Most every registered voter in this vicinity received a mailing, at taxpayer expense, from State Representative Andrew Chesney, a Republican residing within Freeport.
Representative Chesney's oversized postcard urged his constituents to take a survey and noted that "A government works best when it values citizen input." Here is a photo of the pertinent part of the mailing.
Tutty agrees wholeheartedly with our state representative, citizen input should not only be valued, it should be the driving factor behind the operations of any unit of local government, especially locally.
That said, can Tutty and his fellow citizens expect our representative to come out against retaining home rule power for the City of Freeport? Clearly--and Representative Chesney has first hand knowledge--the City of Freeport has used home rule every way possible to completely exclude "citizen input" from the decision making process.
Without home rule Freeport would have a general obligation debt limit of 8.625% of its present equalized assessed valuation. (1) Home rule units, because they have the power to tax, have no debt limit, therefore the Freeport City Council blew through this debt limit several years ago.
And not one single dollar of Freeport's massive debt load came as the result of a referendum of the taxpayers. Not one single dollar.
Because of home rule the Freeport City Council can not only borrow money without a referendum. They also use home rule to skirt the requirements of Bond Issue Notification Act and don't even provide formal notice to Freeport citizens that they are borrowing money.
Now that Freeport's population is officially certified to be below 25,000 the "municipal clerk shall certify for submission to the voters of the municipality at the next general election following such determination of population, in the manner provided by the general election law, the proposition of whether the municipality shall elect not to be a home rule unit" 65 ILCS 5/1-1-9. This is the first time since Illinois adopted the Constitution of 1970 that a home rule municipality has fallen below this threshold, activating the cited statute.
If Representative Chesney really wants to lead by example why does he not move to modify the Bond Issue Notification Act to preempt the power of home rule units? The General Assembly has the power. Then, at the least, the City Council would have to provide himself and his fellow citizens with notice that they are borrowing money against our ability to pay taxes.
This is a perfect opportunity for Representative Chesney to walk his talk and to prove to his constituency that he, and his fellow Republicans in Stephenson County actually do believe in limited government influence over our lives.
As always, yours in honesty, Tutty Baker tutty.baker@gmail.com
1) Home Rule and Intergovernmental Cooperation and Conflict, Kurt P. Froehlich, 2000, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
What a filthy hypocrite! Chesney blocks anyone who disagrees with him, and is CONSTANTLY bashing democrats. A truly vile human being.
ReplyDeleteChesney claiming he wants to or has listened to people is a sick joke. He listens only to people who have voted for him and say exactly what he wants to hear. He's the perfect example of a politician who thinks he only represents his voters, not his constituents. Just walk up to him sometime, smile, shake his hand, then tell him you're a Democrat/ liberal/ progressive and watch him turn white and run away like a scared rabbit. I've seen it first-hand more than once.
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