Voters in the Bourbonnais Public Library District and the Momence Fire Protection District rejected tax hike requests in Tuesday's election, while voters in Central Community Unit School District 4 approved a separate school board residency proposal. In the library district, unofficial results showed 72% opposed the property tax hike and 28% in favor. In Momence, 62% opposed the fire district's request and 38% supported it.
The Bourbonnais result matters because the district said the money would have helped cover maintenance and expansion plans, from the parking lot and roof to the heating and cooling system, along with new group work spaces, study rooms and technical services. For a $300,000 home, the library share of property taxes would have risen from about $146 a year to about $272 if voters had said yes.
Those numbers land against a longer history: library officials said the district has been operating at the same property tax rate for more than 40 years, and Tuesday's vote was the first request to raise taxes since 1987. That made the rejection more than a routine budget setback. It cut off a proposed change that officials framed as overdue, even as voters chose not to shoulder the added cost.
The Momence outcome carried its own stakes. Fire district officials said the increase would have supported full-time staffing, expanded services to residents, equipment replacement and EMS service. The district serves Momence, covers about 92 square miles and about 16 miles of the Kankakee River, and its services overlap with parts of Sun River Terrace. Its force is made up of about 27 volunteers, with ambulance service outsourced. Under the rejected proposal, the owner of a $187,000 home would have paid about $346 a year to the district, up from about $147.
Unofficial results were reported with 86% of precincts in for the library district and 83% of precincts in for the fire district, leaving the overall vote count incomplete but the outcome clear. The school board proposal passed, but the two tax measures did not, and that leaves both local districts with the same question now: whether they try again with a smaller ask, a different plan or no new request at all.
