Naperville candidates debate cutting food and beverage tax

The vast majority of candidates for Naperville City Council would support lowering the city's food and beverage tax that funds cultural grants.

Proponents of the cut say the tax is bringing in more money and funding more groups than originally intended. Those who believe it should stay as is feel it wouldn't be right to cut funding from agencies that rely on it, especially when some bring money into the city.

Thirteen candidates will be running in the April 7 election for four open 4-year terms on the council while three are running for the lone 2-year seat.

Incumbents Doug Krause and Kenn Miller are trying to retain their full terms challenged by Ken Bochenski, Judith Brodhead, Jim DerKacy, Raj Durga, Patty Gustin, Paul Hinterlong, Kamala Martinez, Tim Messer, Joe McElroy, Charlie Schneider and Janet Trowbridge. Running for the 2-year term are incumbent James Boyajian and newcomers Bill Eagan and Kevin Lynch.

The Special Events and Cultural Amenities grant program began in 2004 and is funded by a 1 percent tax on food and beverages citywide.

Earlier this week, the council gave preliminary approval to allocating $2.87 million in grants after receiving $4.12 million in requests from 59 organizations.

But in light of the continued growth of the fund, Councilman Grant Wehrli recently suggested lowering the tax to ease the burden on taxpayers.

Among the candidates running for 4-year terms, Brodhead, DerKacy, Durga, Gustin, Hinterlong, Martinez, McElroy, Schneider and Trowbridge said they would favor lowering the tax while Krause and Messer are opposed. Bochenski and Miller are on the fence.

Brodhead and Hinterlong said the fund has gotten away from its original intent and that the city shouldn't be handing out money just because it can.

Gustin, Schneider and Durga expressed concern that the tax is also putting additional burden on businesses. McElroy said that especially holds true in downtown where there is an additional 1.5 percent food and beverage tax to pay for parking garages.

"I'm starting to worry a little bit that we might be squeezing the golden goose that is downtown Naperville a bit too hard ... and you're beginning to see some vacant storefronts," McElroy said.

Schneider added that lowering the tax won't necessarily mean less money in the fund because it could bring diners back into the city.

Martinez would cut the tax in half, then split what is left between the SECA grants and a business relief fund.

Two of the candidates, DerKacy and Trowbridge, dislike the notion of forced donations to nonprofit groups and would therefore support lowering the tax. Trowbridge suggested giving people a more voluntary way to contribute to some of the organizations such as a check-off on electric bill to make a donation.

Messer and Krause are the only two of the 4-year candidates who spoke against reducing the tax.

"It's something that helps the character of this community so right now I feel we're getting a very good return on investment, bringing people in here which are spending money which is raising the revenues," Krause said.

Messer believes the grants are being allocated more efficiently now that there is an advisory commission in place and would rather look at reducing the additional 1.5 percent tax on food and beverages in the downtown area that funds parking garages.

Bochenski and Miller did not take sides. Both said they would want to see more data on the impact it would have on the organizations that receive cultural grants before deciding if and how much it could be lowered.

Of the candidates for the 2-year term, Boyajian and Eagan would be open to lowering the tax while Lynch is opposed.

Boyajian said the pot of money has grown to more than the council anticipated and some of the allocations have gotten out of control in past years.

Eagan supports cutting it as low as the city can go without harming the organizations that rely on it. He said a possible alternative could be to set a dollar amount the city wants to collect from the tax and once it reaches that level, repeal it for the rest of the year.

But Lynch would not want the tax reduced because the money helps organizations that bring visitors and businesses into the city and he looks at the tax as "investment in marketing this city."

City council candidates will appear at a meet-and-greet from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 22, at the 95th Street Library, 3015 Cedar Glade Drive and at a Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, March 30, at the municipal center, 400 S. Eagle St.