O'Hare expansion fight on ballot?

Bensenville leaders aren't talking, but the paperwork says it all.

Village board members are mulling the possibility of asking Bensenville voters to weigh in on whether two local school districts should help fund the fight against expanding O'Hare International Airport.

In addition, a third proposed advisory ballot question could ask voters if township government in DuPage County should be eliminated.

If adopted by the village board, the questions could appear on Feb. 5 ballot. But this week, trustees tabled the proposals without discussion.

"I'm not going to comment on it until the board has discussed it," board President John Geils said. "It may not decide to do it."

In the meantime, township leaders and officials from Bensenville Elementary District 2 and Fenton High School District 100 expressed surprise that the referendum paperwork has been drafted.

But Addison Township GOP Chairman Patrick Durante said he believes Bensenville is trying to bully Addison Township.

"They're doing it as retaliation for a resolution that the township passed," he said.

Addison Township is planning to ask voters if Bensenville should continue to spend taxpayer money to fight O'Hare expansion.

"Bensenville didn't like that," Durante said.

Meanwhile, Bensenville wants to know if Districts 2 and 100 should contribute a combined $763,242 toward the O'Hare fight.

Fenton High School Superintendent Kathie Pierce said she understands village officials have been upset since the school district accepted roughly $238,000 from the O'Hare Modernization Program in June.

The project requires Chicago to reimburse schools in the O'Hare acquisition area for the property tax liability of the acquired parcels.

The city is planning to buy and bulldoze more than 500 homes in Bensenville to make room for new runways and other changes to the airport.

Pierce said she was surprised to learn Bensenville is considering a question that would ask voters if the district should turn over that money to the Bensenville Intergovernmental Group.

"They think it looks bad in the arena of public opinion and that us accepting the money makes it look like we are siding with the city," Pierce said. "But the district's position is that we support BIG, and we are anti-O'Hare expansion.

"But we will continue to follow the law and collect all of the monies owed to us as a result of the program," she added.

Pierce said Fenton is estimated to lose $352,889 in tax revenues from the 2006 tax year and $663,877 in the 2007 tax year.

District 2, meanwhile, received $480,931 from the program to help cover its loss.

Superintendent Bill Jordan said he doesn't have an estimate of how much his district would lose in tax revenue. However, he said, the district has lost roughly $19.8 million of equalized assessed valuation in its boundaries since O'Hare started acquiring land.

Both Jordan and District 2 Board President Patty Reyes declined to comment on the proposed advisory referendum. They said they weren't aware Bensenville was considering it.

"I have no knowledge of this," Reyes said.

All three referendums, if the Bensenville village board placed them on the ballot, would be advisory only. It's unclear if or when the village board would discuss it again.

The resolutions:

• "Shall township government, many times duplicating programs and services of municipal and county government while costing individual homeowners hundreds of additional tax dollars each year, be continued in DuPage County?"

• "Shall the $282,311 received by Fenton Community High School District No. 100 pursuant to the City of Chicago O'Hare Modernization Program and the City of Chicago's O'Hare Airport expansion plans, in an attempt to divide the community and foster a plan that will lead to the destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses in the Bensenville community, be contributed instead to the Bensenville Intergovernmental Group to help finance the continued fight against O'Hare expansion?"

• "Shall the $480,931 received by Bensenville Elementary District No. 2 pursuant to the City of Chicago O'Hare Modernization Program and the City of Chicago's O'Hare Airport expansion plans, in an attempt to divide the community and foster a plan that will lead to the destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses in the Bensenville community, be contributed instead to the Bensenville Intergovernmental Group to help finance the continued fight against O'Hare expansion?"