Rantoul

Both Champaign Unit 4 and Rantoul Township High School boards have voted to support a November ballot question asking voters for a one percent sales tax increase to support education.  Both Districts are using a miniscule amount of property tax relief to mask their request for the largest-possible tax increase, as have most other area school districts, and most media reports are emphasizing the property tax relief as if it somehow offsets the sales tax revenue which will be generated.

It will be interesting to see if the County Board puts the full one-percent increase on the ballot, or if they settle for a smaller amount.

And it will be interesting to see how long the "this is about property tax relief" storyline is allowed to play out before people realize that the sales tax revenues of a one percent increase are several times larger than the maximum amount of property tax relief allowable.

This happened Friday.

The village board asked for Johnston's resignation following a closed session Wednesday evening to discuss personnel, Williams said. He said that he presented Johnston, who has served since September 2004, with the board's concerns on Thursday, and Johnston responded with his letter on Friday.

"This will afford David the opportunity to explore other ventures," Williams said.

Johnston's departure comes two weeks after village board members publicly expressed concerns over proposed sweeping changes to the village's zoning ordinance that Johnston had supported. Those changes set minimum standards on how the exterior of new buildings should look.

"David and I agree that there are some philosophical differences that have become very apparent lately between himself and the board," Williams said. "It was decided that the best way to resolve this situation would be through an amicable resignation."

More bad news for Rantoul, which could sorely use some good news:

Collins & Aikman Corp. will close all three of its auto-parts plants in Rantoul, putting more than 500 people out of work, Village Administrator David Johnston said.

Johnston said the company notified the village Tuesday that permanent layoffs will begin as soon as Friday and continue through July 20. He said negotiations to sell the plant to Cadence Innovation broke down, resulting in the closure.

This has been in the works for a while, but it's still no fun getting the confirmation.

Tom Kacich (whose blog finally has a "clean" URL!) has the 2006 Census Bureau population estimates for Champaign County communities:

Champaign 73,685, up from 67,518 in the 2000 census
Urbana 38,685, up from 36,395 in 2000

...

Rantoul 12,309, down from 12,867 in 2000
Philo 1,560, up from 1,314 in 2000
St. Joseph 3,780, up from 2,912 in 2000
Mahomet 5,882, up from 4,877 in 2000
Sidney 1,101, up from 1,062 in 2000
Sadorus 399, down from 426 in 2000
Royal 272, down from 279 in 2000
Pesotum 498, down from 521 in 2000
Homer 1,136, down from 1,200 in 2000
Tolono 2,784, up from 2,700 in 2000
Thomasboro 1,207, down from 1,233 in 2000

Discuss.

Rantoul works as hard at economic development as any small city I've seen.  Yet they can't seem to catch a break:

Collins & Aikman Corp. has notified employees at its Rantoul plants that the facilities could close in 60 days – even though Cadence Innovation has agreed to buy all three of them.

Collins & Aikman spokesman David Youngman confirmed Monday that all three plants in Rantoul are among the nine facilities Cadence plans to buy from Collins & Aikman.

But those plans are subject to approval by the bankruptcy court overseeing Collins & Aikman's case. The Southfield, Mich.-based auto parts supplier filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2005 and decided last fall it couldn't survive.

Collins & Aikman is Rantoul's largest employer. Village Administrator David Johnston said company officials recently told him 850 to 900 salaried and union employees remain on the company's rolls in Rantoul.

Ouch.  Here's hoping that the closings and layoffs don't occur.

The holy grail of economic development is business development. Every community is trying to attract more businesses so that the tax burden is shifted away from homeowners and onto businesses. After reading the news about Schnucks maybe going into Savoy, I did some checking to see how communities in our county are succeeding in this regard. Below are the percentages of the assessed values in our five largest towns (Mahomet, Rantoul, Savoy, Champaign, Urbana) which is commercial or industrial. Match the towns with their percentage.
UPDATE

Urbana    41.7%

Champaign    40.1%

Savoy    35.5%

Rantoul    31.5%

Mahomet     9.4%

Some might question these figures because commercial property includes apartment buildings.  Good for homeowners, but may not accurately reflect the tax burden on "people"

Not surprisingly, no one had Urbana at #1.

Overall in the county the percentage is 30.1%.

The talk in this town and certainly on this blog, has been that there is no way that Savoy could create their own transit system.  It would cost too much.  It would mean a tax hike.  Most critics of the village, and of the Southwest Champaign group, have ridiculed any transit solutions that don’t include the CUMTD.  Of course, either of these districts could easily say that they don’t want to provide any service.

Now comes Rantoul.  They are looking at creating a transit system in their community and they’re turning for ideas to the City of Pekin.  According to the News-Gazette article today, the Pekin transit system is funded by a combination of federal and state grants and rider fares.  No property taxes.  None.

The way this can be done is simple.  You tailor your transit system to meet your needs.  You don’t run unnecessary lines, or unnecessary services to areas that don’t want them.  From the sound of it, Rantoul likes the Pekin setup and now it will be up to the village to figure out a way to obtain the funding.

What it shows though is that every transit system doesn’t have to have the lofty goal of being the “Best Transit system in the country.”  It might be good enough to give your residents what they want.