Signs popping up across Springfield make a blunt pitch to voters: “Landlord registration raises your taxes! Say no.”
The Springfield Area Landlord Association, which is behind the signs, said they’re meant to warn voters about what the group sees as the inevitable costs of a landlord registration program. On Nov. 3, Springfield voters will weigh in on an advisory referendum asking: “Shall the city of Springfield adopt a landlord registry, inspection, and licensing program similar to other Illinois cities?”
The referendum itself would not raise taxes. If the majority of Springfielders vote yes on the referendum and if the Springfield City Council chooses to adopt an ordinance based on it — not at all a certainty since the advisory referendum has no binding power — fees will almost certainly be imposed on landlords to register their properties. Supporters of the program say it will help pay for the costs of implementation while opponents say it will burden landlords with additional costs, which would then be passed on to the tenants.
The Illinois REALTORS are also campaigning against the referendum, sending out mailers with the headline: “The city of Springfield shouldn’t get a blank check” and warning that a landlord registry would be “a costly new bureaucracy and just more red tape,” although it makes no reference to taxes.
“Any fee charged by a municipality is a tax,” said Tony Nudo, president of the Springfield Area Landlord Association, the organization behind the signs.
Illinois, like most states, generally treats a fee tied to the cost of a service differently from a tax, which raises revenue for general government services. Still, Nudo said the signs are about raising awareness about all costs to residents.
Tyshianna Bankhead, executive director of the Faith Coalition for the Common Good, said she disagrees with Nudo’s characterization.
“There is no tax,” she said. “This is a proactive approach of using our current tax dollars.”
She also said taxpayers are already paying for neglected rentals through the legal costs of pursuing landlords who don’t keep their properties up to code and through the demolition of derelict properties. A proactive inspection program, she said, would ultimately cost the city less.
Nudo disagreed. He said the city would need to hire far more inspectors — it would need around 27 in his calculation — to cover the city’s rental housing if mandatory inspections were enacted, and he said taxes would need to go up to pay for the new hires. The city currently has six housing inspectors; Elgin and Joliet, which both require inspections, have 10, and Peoria, which has a complaint-based inspection program like Springfield’s, has 12.
The Faith Coalition’s proposed fees and Nudo’s predictions about the number of inspectors that would need to be hired are preliminary at this point. The specifics of a landlord registration, licensing and inspection program would ultimately be up to the City Council to decide with the input of groups such as the Faith Coalition and the Springfield Area Landlord Association.
The disagreement between the Springfield Area Landlord Association and the Faith Coalition about the costs of the program — and whether to call these costs “taxes” — stems from a more fundamental ideological divide. Bankhead told Illinois Times that “housing is a human right” earlier this month, but Nudo rejected that premise.
“Housing is not a basic human right. It’s a basic human necessity to have some kind of shelter. But nowhere in the constitution of the United States or the constitution of Illinois, nor any other state in the union is housing a basic human right,” he said.
Nudo also argued that mandatory inspections would violate the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure by the government, and warned that a landlord registration is a “socialist” or “communist step towards control of private property.”
Bankhead disagreed.
“When it comes to housing, it doesn’t matter if you are Republican or Democrat or Democratic Socialist,” she said. “No matter what party they’re in, people want to live in a house that is safe for their children and safe for them.”
The vote on Nov. 3 won’t settle these disagreements. The final call belongs to the City Council, which has twice declined to move forward with a landlord registry. But the referendum is a chance for voters to tell council members what they want done.
Proposed fees
The Faith Coalition for the Common Good, the organization behind the recent push to put the question to voters, has proposed a fee schedule:
• $20 per rental property, with an additional $20 fee per rental unit
• $75 reinspection fee
• $300 to reinstate a suspended permit, with an additional 10% interest per month for late suspended permits
This article appears in October 22-28, 2026.
