Home rule and population growth

EDITOR: The recent article on home rule by Elizabeth Hopp-Peters was very well done and quite informative. With Springfield politicians calling the shots in Rockford, it won't be long before, hopefully, home rule will be voted back in as Rockford citizens realize what they have done.

Ms. Hopp-Peters also mentions that the population of the Village of Lisle "doubled to 15,000" since the vote (to abandon home rule), implying that people enjoy the non-home-rule climate. The population of Lisle was over 10,000 in 1977. Today according to the 1980 census it has a population of 13,638. So the population has neither doubled nor reached 15,000. Lisle is not typical of the average Illinois community. It was recently incorporated (1956) and is growing for reasons unrelated to the home-rule issue. It is a young community and has room to grow — an expanding tax base. Let's see what happens when this growth ends and there is still a demand for more taxes. Lombard, which is mentioned, has a population of 36,879, not 32,000 as stated by Ms. Hopp-Peters. Lombard has lost population in the last few years, again an issue which has little, if anything, to do with home rule.

Peter Lennon
Chicago

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January 1984/I/linois Issues/43