Election 2024: DeKalb County referendum roundup

DeKalb County voters in November will be asked to weigh in on a number of referenda which could decide the fate of future elected municipal offices and whether to impose a new sales tax to support schools, among others.

DeKalb County sales tax for schools

Voters will be asked whether they support a new 1% sales tax that would collect an estimated $10 million for public schools countywide. The referendum will be on every ballot. If passed, the tax would be imposed countywide and benefit school districts relative to their student population size, officials have said.

Dubbed the DeKalb County Area School Districts County School Facility Occupation Tax, school districts would have the option to impose an up to 1% tax on all items that already are taxed by municipal and county sales. Exceptions include cars, trucks, boats, mobile homes, farm equipment and various services, officials have said. Groceries and prescriptions also would not be taxed, according to the proposal.

Officials also are calling the proposal the “Penny Tax.”

Officials have said tax revenue collected could go toward buying new school buildings, or funding building renovations; land acquisitions; and building demolitions, according to Sycamore district documents. Improvements to technology infrastructure, parking lots, roofs and other aspects of school facilities could also come through the sales tax revenue.

The tax cannot be used to fund salaries or benefits, school buses, operating costs, or classroom equipment such as textbooks and computers, according to an info webpage from Genoa-Kingston School District 424.

Leading up to the election, school boards across the county approved placing the question to voters in a November referendum. DeKalb, Genoa-Kingston, Sycamore, Sandwich, Somonauk and Hiawatha were among those districts with school boards to support posing the question to voters.

Read more here: New sales tax in DeKalb County for public schools? Here’s what we know

DeKalb City Clerk: elected or appointed?

For the third time in history, DeKalb city voters will be asked whether they want their city clerk to be an elected or appointed role. The question follows about a decade of turnover at city hall in the clerk’s role, and the previous two city clerks who each have sued the City of DeKalb over various professional disputes.

If voters determine they still want an elected clerk, recent action by the DeKalb City Council means a new clerk, if elected in spring 2025, will not be paid a city salary. If the majority of voters back an appointed clerk, that position would be hired as a city employee.

The DeKalb City Clerk currently is a part-time position with a $8,000 annual salary.

Referenda in November 2006 and November 2012 also asked DeKalb voters if they preferred an appointed clerk over an elected one. Each of those times, the question asked if the city clerk should be appointed by the mayor with council consideration. Both times voters said no, according to election records from the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

DeKalb’s most recent city clerk Sasha Cohen was ousted from his office by a DeKalb County judge earlier this year after repeated controversy. Circuit Court Chief Judge Bradley Waller ruled in March that Cohen had abandoned his role after he failed to file statements of economic interest for the past two years. The clerk, who didn’t provide comment during the judicial hearing, had been the center of years of scrutiny from city officials alleging he repeatedly failed to adequately perform the duties voters in 2021 elected him to do.

Read more here: DeKalb City Clerk referendum: What to know

Sycamore City clerk: elected or appointed?

Sycamore voters also will be asked if they’d prefer their clerk to be appointed or stay elected.

Mary Kalk holds the position of Sycamore City Clerk currently, and was elected to a second term in 2021. She was first elected to the office in April 2017, beating out four other candidates. She ran unopposed in 2021. Kalk has declined to comment on the referendum specifically. City Manager Michael Hall said this week the referendum has nothing to do with Kalk’s job performance and that he would seek her appointment if the referendum passes.

Sycamore’s City Clerk, a full-time job, has a budgeted salary of $65,050, according to Sycamore’s city documents. Sycamore also pays a budgeted salary of $56,646 for a deputy clerk, a full-time appointed position.

Read more here: Sycamore City Clerk referendum: What to know

Sycamore School District 427 school board members: Where should they live?

Sycamore voters will be asked to decide whether anyone in the district can run for a spot on the Sycamore School District 427 Board, regardless of the township in which they reside.

District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder previously said a statewide policy prohibits any more than three board members living within a single township inside district boundaries from serving on the Sycamore school board, and the board is unable to change that policy.

Voters could change that, however.

The referendum will ask voters if they support “at-large” elected members, meaning anyone from Sycamore District boundaries could run regardless of what township they live in. Wilder said the majority of students reside within Sycamore and Cortland townships.

During the last election, not enough candidates ran to fill all the available seats on the Sycamore school board.

If back by voter support, the proposed policy change would go into effect for the April 2025 election, when some of the board’s seats will be up for election.

Read more here: Sycamore District 427 school board referendum: What to know

Statewide referenda

• Whether to amend the Illinois Constitution to create an additional 3% tax on income over $1 million. The funds would be earmarked for property tax relief, according to the question.
• Whether candidates on the ballot should face civil penalties if they interfere or try to interfere with election workers’ official duties.
• Whether insurance plans that cover pregnancy benefits should cover medically appropriate fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization without a cap on the number of treatments.

Shaw Local news reporters Camden Lazenby, Megann Horstead and Claire O’Brien contributed.