Counties across the 18th district are tightening their wallets. Between government cuts, unfunded mandates, and now, the special election, counties across the region are scrambling to meet certain requirements. Tazewell County officials say the special election will run them close to $200,000, aand this is on top of an upcoming unfunded mandate putting counties like Tazewell in a tough spot. “We’re kind of up against the gun right now,” Tazewell County Board Chairman David Zimmerman said. A new mandate from the state requires all counties to have same day voter registration by June 1st. “We’re going to have to have a computer or a tablet plus a hotspot or an air card in every one of these facilities,” Zimmerman said.
At first, the $160,000 price tag and time frame was not a problem. The implementation was supposed to be June 1st,” Tazewell County Clerk Christie Webb said. “We just anticipated that the March of 16 primaries is when we would have to have this technology up,” Zimmerman added.
Now that’s not the case.
With Aaron Schock’s resignation prompting a special election, the implementation time just got a lot shorter and the budget a lot tighter. “It will be around $200,000 that we didn’t have budgeted,” Zimmerman said.
Full Article: Unfunded mandate and special election puts pressure on counties – CIProud.