Boone County Asks Residents to Consider Tax Increase for Veterans

BELVIDERE - Residents of Boone County will now have two tax referendums before them on the April ballot.  Wednesday night, the Boone County board voted unanimously to put a referendum on the ballot asking voters if they support a property tax increase of .03% to help fund a new Veterans Assistance Commission created last year.  The county is required to fund the new Boone County Veterans Assistance Commission by state law, but they can't afford it and now they're hoping taxpayers will pick up the pieces.

Gregory Kelm, president of the newly formed Boone County Veterans Assistance Commission, says Winnebago, McHenry & DeKalb counties all have their own vet assistance programs.  Kelm also serves as VFW Post 1461's commander.  He says it's about time Boone County had one.

"After talking about it and looking at it, we could see there truly was a need for some of our veterans in the community," said Kelm. 

Approximately 3,500 veterans, from all foreign wars, live in Boone County.  Kelm says some of those people need help paying for medicine or food.  They sought assistance from Winnebago County's program, but because they don't live in Winnebago County, Boone County veterans can't receive aid.  Kelm says this is what the commission was created to do.

"This is emergency help," said Kelm.  "It's not where everybody signs up, you get a check in the mail and that's the end of that."

The problem is that the Boone County Board didn't have a say in creating the commission, but because of state law, funding it still lands on their shoulders.

"That would have to come out of our monies we have now," said Bob Walberg, Boone County Board chairman. 

"Our present budget is extremely tight, in fact we will probably be making cuts and doing different things to try to accommodate our 2013-2014 expenses."

So instead, the board asked for a referendum to fund the commission. 

"It's asking for 3 cents on a 100 dollars evaluation and so that will produce roughly just under $300,000 using last year's numbers," said Walberg.

Voters in Boone County decided against a sales tax increase for schools in the November elections, and that's the concern many county board members have is that voters will reject this referendum too.  Kelm says he's confident voters will approve.

"I'm very confident because of the last six years I've spent as the commander of the VFW and I've seen the support that this community, Boone County, really gives its veterans."

If voters fail to approve the referendum on April 9, the funding dilemma will fall back on the county again.