Is missing home-rule status by 230 a bad thing for Woodstock? Are homeowners, business owners and other residents breathing a sigh of relief?
The 2010 Census of 24,770 prevents Woodstock's jump into automatic home-rule status. Is that good? What are the pros and cons of home rule?
According to today's article in The Woodstock Independent (TWI), Woodstock would have more control. What might it do with this new control? "Home-rule municipalities can constitutionally impose additional taxes on certain items or uses that are not income, occupations or earning without voter approval. Examples could include a home-rule gasoline tax, a vehicle tax or other product or service-specific taxes."
Get it now?
The article also gave certain raw numbers from Census data, but it omitted an important calculation - the change from 2000 to 2010. You can see the raw numbers in TWI's article. Here is the change in the numbers that you won't see there.
Residents
Population, up 22.9%
Housing
Total housing units, up 23.2%
Occupied housing units, up 18.6%
Vacant housing units, up 131%
Ethnicity and race
Hispanic/Latino, up 52.8%
White, up 12.7%
Black, up 163%
American Indian/Alaskan native, up 33.3%
Asian, up 40.5%
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Home Rule is the power to raise taxes without legislative approval.
Algonquin, Crystal Lake, McHenry and Lake in the Hills have all increased their city sales taxes using Home Rule powers.
Post a Comment