Fox River Grove to ask voters for sales tax increase

Fox River Grove plans to ask residents for a sales tax increase in March in order to help spur future downtown redevelopment.

At a special board meeting Thursday night, trustees unanimously approved putting a referendum question on the ballot for the March primary elections asking for a quarter of one-percent sales tax increase. If approved, that would bring the sales tax in Fox River Grove to 7.25 percent, up from 7 percent, amounting to an additional $120,000 or so per year in revenues to the village, Village President Robert Nunamaker said.

The increase would mean an extra 25 cents in taxes for every $100 spent on goods, Trustee Steve Knar said. “We’re going to give (residents) a chance to have a say in what happens downtown. We have to somehow develop Route 14 as a sales-generating machine so we can operate this village,” he said.

In order to remain viable, Fox River Grove must redevelop its downtown, Nunamaker said.

“We’re going to cease to exist if we can’t figure out ways to increase revenue,” he said, pointing to increasing costs such as police pension funding and Illinois EPA clean water requirements.

Nunamaker said he recently met with consultant Terry Jenkins of Evanston-based Business Districts Inc., who advised the best course of action for Fox River Grove is to create a new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district downtown.

On Thursday night, board members also approved spending $25,000 for a TIF study, an expense that was already budgeted for this year. Trustees said that if the sales tax increase is approved, they plan to use the additional monies for the redevelopment of downtown. Based on the study’s results, that could include the creation of a new TIF district and the issuance of $1 million in bonds for that purpose, they said.

Trustee Suzanne Blohm said she would agree to a new TIF district only if its revenues are shared with other local taxing bodies, but trustee Gerald Menzel disagreed.

“If we don’t do anything, they’re still going to get nothing. I am not going to be crying too much about the school district,” he said.