Prof. Laurie Reynolds, University of Illinois College of Law, (offers) several web sites (four are below) that provide a wide range of information about home rule

"I believe that they (the sites) are all balanced in their treatment of the scope of home rule. The study posted on the Winnetka site may be particularly useful. It analyzes the data to see whether the popular perception that home rule status will produce an unleashed "tax and spend" local government (is accurate)......"

" The Citizen Advocacy Center piece strikes me as non-partisan and full of accurate information."

Illinois Home Rule: A Case Study in Fiscal Responsibility
James M. Banovetz*
http://www.celdf.org/portals/0/pdf/Home%20Rule%20in%20Illinois.pdf#search=%22%22Illinois%20Home%20Rule%3A%20A%20Case%20Study%20in%20Fiscal%20Responsibility%22%22

* James M. Banovetz is professor emeritus and director emeritus of the Division of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. An internationally renowned expert on local government and local government management, Banovetz is recognized as the foremost authority on home rule in Illinois.

The study looks at the use of tax powers, made over a 30 year period, by Illinois' home rule municipalities which have one of the broadest grants of tax powers given by any state to its local government officials.

When the 1970 Illinois Constitution took effect on July 1, 1971, a total of 67 cities and villages automatically gained home rule authority by virtue of meeting the constitution's standard of having a population of 25,000 or more persons.7 By the time of the November 2000 elections, that number had grown to 147 municipalities. In the intervening years, twelve more cities gained home rule by population growth, 72 had adopted home rule by referendum, and four lost home rule status by referendum. Since the Constitution and its home rule system took effect thirty years ago, over seven million Illinois residents-well over half of the state's population have lived in a local government exercising home rule powers. "Thus it is safe to conclude that Illinois and its residents have had widespread experience with municipal home rule."

"Illinois Home Rule: A Thirty Year Assessment"
http://www.cgsniu.org/publications/policy_profiles/policy_v1n1.pdf
Policy Profiles, (a publication of the Center for Governmental Studies, Northern Illinois University), February 2001.

Home rule in Illinois: No. 4. Local actions
http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1975/ii7508243.html
FINAL ARTICLE IN A SERIES OF FOUR BY STEPHANIE COLE

A research associate at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, she is project director of the Illinois Home Rule Clearinghouse and Policy Analysis Project and editor of the Home Rule Newsletter published as part of the project.

Home rule has brought about a new, more open, relationship between state and local governments in Illinois. Whether this favorable climate for home rule will continue in the future remains to be seen. In the words of Local Government Committee member John Woods when he introduced home rule at "Con Con": "Home rule, many of you might know, is like sex–when it is good, it is very, very good, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good."

Home Rule and Local Government in Illinois: A Citizen's Guide
http://www.citizenadvocacycenter.org/homerule.htm
How much power does your municipality and county government have to regulate local affairs? For what types of projects can they raise funds, either by taxation or otherwise? These are questions that pertain to the issue of home rule.

Home rule is best defined as placing at the local level the power to tax and to regulate with broad discretion any function pertaining to government and local affairs. This brochure sets forth a brief history of home rule, how a municipality or county adopts home rule status, and an analysis of the powers of home rule and non-home rule units of local government.