SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — If the proposed Illinois House Bill 3878 passes through the Senate, all documents filed through any recorder of deeds office would increase from $9 to $18.
The money collected by recorder of deeds offices goes directly into the state’s Rental Housing Support Program.
What that program does, Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said, seems like a secret.
“We’ve requested over the past several years [to know] where this revenue is going,” Ackerman said. “We never have been able to get from the State of Illinois a clear answer as to allocation of where all this funding is going.
“Every time they show us the grant numbers, there’s a lot of it that’s missing, so where’s the missing revenue? We’ve never had an explanation.”
Ackerman, Peoria County Clerk Rachael Parker, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael, Logan County Clerk Theresa Moore, Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson, Mason County Clerk Summer R. Brown, Woodford County Clerk Dawn Kupfer, Marshall County Clerk Jill Kenyon, Stark County Clerk Heather Hollis, and Fulton County Clerk Patrick O’Brian issued a joint statement on Monday, urging legislature not to pass it.
Ackerman said non-Collar counties largely have been shut out of the funding.
“The primary user of this program currently is the Chicago Housing Authority. I only have one housing authority in all of Tazewell County, and that’s the Pekin Housing Authority, and they haven’t seen a dime in grant funding from this program in over a decade,” he said.
“Peoria Housing Authority, when I talked to them, they seemed to indicate they didn’t think they’d received any funding from it. Everybody in the state pays into this program, but it seems like it’s only being utilized in a very small area.”
Central Illinois as a region in 2017 collected a little over $774,000 in such fees. Under the proposed legislature, that would increase to nearly $1.5 million.
Ackerman acknowledged Winnebago County and Rock Island received small allotments from the program, but Central Illinois has largely been left out.
“If they’re going to double this, where is this revenue going, and why isn’t it coming back down here to Central Illinois?”
A letter was sent in April by the county clerks to Central Illinois legislators, which Ackerman said was met partially with support.
“Haven’t heard from all of them, but a good chunk sent back they were receptive to our efforts. I think it’s important to point out, as well, just how infrequent it is all of us county clerks join together on an item like this,” he said.
“It’s a rarity. I don’t know of any time in the time I’ve been in here I’ve seen us all join together like this.”
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