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Home rule means different things in different states. In Illinois, it means that there is no limit on the debt the municipality can take on; allows for new property fines, fees, and regulations to be imposed; and provides for property tax increases \u2013 all without voter approval. So, when the city of East Moline in the northwest of the state put a home-rule referendum on the ballot last spring, Quad City REALTORS\u00ae knew they needed to educate voters about the risks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the City of East Moline sought to achieve home rule, the REALTORS\u00ae recognized that the new status would likely lead to higher taxes. Armed with the results of focus group research, they devised a persuasive campaign that fended off the threat, defeating the ballot measure by 68%.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[1277,414,593],"class_list":["post-23696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-illinois-realtors","tag-issues-mobilization","tag-quad-city"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23759,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23696\/revisions\/23759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
They tapped into the power of REALTOR\u00ae Party resources, turning to the state association for assistance. Gideon Blustein, Illinois REALTORS\u00ae\u2019 Senior Director of Advocacy Programs, began by looking at local voter demographics and trends as revealed by recent in-depth polling conducted with the REALTOR\u00ae Party. \u201cLike any good campaign strategy, we wanted to meet local residents where they were at. We knew proponents of home rule would have their own messaging, so it was important that we gave the voters the other side of the issue.\u201d
Convening a mini-focus group of local REALTORS\u00ae familiar with East Moline revealed insights that informed a winning Issues Mobilization campaign strategy. \u201cThe focus groups made it clear that while it might be considered a bit of an underdog among neighboring towns, East Moline had been making lots of progress in recent years in things like public and private property investment, attracting commercial businesses, and nightlife,\u201d explains Blustein. \u201cBased on these points of civic pride, we developed a campaign whose principal message was \u2018Don\u2019t Stop the Progress,\u2019 emphasizing that home rule could bring East Moline\u2019s positive trajectory to a grinding halt. We also drew attention to the fact that home rule status would raise the cost of living and discourage new businesses from choosing to locate there.\u201d
The two-month campaign involved a landing page, digital and tv advertising, and a series of direct mailers featuring messages such as: \u201cEast Moline has seen amazing progress in recent years. From housing investments to retail and grocery shopping to restaurants and entertainment \u2013 East Moline is heading in the right direction. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to vote no on home rule: if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it!\u201d In an unlooked-for windfall, the city itself created a website promoting home rule, from which the REALTORS\u00ae were able to pull statements to use in their campaign against the concept. \u201cWe used their direct quotes in our messaging, to show that the city intended to use the power of home rule to expand its taxing and regulatory authority,\u201d notes Blustein.
To close the campaign strong, these efforts were supplemented by targeted get-out-the-vote calls and text messages in the days before the election. Just as the REALTOR\u00ae polling and focus groups had predicted, the strategic messaging prevailed and the ballot measure was defeated by a whopping 68%.
To learn more about how Illinois REALTORS\u00ae is working with local associations to fend-off home rule status that would likely lead to property tax increases, contact Gideon Blustein, Senior Director of Advocacy Programs, at\u00a0gblustein@illinoisrealtors.org<\/a>\u00a0or 847.899.1873.<\/p>\n