Column | Questions and Answers

Referendum, referendum and referendum.
Once again, Suburban Cook County voters headed to the polls
and were asked to settle big, bad questions of public dispute.
They were also just as likely to be hit up for cash by local
governments.
Some passed and others failed.
Over the past 10 years, 537 tax increase ballot questions were
decided in Suburban Cook County .
    How many were approved? 51 percent.
    So, its a coin toss.
    Lyons Dist. 103 chief Ray Lauk recently wrote a long report
detailing how he succeeded against the odds in School Dist. 103
last year.
It’s about smarts, effort and communication, Lauk says.
    According to a recent report issued by the Cook County Clerk’s
press office, the large majority of referendums on suburban
ballots since 1995 were solely tax related. Of all the referendums
since 1995, 60 percent of them sought more loot from taxpayers.
    School District 105 voters approved a tax increase question on
Tuesday but voters flatly rejected another $10 million for Lyons
Township parks.
    Only 11 percent of Suburban Cook County ballot referendums
over the past decade dealt with local government issues such as
term limits, changing how elected officers are appointed,
consolidating units of government, changing home rule authority
and the like.
    (Example of this genre: By a margin of 528 to 446, Countryside
voters Tuesday decided not to abolish the office of Countryside
Treasurer.)
    According to this super-report, 7.7 percent of referendum
questions dealt with infrastructure, i.e, “Should we build a new
swimming pool?”
    (Summit voters nearly had a chance to decide on the need for a
new police station, but this question was pulled from the ballot
before the election.
    On Nov. 2, Lyons voters agreed to a new police station.)
    According to the report, Suburban Cook County voters approve
new building projects 63.8 percent of the time.
Of the total 891 referendum questions in the past 10 years, 57
percent were approved.
    Lots of the referendum questions don’t have any affect though.
These are called “advisory.”
    Example: Gee, what do you think? More than 15 percent of total
referendums are these sort.
    Libraries are most likely to get their referendum questions
approved (58.9% of the time), followed by cities and villages
(58.6%), Schools (58.2%) and Fire districts (54.5%). Voters were
least likely to approve park district questions as only 45 percent of
them were successful.

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