Feb 14 2008
FREE US - from Campton Hills
(photo by Mary Beth Nolan | Daily Herald Photographer)
Lynda and Chris Jacobs like to be left alone.
That’s why they originally settled in a quiet, rural, unincorporated area west of St. Charles, in Kane County, Illinois. But then last April, during a municipal election, 55 percent of the voters within 20 square miles of the area supported incorporating it into what is now the village of Campton Hills.
The Jacobses don’t like it; nor do a sizeable portion of their neighbors. They don’t want the taxes or the trouble that accompanies additional government oversight. The Daily Herald reports: “Since the village’s incorporation, 11 groups of property owners have filed civil lawsuits seeking to detach from the town and revert to unincorporated turf, including the Cheval de Selle subdivision to the southwest, where the Jacobses live.”
But would a village allow these citizens to quietly secede? No-because that would be a threat to their tax base.
Village President Patsy Smith, appointed last May, argues that by allowing property owners to leave Campton Hills, they “could be disenfranchising and taking action against what the people in those areas wanted.” She also claims village operating funds are so low that “any dollar lost would unduly harm” the village. Is this about the welfare of the citizens, or of the village board?
On the other hand, the newly assembled village board already passed a pay raise.
Nevertheless, citizens of Campton Hills continue fighting to free themselves from another layer of government-government they neither need nor want.
[The Free Us from Campton Hills Committee is organizing candidate debates on 1/23 and 1/30]
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[...] Here’s a new development in a grassroots struggle for unincorporation. Recent Judicial ruling allows neighborhoods over 500 acres to secede from the newly form municipality. For background info, click here. [...]