Hawthorn voters have four decisions waiting on the 2026 local ballot, and three of them land on your property tax bill. Ballot measures are drafted by lawyers to survive court challenges, which is why they read like insurance policies. This is the plain version: what each measure does, what the arguments on both sides actually are, and how to work out what it costs your household before you vote.

The short version: four measures, three with a bill attached

Measure numbers and titles can shift slightly from precinct to precinct, so treat your own sample ballot as the version that counts. In broad strokes, here is what is in front of you.

• The street levy — renews property tax funding for road, sidewalk and drainage repair, with a set expiration date rather than a permanent increase.
• The school bond — lets the school district borrow money now for building repairs and construction, repaid through property taxes over decades.
• The parks levy — a smaller, separate tax for upkeep: mowing, trail repair, restrooms, tree work.
• The charter amendment — a change to the city's charter, the document that sets the ground rules for how Hawthorn governs itself. No tax attached.

Notice that two of the three money measures are levies, not bonds, and that distinction does most of the work in these campaigns. A levy collects a set amount each year for a set number of years. A bond borrows a large sum up front and pays it back with interest. Both draw on the same property tax bill, but they behave very differently once approved.

Measure 1: the street levy

This one funds the work you notice when it's missing — pothole patching, sidewalk panel replacement, storm drains that back up in a hard rain, and the crack sealing that keeps a decent road from becoming a bad one. The money typically goes into a dedicated fund, which means it can't be swept into the general budget for something else. That's the selling point supporters lean on hardest.

The case for it, and the case against

Supporters argue that deferring maintenance is the expensive choice: a road resurfaced on schedule costs far less than one rebuilt from the base up, and a dedicated fund keeps the work on a schedule instead of at the mercy of each year's budget squeeze. Critics counter that the general fund should already be covering basic infrastructure, that layering another levy on top of existing bills is not the way to fix a backlog, and that voters deserve a straight answer about how the backlog grew in the first place. Both arguments are worth reading in the official voter pamphlet, where local residents file the written statements for and against.

Measure 2: the school bond

What a bond actually is

A bond is a mortgage. The district borrows a large amount at once, builds or repairs what it needs, and repays the debt with interest over roughly twenty to thirty years. That structure suits construction, where costs are front-loaded, and it generally cannot be used for salaries or day-to-day operations. Because the total includes interest, the amount you pay over the life of the bond is larger than the headline figure in the ballot text.

Bond measures often need a higher approval threshold than a simple majority, and the rule varies by state and by the type of measure. Check the instructions on your sample ballot rather than assuming. If it passes, the district is normally required to appoint an independent citizens' oversight committee and to keep bond money in a separate account with published audits. If that oversight language matters to you, read it in the measure text — it's one of the few parts of these documents written in something close to plain English.

Measure 3: the parks levy

Capital projects get the ribbon cuttings; maintenance gets the invoice. This measure covers the second category — the mowing crews, the trail gravel, the playground inspection, the plumbing in the restrooms by the ball fields. It is usually the smallest line on your bill of the three tax measures, and the argument is straightforward: a park that isn't maintained becomes a liability instead of an asset.

The counterargument is equally straightforward. If the city has already paid to build the park, why does keeping it open require a separate vote? Opponents often want the parks department funded from the existing budget, or want to see a plan for the levy to sunset. Either way, it's a smaller decision than the street levy, and it's worth deciding on its own merits rather than voting the whole slate up or down.

Measure 4: the charter amendment

No tax, no bonds, no obvious cost — which is exactly why this one tends to get the least attention and sometimes the most consequence. A city charter is the local constitution: it says which offices are elected, how long terms run, and when elections happen. Amendments to it are usually procedural, but procedures decide who has power and how hard it is to remove them.

The practical questions to ask: does this change who voters get to elect, or how the city fills a vacancy? Does it move city elections onto the same ballot as state and federal races? Consolidating election dates generally saves money and raises turnout, though local issues can get buried further down a long ballot. If the amendment changes an elected position to an appointed one, that's a real transfer of authority away from voters, and it deserves a read even if it costs nothing.

How to read the tax numbers on your ballot

Ballot language almost always describes cost as a rate, not a dollar amount, and that's where most people give up. You can do the arithmetic at your kitchen table in a few minutes.

1. Find your assessed value — the figure on your county assessor's record or your latest tax statement. It is not your market value and it is definitely not an online home estimate.
2. Find the rate in the ballot text. It's usually written per $100 of assessed value.
3. Divide your assessed value by 100, then multiply by the rate.
4. Subtract any exemptions you qualify for — homestead, senior, veteran or disability exemptions can reduce the taxable value.
5. Multiply by the number of years the measure runs if you want the total, not just the annual hit.

As an illustration of the method only: if your assessed value were $200,000 and the ballot listed a rate of 25 cents per $100, the annual cost would come to $500. Substitute your own numbers and the rate printed on your ballot; you'll get an answer that matters.

Renters, don't skip this section entirely. Property taxes get passed through to rents over time, though how much and how quickly depends on the market and your lease. If you own and this is a significant sum, it's worth a conversation with a tax professional about how it interacts with your deductions and exemptions — a ballot explainer can show you the math, but not your personal tax picture.

Before you fill in the bubble

Do the reading now, not in the booth. The county voter pamphlet carries the official text plus the filed arguments for and against each measure, and those arguments name the people making them — which tells you more than any campaign mailer. Confirm your registration and your polling place, and if you vote by mail, check the postmark and drop-box deadlines rather than trusting the date on the envelope.

Then decide each measure separately. Renewing a road levy and authorizing a thirty-year bond are not the same decision, and neither is the same as a two-line change to how the city files its paperwork. Four items, four votes, four separate reasons — that's the whole job.

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