Voter Ok Injury Payout Proposal

Schaumburg Township voters agreed Tuesday to raise their property taxes to pay a $5 million settlement in a personal-injury lawsuit, but other ballot proposals got a cool reception across the northwest suburbs.

In the Carpenstersville area, residents of District 300 rejected a $78.9 million bond issue that would have been used primarily to build two schools and additions to nine existing buildings. Elgin voters, meanwhile, refused to raise their taxes to build a library.

But Schaumburg and Palatine residents agreed to abolish the position of township school treasurer and the three-person panel to which the treasurer reports. And Barrington voters approved financing for a new Village Hall and a combined fire and police station.

While the outcomes were mixed, one constant in all of the northwest suburban races was low voter turnout. Across Cook County, only 10.9 percent of the 3.1 million registered voters went to the polls.

In an oddly worded ballot question, Schaumburg Township voters were asked only whether they township's "debt service extension base" should be set at $400,000 annually. Officials wanted the money to settle a lawsuit filed by Maria Reyes, a jogger who suffered permanent brain damage in 1994 after being hit by a township bus in Hoffman Estates.

Unofficial results showed 63 percent of voters approved the measure, staving off a court battle that township officials had feared could cost taxpayers more.

At the time Reyes was struck, the township had only $2 million in insurance. Reyes sued for $9 million and settled for $5 million in August.

"We're just really grateful to the voters for this," Township Supervisor Linda Wing said. Reyes' lawyer, Robert Clifford , said: "Even though it's a bitter pill to swallow, the voters have truly done the right thing for this young lady."

In the Carpentersville area, final but unofficial returns showed that 72 percent of Kane County voters and 60 percent of McHenry County voters opposed the District 300 bond issue. "I can assure the public that we'll be back in the spring [election]," said Charles Chamberlain, vice president of the District 300 board.

The district's request as the largest bond issue on the ballot Tuesday and was needed, school officials said, to accommodate the soaring student enrollment.

The bond proposal would have translated into a 4.5 percent tax increase, or about $82 a year, for the owner of a $150,000 home.

Elgin voters also refused to increase their taxes to build a library. The Gail Borden Public Library, built nearly 20 years ago to serve about 70,000 residents, is now struggling to meet the needs of 100,000.

In a two-part referendum proposal, 55 percent of voters rejected a $28 million bond issue needed to build the library, and 59 percent rejected the tax increase needed to run it.

In Schaumburg and Palatine, residents sided with officials in Elementary School Districts 54 and 15, who have for years urged doing away with the position of the township school treasurer and the three-person panel to which the treasurer reports.

Fifty-three percent of voters in District 54 and 80 percent of voters in District 15 voted to abolish the positions.

But 23 township school treasurers remain on the job in Cook, signing district checks, keeping keys to the safety deposit boxes that hold district deeds and watching district investments.

In Barrington, 63 percent of voters approved financing for a new Village Hall and a combined fire and police station. The $13 million initiative will be largely underwritten by a $10 million bond issue that would raise municipal taxes by about 20 percent. Voters rejected a similar request in 1995.

About 70 percent of Palatine voters approved a fee increase needed to improve the town's 911 system. The current system relies on 20-year-old radio transmitters and runs on vacuum tubes. Its signal often cannot penetrate basements and high-rises or reach far-flung corners of the village.

Improvements will require increasing the 30-cent monthly fee paid by villagers to 75 cents.

Hoffman Estates voters easily approved allowing their village to "adopt the managerial form of government"-not that it will have much practical effect. The village already has a manager, and approval simply meant that changing the current form of government would require voter approval.