Wehrli blames Furstenau suit for tax hike

Naperville City Council passed its largest property tax rate increase in 17 years Wednesday and at least one member blamed Councilman Richard Furstenau's lawsuit against the city.

The council approved a two-cent rate hike in a special meeting, bringing the city's property tax rate to 71.66 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value.

Two-thirds of that increase will pay for defending the city against Furstenau's litigation, which stems from a 2006 incident in which he was arrested and later acquitted of misdemeanor battery charges against a police officer.

With the city dealing with a tight budget, Councilman Grant Wehrli asked his colleague to put his personal interests aside.

"In the best interest of all taxpayers, I implore you take a long look at what you're doing," he told Furstenau. "Your current course of action only benefits the lawyers and is an unnecessary financial burden to all residents."

The city has spent about $275,000 this year on defending itself against the litigation and budgeted an additional $600,000 for the new fiscal year that begins May 1, according to Finance Director Doug Krieger. The lawsuit could take several years to make its way through the court system.

Councilman Kenn Miller thanked Wehrli for his "courageous comments" and Councilman Robert Fieseler asked Furstenau to recuse himself from voting on the tax rate.

"It has to do with our ability to fund an obligation, a lawsuit he has a direct financial interest in," Fieseler said.

Furstenau did not address Wehrli's comments about the lawsuit driving up costs for residents, but said he was elected to vote on the rate and would not abstain from doing so.

He commended city staff for reducing costs associated with safety, overtime and travel to fill a $3.6 million budget hole.

"I believe the increase we're passing out is still above and higher than we ought to be doing and I think eventually we're going to have to do something different than that," he said. "But nonetheless, I'm going to support this budget because of what the city manager has decided to do, and what the staff has decided to do, to try to attack some of the problems."

In addition to Furstenau's lawsuit, the city's budget also is strained by declines in revenue sources such as the real estate transfer tax and utility tax and also has faced significant increases in health-care costs, although they are better than in the past, Krieger said.

The average property value in Naperville is expected to rise about 6 percent this year.

Factoring in the tax rate increase, that means the owner of a $400,000 home likely will see about an $84 increase in the city portion of their property tax bill, assuming their home appreciates on par with the city average.

The council voted 8-0 in favor of the levy. Councilman John Rosanova was absent.