McLean County voters have approved the 1% countywide sales tax for school facilities and safety.
The referendum, which required a simple majority to pass, did so by around 2,000 votes. Bloomington made a notable impact with "yes" winning by around that margin in Bloomington Election Commission vote totals. Elsewhere in McLean County the "yes" vote won by under 200 votes.
In 2014, a similar measure failed two-to-one. This time the "yes" votes — winning 17,415 to 15,427 — swamped the total number of votes in 2014 combined.
School leaders react
“With the passage of this, I think there's some sense of security, a feeling of relief, optimism about what this is going to mean for all of the school districts in McLean County,” said Kristen Weikle, superintendent of Unit 5.
The tax will take effect across the county July 1. It will apply to retail purchases, prepared food and gasoline. It will not apply to groceries, prescription drugs or services like getting a haircut.
“Once that money starts to flow, it occurs on a monthly basis, but it's always two or three months delayed because the sales tax has to be collected,” said Weikle. “It's sent to the Regional Office of Education, who then distributes it to the public school districts in the county.”
Weikle said the district will likely be borrowing for projects planned this summer, but the tax revenue will help to pay off the debt a few months after that.
“It doesn't happen without the hard work of a lot of people, because we actually started later than we would have liked, and so we had to scramble to put together a team,” said Barry Reilly, chair of the Vote Yes for McLean County Schools campaign.
Reilly was superintendent of District 87 schools when the vote failed in 2014. He said many new factors not present back then contributed to the different result, including property tax relief.
“I think that was a big deal to many people in the community, because, you know, we pay high taxes in the state of Illinois, and anytime you look at adding a tax, that's something that most people are not really interested in. So you want to do it in a way that can not only help the school districts, but also help the taxpayer,” said Reilly.
Voter turnout was unusually high. While both Bloomington and Normal mayoral races each had three candidates, Reilly thinks it shows the sales tax vote also resonated with the community.
“I don't know that the sales tax brought that out, that issue, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did,” said Reilly.
Sales tax details
Revenue from the sales tax will allow school districts to fund security, energy efficiency, mental health, property tax abatement and more. Several school districts pledged to direct no less than a third of revenue from the sales tax toward offsetting property taxes over the next five years.
David Mouser, District 87 superintendent, said before the election that providing tax relief could make the difference for voters who overwhelmingly voted against the tax in 2014. He also expressed an expectation to extend the practice beyond the five-year promise.
Superintendents of District 87 and Unit 5 have both said their schools have necessary repairs that must be made starting this summer and continuing well into the future. For the pair of school districts that together encompass public schools in Bloomington-Normal, it made the question not whether the repairs would be made, but rather how the needs would be paid for.
The result helps Unit 5 avoid around $10 million in interest payments down the road from borrowing for district needs over the next five years.
Election interference investigation
McLean County Sheriff Matt Lane confirmed to WGLT that his office is investigating alleged election interference done by school districts.
In the months leading up to the election, schools have made frequent contact with the public to educate voters on what the tax would mean for them. Efforts included using links to the April1cent.info site on district websites while the site contained language in favor of a "yes" vote.
Dean Fletcher of Bloomington sent a complaint to the Illinois State Board of Education, Regional Office of Education, the Illinois State Police Special Investigations Unit, the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau. Fletcher said all declined to investigate.
Fletcher continued to seek investigation after the website switched the language — from "support" to "consider" — into the allegations that these schools were guilty of advocating for a specific result, something public resources cannot be used for.
