ROCKFORD: Debate is heating up over whether voters should restore Rockford’s home rule authority, a set of broad powers to tax and regulate stripped from the city decades ago.

Winnebago County Board member Ted Biondo argues that without a provision in Illinois to recall elected officials, home rule would concentrate too much power in the hands of the City Council. It would give Rockford the ability to raise property taxes beyond tax caps without voter approval, to institute new taxes and fees, to tap “unlimited” borrowing power and to approve rules that limit property rights of homeowners.

“I don’t trust anyone with that kind of power,” Biondo said. “I want to be able to vote on anything that has to do with my taxes.”

But Mayor Tom McNamara says a lack of home rule, a status that about 210 municipalities across Illinois already enjoy, has tied the city’s hands for too long. Aldermen on Monday could put a home rule referendum on the March 20 ballot to let voters decide the issue.

McNamara has joined others in a Rockford for Home Rule campaign. The supporters say it is a way for Rockford to take back a measure of control from lawmakers in Springfield, hold bad landlords accountable, improve neighborhoods and attract economic development.

It could, for example, allow the city to potentially enact new sales taxes, raise gaming machine license fees and add hotel and restaurant taxes, sharing the burden of funding city services borne by property taxpayers with visitors and commuters.

“Restoring home rule does not automatically mean anything, period,” McNamara said. “What it does is empower us locally to have control of our own destiny. Council still must act on every item.”

Supporters say property tax rates increased every year for nearly a decade without voter approval and without home rule as property values fell. The rate rose annually until this year - after Rockford held the line or reduced its property tax levy four consecutive years and property values ticked upward for the first time since 2008.

For years, the City Council could have - without voter approval and without home rule - instituted a utility tax on electricity and natural gas that would raise more than $8 million and close most of next year’s projected $10.2 million budget deficit. Instead, the council has approved cutting staff and spending reserve cash rather than instituting a regressive tax that would hit the poorest the hardest.

And Moody’s Investors Service in July downgraded the city’s debt rating from A1 to A2 and assigned a negative outlook. Moody’s, in part, blamed the city’s lack of home rule authority because of the limits on the city’s ability to raise revenue.

Local author John Gile, who was a leader of the campaign to eliminate home rule in the early 1980s, said he is studying the issue and isn’t prepared to take a position. But he jumped into the fray on social media, and his website blasts home rule authority as a way for elected officials to raise taxes and “take greater control over citizens’ lives, livelihoods, property and liberty.”

The Rockford Area Chamber Commerce has not taken a position on the restoration of home rule and could make its decision on the issue in early 2018. It does, however, support a March referendum, CEO and President Einar Forsman said.

“It is important for Rockford voters to have an opportunity to understand home rule and what it could mean for Rockford and to be able to participate in the process,” Forsman said.

Rockford Area Realtors CEO Steve Bois agreed.

The Illinois Association of Realtors is opposed to home rule generally, because even though it offers municipalities greater autonomy, it risks potential new costs, restrictions and regulations that could be placed on homeowners and landlords, in addition to the expanded taxing authority.

But Rockford has its own Realtors association and the city has its own unique set of problems. The organisation’s government affairs committee and, ultimately, its board of directors, will study the local issues before taking a position on home rule, Bois said.

“This is a big issue,” he said. “Certainly, our perspective is mainly from a home-ownership and property rights standpoint. That’s our focus on a national, state and local level. We are going to be taking a close look at this to see what impact this has, pro and con, on the local community and on housing.”

Bobbie Holzwarth, co-chairwoman of the committee working to restore home rule authority, said home rule carries the promise of local and accessible officials solving local problems. But Holzwarth said the additional authority it would grant the City Council comes with greater responsibility to improve neighbourhoods, reduce property taxes and make Rockford a stronger city.

It also compels residents to be vigilant if the additional power is abused, she said.

“We need to pay attention, understand what they are doing and speak up if something they are considering is bad for our community,” Holzwarth said.