Kane County Speaks

In the April 2024 municipal elections, Kane County leaders proposed a $51 million retail tax hike. A grassroots citizens group called Kane County Speaks campaigned against the measure. Not only did they defeat it, they inspired the highest voter turnout the county had seen for a municipal election in decades. Here’s how they did it and what they learned:

Larry Bettag

“Whatever salary you take home, you’re already taking out state and federal taxes, you’re contributing to your 401K, you have insurance. Then there’s property tax, motor fuel tax. You may already be living off 60% of what your salary says on paper. Now they want to add a retail tax. How much is enough?”

“People are leaving our community for Tennessee or Florida. When we moved here, the schools were in the top 5%. Now it’s around the 50% mark. Where people are moving to, you pay less in taxes and get better schools for it.”

“We found out that Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave money to the campaign to pass this tax. One of our members found out that 87% of campaign donations to our board chair were actually from unions outside of Kane County. So, a lot of this was more about the wishes of political insiders and less about the needs of the people in the county.”

“At first it seemed like they wanted to quietly sneak this through. When these guys were going door to door, it was like 80% to 90% of people hadn’t even heard the issue was on the ballot.”

“The group has grown from 20 people in 2022 to just over 900 in three years.  We had yard signs, we had a website, we did a few visits with radio shows. And of course, thousands of doors these guys knocked on. The end result was a landslide – 75% to 25%, with 300,000 people voting.”

“The fact is, if you do get involved, you really can make a difference.”

Larry Bettag
Kane County Speaks
St. Charles, Illinois

Michelle Bettag

“Attending these county board meetings, we were dumbfounded by the incompetence, the lack of reality. The budget has increased something like 80% in the last four years.”

“When they proposed this new tax, it was not a small gap in the budget they wanted to patch. This was big bucks – $51 million a year, every year.”

“We knew we had to step in and stop this because, one, that’s a big burden on the public, and two, those kinds of gaps aren’t solved by just taking in more money. You have to change your spending habits.”

“Often, when people want bigger government, they believe more spending will help the poor. But tax measures like this only make people poorer. A retail tax like this is going to be hardest on the people who are already close to their limits.”

“The way they promoted this was that the money would be for safety. However, the funds weren’t actually earmarked. They would just go into the general fund.”

“Now that the public has voted it down, there have been some sarcastic comments from the board as they’ve been discussing what to do next. Like, ‘Oh, well, since the public didn’t want safety.’ The other day someone attending finally spoke up and said, ‘We didn’t vote against safety. We voted against spending, and you know it.’”

“A grassroots campaign like this would not have been possible without the wide variety of talented people who we had in our group. We have doctors. We have lawyers. Bill Broderick here built us this great website. So, when we go before the board, it’s not just whining about paying too much in taxes: we have our research.”

Michelle Bettag
Kane County Speaks
St. Charles, Illinois

Brian Anderson

“The board first floated this retail tax idea in October of last year, right around election time. As the board tells it, we knew there was this budget shortfall coming and we’ve been kicking the can down the road for several years.”

“But the shortfall isn’t from a lack of tax revenue: it’s from too much spending. COVID money is gone, but they’ve been budgeting as if it would last forever.”

“For example, they wanted to spend $110 million on a new government building, $30 million on a new health care building. They didn’t need either of those. Our group was able to stop both of those proposals, but not before they already spent $750,000 on architectural plans.”

“Now they have to do the real work of actually putting together a budget that’s balanced. It’s time to say ‘no’ to things. It’s time to put the brakes on projects.”

“You can go back and listen to the recording of the very first finance committee meeting after this got voted down. It’s mind-blowing; an hour-long video of backbiting and blaming each other. Unfortunately, they did not get to any resolution yet.”

“We called the campaign against this tax our ‘Had Enough?’ campaign. When we were door knocking, this was a nonpartisan issue. Independents, Democrats, and Republicans all agreed ‘I have had enough. We’re paying too much.’”

“That’s why this ended up being the biggest municipal election turnout Kane County has seen in 20 years. Most people when we first reached out to them hadn’t even heard that this was an issue on the ballot. But once they knew, it was obviously important to them.”

Brian Anderson
Kane County Speaks
Sugar Grove, Illinois

Bill Broderick

“An important part of their campaign was that they could partition these funds and spend them for something specific like safety. In fact, it was just a part of the general fund.”

“We had a great response from the public as soon as we started campaigning on this. Typically, if we approached anybody, they were shocked that another tax increase was on the ballot.”

“The reaction of the public was one thing. The reaction of the county was another.”

“The political class is all about growing government. That’s their job security, their careers. It’s at odds with our interests, which is less government. So, it’s a constant conflict.”

Bill Broderick
Kane County Speaks
St. Charles, Illinois