Winfield wants your view on tax increase

With Winfield officials becoming increasingly vocal about a property tax increase being needed to fix the village's streets, they want to hear what residents think.

So the village is planning is to host a Feb. 27 town hall meeting to discuss the possibility of a November referendum to raise money for road repairs.

"We're trying to educate as best we can the residents about what we're doing," Trustee Joel Kunesh said. "More importantly, we're trying to inform them why we're doing it and why it has to be done."

The state of Winfield's nearly 35 miles of roads is a point of concern because many are in poor to failing condition, officials said.

Even though the village receives roughly $250,000 a year in motor fuel tax revenue, most of that money is spent on pothole patching and road salt. As a result, Winfield only has about $100,000 for annual road projects, officials said.

"We are not currently generating enough revenue to even resurface half a mile in town," Village Manager Curt Barrett said during Thursday night's board meeting.

Meanwhile, revenue-generating ideas like a vehicle sticker program, red-light cameras and a sales tax hike wouldn't raise the amount of money the village needs, officials said.

So village trustees are considering whether to ask voters to approve a pair of property tax increases.

The first ballot question would seek permission for Winfield to borrow $3.3 million to resurface its most deteriorated streets. The second question would ask voters to establish an ongoing street maintenance program.

On Thursday, most trustees said they support a maintenance plan that would be the least expensive for property taxpayers. It could raise $640,000 a year and allow each street to be resurfaced once every 20 years.

If voters approved that plan, it would add about $243 to the yearly tax bill for a home valued at $300,000, officials estimate.

Before a final decision is made to seek a referendum, Trustee Glenn VadeBonCoeur said officials must make sure residents understand why a property tax increase is needed.

"We've fully gone through every possible option that we could find for funding," he said. "And it does show that really there's one inevitable conclusion in this. It looks like the referendum is the inevitable conclusion if we're going to do this."