Voters In New Lenox Fire District Reject Property Tax Hike

NEW LENOX, IL — In recent weeks there was growing skepticism toward the New Lenox Fire Protection District's push for a huge tax increase and on Tuesday the voters rejected the tax increase. Residents who live within the New Lenox Fire Protection District defeated a bond measure asking them to increase their property taxes, based on preliminary vote totals projected by the Will County Clerk's Office. With all precincts reporting, the New Lenox Fire District's bond measure showed about 48 percent of the votes were for the bond while 52 percent were against. The tax increase was defeated by 212 votes, based on the unofficial vote totals.

The question asked the voters whether they want to increase their tax rate by 0.2023. The current tax rate for fire services would increase from 0.3877 to 0.59. There were 3,278 yes votes but 3,490 no votes.

According to New Lenox Fire District officials, if Tuesday's measure passed, fire station manpower at the existing stations would remain in place. The district also could have replaced outdated equipment. New Lenox would like to purchase three fire engines, one tanker truck and two ambulances over the next five years.

RESULTS

With 100 Percent of Precincts Reporting:

Yes – 48%

No – 52%

The owner of a $300,000 home could have expected an additional $202 in annual property taxes to New Lenox's Fire Protection District. The owner of a $200,000 home would pay nearly $135 in additional taxes.

In recent weeks, however, opposition had been building and a number of New Lenox residents took to social media criticizing the fire district for lack of transparency and using scare tactics as an attempt to persuade voters to support the tax hike.

One person who commented in a New Lenox Facebook forum the day before the election blasted the referendum committee's marketing team for doing a shoddy job.

"Why, when you ask questions of the referendum team, do you get totally different answers and extremely defensive positioning? Why did the referendum team not mention one additional service we can expect for a whopping 51 percent increase? All I saw was a lot of veiled threats about what would be taken away, with absolutely no specifics. ALL of the people who are paying the bills, taxpayers, have every right to ask questions, without being subjected to insults, fear mongering and bullying by people who believe that we should all vote Yes to anything a government agency asks for, regardless of the facts."

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Image via New Lenox Fire District