McHenry meets requirements to start home rule

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McHENRY – The city of McHenry expects to have more power to raise taxes, enforce property standards, and allocate revenue soon.

That’s because it recently met the population requirements for home-rule status, which gives municipalities the ability to circumvent many regulations from the state’s General Assembly.

“I don’t think it’s going to change the way we operate too much,” said Doug Maxeiner, city administrator. “It might give us some more authority in some areas, ... but we’re still going to be very cautious, very conservative in the way we go about raising funds.”

One of the most notable changes will involve the city’s tax levy – the total amount that the city collects in property taxes.

Without home rule, the levy can be increased only by whichever is lower – 5 percent or the rate of inflation, which the consumer price index established at 0.1 percent this year. The limit excludes new construction or annexations.

However, with home rule, the city no longer would be bound by the tax cap, Finance Director Chris Black said. In the first year with this new authority, the city has proposed a 2.9 percent increase in the levy. A hearing is scheduled Dec. 7.

It is difficult to calculate a direct comparison to what the city would have been limited to without home rule.

However, Black said there was little new growth this year, and said that the levy was higher than what would be allowed without the status change.

Including new growth, the city raised the total levy 6.3 percent in 2008 and in 2007, documents show.

Mayor Sue Low said she knew home rule usually was associated with higher taxes, but she hoped that residents would see the other possibilities associated with the change instead.

“It’s all happening kind of quickly,” she said. “I think it will be a good thing for the city.”

To qualify, the city needed more than 25,000 residents. A recent special census showed 27,525 residents, but staff still didn’t expect to become a home-rule community because special censuses didn’t qualify until recently.

Other specifics about what the new home-rule status will mean for the city are unclear because officials found out about the change within the past month, Maxeiner said.

In fact, staff still are waiting for the Secretary of State’s office to validate the change. After that, there will be a presentation to the council that details more of the new options the city gains from the status.

“Really this is a fairly large issue, and we’re trying to research everything,” Maxeiner said.

What it means

Home rule communities can:
Incur debt and use taxes to pay it off
Enact and enforce a broader range of zoning regulations and building codes
License, tax and regulate businesses to a greater extent

Source: Illinois Municipal League

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