Courthouse tax issue to be on ballot

Voters will help to decide if Union County needs a new courthouse.

The Union County Board of Commissioners last week approved a resolution which will place a sales tax proposition before the voters.

The proposal will be on the Feb. 2, 2010, primary election ballot.

Voters will be asked to approve a 1 percent increase in the county's share of the local sales tax.

If the measure were to be approved, it would mean that consumers would pay an additional $1 in sales tax for every $100 "of tangible personal property bought at retail."

The proposal could generate somewhere in the range of $900,000 to $1 million a year, Union County Treasurer Bobby G. Myers estimated. He cautioned that revenue would be impacted by the strength of the local economy.

The commissioners approved the resolution at a continued meeting held Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Union County Courthouse in Jonesboro.

The action taken by the commissioners comes after a review of the status of the aging courthouse by a committee made up of Union County residents. The committee was appointed by the county board.

The sales tax proposition resolution drafted by Union County State's Attorney Tyler R. Edmonds and approved by the commissioners declares that:

"The Union County Courthouse has well-served the people of Union County for over 150 years.

"Despite the best efforts of County officials, in recent years the Courthouse has fallen into disrepair and does not constitute an adequate facility for Court, County offices or for the public conducting business within the Courthouse.

"The condition of the Courthouse does not provide for the adequate safeguarding and preservation of Court and County records.

"The Courthouse is not accessible to individuals with physical disabilities.

"Numerous County offices are currently housed in separate buildings because of space limitations in the Courthouse resulting in costly expenses in maintaining County offices in multiple locations and preventing the public from conducting business with the various County offices at one location.

"The cost to repair and improve the Courthouse is estimated to be between six million and nine million dollars and such repairs and improvements would not provide additional space needed for record storage or expansion of County offices."

Given the current state of the existing courthouse, the county commissioners believe "that the best and most equitable way to pay for the cost of construction of a new Union County Courthouse would be through the imposition of a sales tax increase without raising property taxes."

Illinois law allows a county board to "impose a sales tax to provide revenue to be used exclusively for public facility purposes in that county, if a proposition for the tax has been submitted to the electors of that county and approved by a majority of those voting on the question."