Home rule is the ability of a Municipal government to facilitate greater local control over the government decision making process. Home rule charters, or local constitutions that establish such status, are voted on by the residents. This article looks at the case to increase Glenview's Home Rule Sales Tax (HRST) from 0.5% to 0.75%.
The levying of a home rule sales tax is a means to generate village income. All cities that have a population over 25,000; have a home rule option in Illinois, municipalities however are optional. A majority of the communities surrounding Glenview have HRST that greatly exceeded Glenview's 0.5%. As of July 1st 2007; Northbrook to the north had a HRST of 0.75%, Morton Grove to the south was 1.00% and Des Plaines to the west was levying a 1.00% HRST. The increase in HRST tax was requested so that the Village could continue to meet the needs of capital improvement projects which were currently running at a deficient. An increase would help assure that the quality of infrastructure that Village residents had come to expect would be maintained.
By providing a map of neighboring communities and their current rates it gave context to a 0.25% raise. According to the spatial analysis Glenview's updated 0.75% rate was not out of line with other North Shore communities. In all the map depicted 23 comparable communities to Glenview, 13 of which had HRST of 1.00% and three with 0.75%. Effective July 1, 2008 the HRST for Glenview was increased from one-half of one percent (.50%) to three-fourth of one percent (.75%).