Madison County Citizens Must Collect 18,000 Signatures this Week

A grass roots organization in Madison County Illinois is requesting assistance from all concerned citizens to collect more than 18,000 signatures from registered voters necessary to place a controversial $18 million bond issue on the spring 2014 ballot.

The organization called Bonds on the Ballot believes that Madison County should use part of the $130 million dollars held in various reserve accounts to finance the county jail renovation rather than sell bonds to pay for it. “The county has money in reserves that could easily be used for this project,” said group spokesperson Rod Spears in Maryville. “The county has tax dollars we’ve already pain in and yet wants to raise our taxes to pay for another bond issue. Why would we do that?”

The county board voted to sell nearly $19 million of bonds to finance renovation of the county jail last month after nearly two months of contentious debate and concerns voiced from both political parties. Concerns from board members centered largely on how the project was going to be financed. “In general we support the renovations,” said county board member Mick Madison. “We disagree with how to pay for it and believe we should use at least some of our reserves and not borrow the entire amount.”

Bonds on Ballot has a phone number (618) 623-2796 for concerned citizens to contact them to sign a petition or help gather signatures. “I think everyone is really concerned about rising property taxes and if enough people pitch in and get 20 or 30 signatures from their friends and family we can get this on the ballot and let voters and not politicians decide.”

Registered Voters may sign petition at these locations:

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