Officials: Quinn's plan would bring property tax to Carol Stream

Carol Stream residents may have to pay a village property tax after all.

Trustee Pam Fenner said Gov. Pat Quinn's budget proposal, which includes a 3 percent decrease in income tax revenue for municipalities, would force officials to impose the first such tax in the village's 50-year history.

The 3 percent decrease would cost Carol Stream another $941,000 as officials struggle to balance the budget for next fiscal year.

Early this month, the board approved a quarter-percent sales tax increase as part of an effort to reduce a $2.69 million deficit. That move helped cut the deficit to around $600,000, but Quinn's proposal would hamper those efforts, Fenner said.

"Fight this with everything you have because your pocketbooks cannot afford to do so," she said.

Under a budget presented by Quinn last week, municipalities would divvy up 7 percent of the state's income tax revenue. Right now, that number stands at 10 percent. It is part of a plan to cut into a $13 billion state deficit.

Carol Stream officials have talked about a property tax as a last resort in the past but have not considered it seriously.

In September, village President Frank Saverino said everything was on the table to close the budget gap, including the property tax.

In January, as the budget deficit became more clear, the property tax again was mentioned as part of a doomsday scenario.

This time, however, Saverino said there have been so many cuts that he does not know where else to turn.

"It would be the ugliest move we would have to make," he said. "If (Quinn's budget) happens, we won't have a choice but to put in a property tax."

At a news conference Monday, several Northwest suburban officials, including Schaumburg Trustee George Dunham, protested Quinn's plan.

In December, Schaumburg implemented its first property tax. Saverino said Carol Stream would have to follow suit if the plan passes.

"It's not because we want to do it," Saverino said. "But I don't know what else we can cut out, unless we start letting the streets go and I won't let that happen."