Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler announced Wednesday that he is running for re-election, challenging Madison County Treasurer Chris Slusser in the Republican primary in March 2024.
Prenzler said he chose to run for re-election so he can continue advocating for Madison County working families.
“I must continue to fight against higher taxes, government interference, corruption, and erosion of our values,” he said.
“As an elected official, I have consistently fought against higher taxes,” he added. “This has been good for both families and businesses, and taxpayers know we must continue this fight.”
Prenzler said he became the first Republican elected County Board Chairman in 2016.
Immediately afterwards, he led an effort to collect 10,000 signatures to put a tax cut on the ballot and reduce the county maximum general fund tax rate from $.25 to $.20. The measure was approved by voters, and the county’s levy was reduced from $32.6 million to $30.8 million.
“The county government tax rate has fallen from $.733 in 2015 to $.481 today, a 34 percent reduction,” Prenzler said. “To use a home in Edwardsville as an example, 10.1 percent of the tax bill in 2015 went to county government. Now it’s 6.6 percent.”
Prior to becoming chairman, Prenzler was first elected as Madison County Treasurer in 2010. He was re-elected treasurer again in 2014.
During his time as treasurer, Prenzler said he reformed county investments, reformed the tax sale process and reduced his budget by 30 percent.
He also worked to stop a county-wide 1 percent sales tax that was presented on the ballot in 2011, 2017 and 2018. He said that if the increase had passed, sales taxes today would exceed 10 percent in parts of Madison County.
Then in 2013, the Madison County Board passed a referendum to borrow $18.8 million without voter approval through the backdoor referendum loophole. Prenzler led a campaign to put the referendum on the ballot, collecting 23,600 signatures. The measure was rejected by voters.
Issues supported by Prenzler
As County Board Chairman, Prenzler has been and continues to be a supporter of the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL), which was rejected by the county board in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023.
“Whereas, during my time as Chairman, county government has limited taxes, there’s one more thing the county board can do for taxpayers, and that’s putting PTELL on the ballot for voters to decide,” he said.
“If approved by voters, PTELL would limit property tax levy increases to the lesser of 5 percent or the rate of inflation,” he added. “It would also get rid of the backdoor referendum trick, which allows districts to raise taxes without voter approval.”
Prenzler also advocates for switching outside auditors every six years to ensure that they are acting independently. He said the county board has voted to continue using the same auditing firm for 23 years.
Additionally, Prenzler actively opposes the drag queen story events hosted for children at the Collinsville and Glen Carbon libraries in 2022. He led an effort to put an advisory question of public policy on the November 2022 ballot, asking voters whether it was appropriate for tax-supported libraries and schools to promote drag queen events to children.
“Seventy percent of Glen Carbon voters said no, and I believe that opinion would be even higher in other parts of the county,” he said. “These drag queen events are aimed at children, protecting our children should be our first priority.”
As chairman, Prenzler also disagreed with Illinois’ one-size-fits-all approach to Covid lockdowns. In May 2020, he asked the County Board to pass a resolution to re-open the county, which was approved 26 to two.
“In recent years, we have seen government wanting more control, for example Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and Covid policy, and of course more spending and taxes,” he said. “That’s uppermost of my decision to run again. At the county level, we need to protect our rights and resist unnecessary tax increases.”