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Chicago – Taxpayers United of America (TUA) helped Westmont activists win repeal of Home Rule, the first repeal victory in Illinois in 29 years. Westmont is one of 5 Home Rule referenda defeated yesterday by activists, with the help of TUA.
“Taxpayers are the big winners in Westmont where they successfully ended Home Rule taxing authority. Home Rule communities always have higher taxes and that is the message that resonated with voters yesterday,” stated Jim Tobin, president of TUA.
“Other big winners in yesterday’s election are River Forest, Elkville, Harrisburg, and Kenilworth, where we helped residents defeat new Home Rule referenda.”
“The most important politics are local and the message that voters sent to municipal leaders this year is that they want a say in tax increases and aren’t willing to give government bureaucrats a blank check to pay for empire building.”
“People aren’t being fooled any longer; they know that 80% of Home Rule taxes go to pay salaries and benefits, including gold plated pensions. Voters in these five communities sent a loud and clear message that they want spending cuts without tax increases.”
TUA members have defeated more than 100 Home Rule referenda since 1980. On March 20, 2012, TUA activists had a clean sweep in defeating six out of six Home Rule referenda.

1 Comment
  1. Congratulations, Jim. By the way, you and your members may be interested to know that the much of my content for the website I created when the Home Rule issue was raised again in Rockford (I was chief spokesperson for the repeal movement in ’83), is now available at http://citydesk.us/homerule.html. Westmont is actually the first to have a successful repeal campaign since ours, which was 31 years ago. Keep up the great work.
    John Gile