Winnebago County’s Harlem School District 122 has taken the first step that could raise the sales tax in the entire county to pay for school construction.  The school district’s board will decide whether they will pursue to have the proposal presented to voters.

For the sales tax referendum to be on the ballot, it has to be approved by the county’s school districts that combined represent at least half of the county’s students. 

However, this may not be the best time to propose a tax hike on Winnebago, because the sales tax was already increased in 2002 for public safety purposes, and in Rockford and Machesney Park, there have already been sales tax increases to fund road and infrastructure improvement that were implemented last year.

Winnebago, the first district to pass a countywide sales tax increase for school construction is estimated to collect $7 million.  Estimates for Winnebago, which is a larger county, should be even higher.

Click link below: “Rockford Register Star” to read the article.

Harlem board to look at countywide sales tax initiative

By Katie Backman

RRSTAR.COM

Posted Aug 23, 2008 @ 12:02 AM