Carol Stream may contemplate village property tax

When the mayors of towns in Bloomingdale Township met recently, most painted a pretty gloomy picture of the coming year.

For one of the villages, that dreary economic outlook may lead to implementing a village property tax for the first time in its 50-year history.

Carol Stream Village President Frank Saverino told leaders at the meeting that there has been more bad news than good in town this year; and it was a message he reiterated at a village board meeting Monday.

"Our sales tax is down, our transfer tax for real estate is down," he said Tuesday. "We've been looking at things we can cut out and not do for three years."

While Carol Stream hasn't officially talked about a village property tax, Saverino said it's something that could come up.

"Nothing's off the table for me," he said. "Unless we can find a miraculous recovery, I really don't see that we could go without having a property tax. It's almost inevitable."

Such a tax won't be part of the 2009-2010 budget, even though it could come up in discussions in the next few months.

Saverino said if the economy changes by the end of the year talks of instituting such a tax would be moot.

"We're OK for this year," he said. "Next year, we're going to have a deficit if this doesn't turn around."

On Monday, Saverino also indicated he isn't very optimistic about obtaining federal stimulus money.

If the village does get some, he said, the cash would be used for things such as flood control and other projects that are ready to go with the right kind of funding.

"I don't know if anything's going to happen, but we don't stop trying," he said of flood mitigation projects. Rising water has plagued several neighborhoods in town during heavy rains.

Saverino said Carol Stream already has implemented an overhead sewer program, which is intended to prevent sewer backups during flooding.

The program includes a one-time reimbursement to residents of 50 percent of their improvement costs to a maximum of $2,500.

Some of Saverino's comments on Monday were prompted by a request from the DuPage Senior Citizens Council. Although the board agreed to give its annual donation of $8,400, the group was asking for more this year.

Several trustees agreed that they would like to give more but couldn't afford to do so with budget deficits looming.

"I wish things were better," Saverino said.