The Atlanta, Illinois, Public Library District recently bowed to public pressure and vacated an ordinance to impose a Library Building and Maintenance Tax rather than put the matter to vote in a referendum, according to the Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW).
The motion to vacate was raised and approved at a special meeting of the district, which the ECW attended and recorded.
According to the group's video, the district received a petition signed by registered voters under its jurisdiction requesting that the tax be put to voters during the 2018 general election. The board approved the tax of 0.02 percent at a meeting on July 13, 2017. The motion was quickly seconded and unanimously approved.
The ECW applauded the initiative of the Atlanta residents who circulated the petition and said trustee William Thomas was absent at the meeting -- the second he has missed this month -- and that the board still has a vacant position, which it should have filled immediately but has left empty for more than five months.
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