$64,000 for special Elburn pension referendum
It would cost at least $64,000 to conduct a special referendum this year on whether to tax property to pay for Elburn police officers' pensions.
The Kane County clerk has sent an estimate to the village. The village board will discuss it Monday at a committee meeting after its regular board meeting, which starts at 6:45 p.m.
The estimate details the costs of renting polling places for early voting and day of voting, rental of trucks and paying for gasoline, publication of the ballot, and pay for election judges and workers.
The biggest expense would be $32,000 for four election workers, according to the estimate. The next largest is pay for 22 election judges, at $11,038.
The board is considering having the referendum this year, so that if voters do agree to levy a property tax for police pensions, it could be levied in December and collected next spring.
If it waits until the next election, the primary in March 2016, it wouldn't be able to levy the tax until December 2016 and collect it in spring 2017.
In 2011, when the village learned the population had grown past 5,000, Elburn was required by state law to start its own police pension fund. Before that, its police officers were in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund like other village employees, and the village levied a separate tax for that.
In 2012, voters rejected the idea of levying a separate property tax to pay for police pensions. So the village's pension contribution is paid out of the general fund.
Village President Dave Anderson has also asked Kane County Sheriff Don Kramer about the possibility of having the sheriff's office take over policing duties.