The Lake County Council is borrowing, rather than taxing, its way to a balanced 2013 budget.
But as money pressures mount and its membership changes, so may its opposition to a local income tax.
A personal income tax on county residents and workers may be repugnant and should be a last resort, but may be inevitable, according to candidates for two council seats being given up by two tax opponents.
Lake County officials have been in defiance of a 2007 state law that imposed a property tax levy freeze five years ago. Downstate Republican legislators insist the law is meant to cure the county's over-reliance on property taxes, which burden business development.
The law's tax freeze will continue denying local government millions of dollars in potential revenue unless the county moves to a local income tax.
Despite rumors earlier this year the county would cave in and pass the tax, County Council members restated their opposition last summer, saying the tax, which exempts business income, would be unfair to working men and women who bear its full weight.
However, the council is confronted with ever-declining property tax revenue driven by a combination of the the levy freeze, a circuit breaker system placing additional limits on tax collections and a depressed real estate market resulting in lower assessments of property wealth on which taxes can be drawn.
The Lake Council Council opted against cutting more deeply into county government spending where 75 cents of every dollar is tied up in maintaining public safety through police, the jail and courts.
Instead, it borrowed $15 million to make ends meet next year and has left unanswered what happens in the coming years.
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