Tower Lakes crossing fingers about trash pickup referendum

Tower Lakes officials hope they've done all they can to inform residents about Tuesday's tax-hike referendum for garbage pickup, but it's hard to read the signals they're getting.

They scheduled an informational meeting at village hall Thursday night to answer questions about the need for the referendum.

"Not one person came, and I hope that's good news," Village President Kathleen Leitner said.

Leitner says she finds it ironic that the village is forced to go back to the voters to ask for more money only because officials were striving to be responsible stewards of their tax dollars in the first place.

In 2006, the village realized it had accumulated enough of a surplus for garbage pickup that it didn't need to tax residents for it that year.

That surplus held all the way through last year.

Officials realized they would need to levy for garbage pickup again in 2010, but what surprised them was that they needed to ask for voter permission to do so as more than three years had passed since they'd last levied for it, Leitner said.

The 0.108 percent levy of equalized assessed value is expected to cost the owner of a $500,000 home about $170 per year.

The levy is intended to provide a savings over what homeowners would pay if billed individually, Leitner said.