Daily Herald opinion: Maybe a catch, maybe not in ending vehicle stickers or sending gift cards

This editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board

Palatine officials decided this year to eliminate its vehicle sticker, saving residents $30 per year per vehicle.

It seems like a small expense in the grand scheme of things. Yet when we reported on the move early this month, it was one of our most read stories.

In this case, there's no catch. The leaders say simply that the village can handle the loss of revenue - about $1.2 million a year - citing growth in other general fund revenues resulting from economic development, as well as increasing sales tax income. The village's total budget for 2022 is $125 million, so the stickers represent just 1% of it.

It's not the first time the village has considered ending the sticker. In 2019, out of frustration with the about 30% of vehicle owners who weren't buying their stickers, village leaders favored getting more aggressive with police enforcement to get the up to $700,000 they thought they were leaving behind - instead of killing the sticker and raising property taxes instead. Trouble is, then as now, the program came with $200,000 in administrative costs, before any added police costs.

It turns out that Mount Prospect officials are thinking about ending vehicle stickers there, too, with similar surpluses in sales, home-rule and income taxes totaling $8.7 million while the sticker program brings in $1.4 million a year and costs $112,000 to administer. But some trustees on the finance commission are balking, fearful of a recession and the need to reinstate the sticker later. The village has a total budget of about $155 million.

That's one rub: What if a village does need that money later?

It could add a new tax on phone, cable or utility bills, as we've seen many suburbs do over the last couple of decades; Rolling Meadows added a tax on natural gas bills in 2019. Highland Park dropped its vehicle stickers in 2020, proposing to replace lost revenue with a property tax hike - a fallback also brought up in Mount Prospect this year.

Meanwhile, Elk Grove Village, which ended its vehicle stickers in 2018 (though not for businesses) due to a strong local economy, is now mailing all its households $200 gift cards. It's the third pandemic relief program in Elk Grove; households got $200 water bill credits one time each in 2020 and 2021. Mayor Craig Johnson and other leaders touted, with a big banner, that the relief has totaled $8.9 million over the three years.

The catch in Elk Grove Village is a series of tax and fee hikes in 2021, including a 10% property tax levy hike last November, a larger natural-gas use tax and a new stormwater management fee to generate $4.75 million a year to ramp up street, sidewalk and rear-yard drainage upgrades. Johnson defended the moves as ways to steadily fund ongoing needed work.

So residents gain a little and maybe lose a little. Any of us who've dealt with vehicle stickers know they're a nuisance. The offerings of some savings one way or another should be appreciated, even if, now or later, they must be put in perspective.