Kewanee residents react after sales tax increase is voted down
Just 21 votes. That’s all it took to overturn a sales tax vote in Kewanee on Illinois primary night. Voters in Kewanee were asked to approve a half-percentage-point sales tax. Money would have been used to pay for some infrastructure projects, including streets, sidewalks and storm drains.
Our Quad Cities News reached out to a group of residents from Kewanee on social media, where more than 70 people replied back with frustrations on both sides of the issue. Many who went to the polls say the city should have done a better job informing people on the benefits of the tax increase. Some say the referendum could have paved the way for smoother roads, and less damaged cars.
“You see bent stuff underneath of it and broken things that should not be broken yet,” said Nick Davis, a Shop Manager at Kewanee Pit Stop. “Being underneath people’s cars, it’s kind of hard to tell them hey you’ve got some tire issues, and alignment issues.”
Severely damaged roads in Kewanee call for more mechanics needing to help residents. The Kewanee Pit Stop has seen an uptick in vehicles coming in with notable damage likely caused by bad roads. Nick Davis is a manager there, and says he and the owner of Kewanee Pit Stop voted yes on the sales tax levy, because he’s seen first hand the damage that can be caused by damaged roads.
“About 75 percent of our tire repairs that come through here are definitely because of the roads,” Davis said. “I live on a country road and don’t get nails on my tires too much. But, here in town it’s at least once or twice a day. My phone rings off the hook at least three to five times a day wanting to know if we do some type of alignments.”
Not everyone in Kewanee agreed to vote yes on the sales tax levy, but the issue of bad roads still remains in effect.
“I would’ve voted no,” said Jennifer Lucas, a Project Now Head Start Teacher. “They were supposed to fix our roads two years ago, and they upped our taxes so much already as it is. The gas prices are going up, and look what we have so far. The roads are still not good.”
Jennifer Lucas has lived in Kewanee for 45 years, and she says the roads have gotten progressively worse only the last two years.
“I don’t think they’ll use it for all of Kewanee itself,” Lucas said. “My street, along with other streets, should have been fixed a long time ago. I’m still swerving missing potholes and that was two years ago.”
City officials are moving on after the votes showed residents didn’t want the sales tax increase.
“We’re going to try and use this lesson and take what we’ve heard and learned from the voters, and try to use it,” said Kewanee City Manager Gary Bradley. “We want to try and make it as positive as we can.”
For voters in Kewanee, they’ll have to wait and see if the city decides to create another way of restoring roads throughout the area. Bradley says the sale tax levy would have given the city $800,000 a year, and $8 million over 10 years to repair roads, sidewalks and storm drains. As for the sales tax levy potentially being on the November ballot, Bradley told Our Quad Cities News he did not want to speculate whether or not it would appear on the ballot in November.
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