When the county board of any county deems it necessary to issue county bonds to enable them to perform any of the duties imposed upon them by law, they may, by an order, entered of record, specifying the amount of bonds required, and the object for which they are to be issued, submit to the legal voters of their county, at any election, the question of issuing such county bonds. The county board shall certify the question to the proper election officials who shall submit the question at an election in accordance with the general election law. The amount of the bonds so issued shall not exceed, including the then existing indebtedness of the county, 5.75% of the value of such taxable property of such county, as ascertained by the assessment for the State and county tax for the preceding year or, until January 1, 1983, if greater, the sum that is produced by multiplying the county's 1978 equalized assessed valuation by the debt limitation percentage in effect on January 1, 1979. The proposition shall be in substantially the following form: "For county bonds", or "Against county bonds", and if a majority of the votes on that question shall be "For county bonds", such county board may issue such bonds in such denominations as the county board may determine of not less than $25 each, payable respectively, in not less than one, nor more than 20 years, with interest payable annually or semi-annually, at the rate of not more than the greater of (i) the maximum rate authorized by the Bond Authorization Act, as amended at the time of the making of the contract, or (ii) 8% per annum. This Section shall not require submission to the voters of the county of bond issues authorized to be issued without such submission to the voters under Section 5-1027 or 5-1062 or under Division 5-33, 6-6, 6-8 or 6-27 of this Code.
With respect to instruments for the payment of money issued under this Section or its predecessor either before, on, or after the effective date of Public Act 86-4, it is and always has been the intention of the General Assembly (i) that the Omnibus Bond Acts are and always have been supplementary grants of power to issue instruments in accordance with the Omnibus Bond Acts, regardless of any provision of this Act or "An Act to revise the law in relation to counties", approved March 31, 1874, that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts, (ii) that the provisions of this Section or its predecessor are not a limitation on the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts, and (iii) that instruments issued under this Section or its predecessor within the supplementary authority granted by the Omnibus Bond Acts are not invalid because of any provision of this Act or "An Act to revise the law in relation to counties", approved March 31, 1874, that may appear to be or to have been more restrictive than those Acts.
55 ILCS 5/5-1012