Champaign County voters approved a ballot measure this month creating a new elected county executive position. Will County is the only other county in Illinois that uses this form of government.  The Will County Executive, Larry Walsh, offered some advice on the transition.

Voters in Champaign County have three countywide referenda on the ballot this year.  Two of them are dueling proposals about whether to elect a countywide board chair or executive.  The third would raise the county’s sales tax one quarter of a percentage point for a period of twelve years, with the revenue slated to go toward facilities projects, including an expanded county jail at the satellite location in east Urbana.

In Champaign County, the Chamber of Commerce and the Farm Bureau think that a county executive would make government more effective. But the chair of the Champaign County Board isn’t so sure it would work.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Farm Burea are collecting petition signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot in Champaign County to convert the county government to a system that includes an elected county executive.