Taxation power and home-rule

The city of Rockford will be subject to all statutory limitations on the power of taxation generally applicable to non-home-rule municipalities if the referendum as to the city's status passes and Rockford ceases to be a home-rule unit. (Rockford lost its home-rule status when voters decided the question April 12.) Section 7 of Article VII of the 1970 Illinois Constitution outlines the powers of counties and municipalities which are not home-rule units. This section embodies the principle of "Dillon's Rule" (J. Dillon, Municipal Corporations 448-50 (5th ed. 1911)) which states that a municipal corporation can possess and exercise only those powers which are granted in express words or implied in the powers expressly granted or essential to the accomplishment of the declared objects of the corporation. If Rockford ceases to be a home-rule unit, it will be subject to "Dillon's Rule," since the repeal of a statute takes away all right to exercise powers granted by the statute (Illinois and Michigan Canal v. City of Chicago (1853), 14 Ill. 334, 335-36). The fact that a municipality previously levied a tax pursuant to its home-rule powers does not permit the municipality to continue to levy taxes in excess of the statutory limitation after it ceases to be a home-rule unit. There is one exception to this rule. A municipality which levies and extends a tax under home-rule powers for debt service purposes will not be affected by a subsequent return to non-home-rule status, because the levy will be complete before the municipality ceases to be a home-rule unit. (File No. 83-005)

June 1983 | Illinois Issues | 29