Villa Park wants sales tax hike for infrastructure

Villa Park will ask voters in November to approve a half-percentage-point sales tax increase to raise money for infrastructure work not included in its street improvement plan.

Two years ago, voters gave the village authority to borrow $23 million to fix 20 miles of crumbling roads over seven years. That money can be used only for road repairs.

Village Manager Richard Keehner said some of the road repairs scheduled for next year also will require underground work not covered by the $23 million, such as separating combined sewers into individual storm and sanitary pipes.

But at this point, the village doesn't have a funding source for such additional work, he said.

So the village will ask voters in the Nov. 8 election to increase its sales tax rate to 8 percent from 7.5 percent.

The increase would generate roughly $1.5 million a year in extra revenue for the village.

"It wouldn't fill the gap completely," Village President Deborah Bullwinkel said, "but it would certainly help us generate additional revenue that would be dedicated for infrastructure improvements we need to have done."

In addition to sewer work, the extra money could be used for stormwater projects, water main replacement and "post-referendum roadway improvements," Keehner said.

Bullwinkel said the village plans to educate residents about the referendum request through a series of five town hall meetings that will start early this month.

"We need to make sure they know this is coming and what it's all about," Bullwinkel said.

The proposal comes just months after sales taxes fell by a quarter-point countywide because of the elimination of a tax collected by the DuPage Water Commission.