Glen Ellyn candidates not keen on sales tax plan

Neither candidate for Glen Ellyn village president is ecstatic about an increase in the village's sales tax that looks close to being approved.

Mark Pfefferman, the Civic Betterment Party candidate, said the process has only taken six weeks, which isn't enough time to examine other options to balance the budget. He doesn't necessarily oppose the idea but doesn't think it's been explored enough.

Gary Fasules, a former village trustee, agreed that the decision seemed to be fast-tracked but said he probably wouldn't stand behind it even if it had been delayed.

"No tax is a good tax," he said.

The village board is discussing raising the sales tax from 7.25 to 8.25 percent to fill a budget shortfall.

Pfefferman said he empathized with the board's dilemma but doesn't think the budget is in a position of last resort yet.

Business leaders expressed their opposition to the increase at a board meeting Monday, and Pfefferman said the effects on businesses haven't even been thoroughly explored.

Pfefferman also had suggestions for bringing in more revenue: put some money into advertising for downtown businesses and combine phone plans and copying services with the park district and library to get the lowest price possible.

Fasules said the tax undoubtedly will affect businesses, especially those selling larger items.

He agrees that more time should be spent on attracting shoppers downtown. A low-cost solution, he said, would be to allow people to sign up for e-mail deals on the village Web site. Whenever a store has a special offer, the owners could send out information to interested residents.

"There are things we can do that aren't cost-prohibitive to help stimulate businesses in downtown," he said.

Although he said he wouldn't second-guess a decision made by the village board, Pfefferman would propose a finance committee that could explore long-range planning that the staff doesn't have time for.

"A question opens up: What are the core services?" he said.

Fasules echoed the question of core services and said he would prefer if the board looked at ways to balance this year's budget and then renewed sales tax talks for next year.

He said a deficit of $300,000 isn't a large one in the long run and some items could be chipped away at it. For example, he said, gas is budgeted at $2.81, but the cost has been decreasing steadily over the past few months.

Another issue the village staff is addressing is the problem of fully funding pension funds. Finance Director Jon Batek said the financial problem for the village isn't limited to this year; it extends for years to come because of the hit pension funds have taken last year.

Pfefferman suggested endowments might be an option to fund those pensions, but Fasules said he'd rather spend his time lobbying in Springfield to change the law that requires full funding.

"I don't see why they would put a burden on us," he said. He said he'd also like to explore getting stimulus money for the pension funds.