Palatine Gets Serious

By Kevin Robinson in News on Mar 14, 2008 2:49PM

Palatine Republicans are so fed up with Cook County's sales tax hike, that they're taking their push for secession to the General Assembly. "It's a political powder keg to a certain extent," state Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine told the Daily Herald. Murphy introduced a bill into the state senate last month that would make it easier for municipalities to leave the county. State Rep. Suzanne Bassi, a fellow Palatine Republican, introduced the same bill to the house earlier this week.

"This is not a joke. … If the city of Chicago is not going to pay attention to the suburbs, by golly, we should be seriously looking at secession," Bassi told the Herald. Currently Statute 55, Division 1-3 of state law requires a majority of voters in the proposed new county to sign petitions to put the question on the ballot, submit the petitions to the county board, and then convince the board to put the question to a vote of all county residents. The state constitution requires a three-fifths majority vote of the existing county to break away.
Image via RUNFAR