire District Chief Phil DiMenza, who noted that it's been nearly 20 years since the fire district successfully sought a tax increase.

The repeat requests, however, aren't sitting well with several residents, who have submitted their own referendum request asking voters living within the fire district's borders whether they'd approve a measure to have trustees on the fire district board elected by the public.

Currently, the Winfield Fire Protection District board of trustees are appointed by DuPage County.

"These trustees don't represent our interests," said Dorothy Hanlock, who helped spearhead the movement to collect 1,644 signatures to place the referendum on the February ballot.

"We voted this referendum down several times, yet here they are again asking the question. We're tired of it."