W. Dundee rejects tax rebate for Perlman's

The West Dundee village board has dashed hopes of a multiyear tax rebate for D and M Perlman Jewelry.

The incentive would have committed the village to refund 50 percent of the sales taxes the business reported to the state, but ultimately failed with only two of six trustees in favor.

In December, when the board first discussed the reimbursement plan — an extension of what Perlman's received for its first five years in the village — trustees seemed on board.

David Perlman, owner of the jewelry store, said he was shocked at the final decision.

“We're very disappointed about it,” Perlman said. “It's really something that we were kind of counting on.”

Trustee Tom Price said he thought his colleagues were generally on the fence and when it came down to the vote, opinion “just tipped the other way.”

Though Price voted in favor of the incentive, he said the majority of trustees were concerned about setting a precedent for the rest of the business community. Board members did not want to get caught saying yes to others who may ask and then suffer a hit to the village's bottom line.

Still, Price said he approved of the incentive because it was written in such a way to keep Perlman's in town for at least five years.

“They got this rebate on sales tax for a period of two years but if they left within a period of five years, they would owe us that money back,” Price said. “I felt like it was a pretty good incentive to keep businesses.”

Patrick Hanley was the only other trustee to vote for the incentive.

Though Trustee Andy Yuscka originally wanted to help Perlman's, he ultimately voted no. He said the village had already granted Perlman's the tax rebate from 2004 through 2009 and it didn't make sense to extend the rebate a second time.

“I'd like to help everybody but I just felt that in the whole big picture of things, this was not in the best interests of West Dundee at this time,” Yuscka said.

Perlman said he would look into other incentives his business may be eligible for and continue to hope for an improving economy. So far, there are no plans to leave West Dundee since his initial move from Carpentersville in 2004.

He said the relocation was never supposed to be short-term.

“It was intended to be a long-term project and I still view it that way,” Perlman said.