Naperville discusses tax increases
Naperville city councilmen got an earful from gas station owners about proposed fuel tax increases on Tuesday and weighed possible sunset clauses for the taxes.
The council continued its discussion of three proposed revenue changes to help fill what's left of a $14.1 million budget gap for next fiscal year.
The proposal on the table, which the majority agreed to at a recent workshop, includes adding 3 cents to the current 2-cent-per-gallon gas tax and implementing a $3.50 monthly fee for garbage collection.
The proposal would also divert half of the money collected from the 1 percent citywide food and beverage tax to its general fund.
Currently that money funds Special Events and Cultural Amenities grants. The city would divert 25 percent in the first year and 50 percent each year after.
A handful of independent gas station owners on Tuesday took issue with the proposed fuel tax, saying the money will end up coming out of the station owners' pockets because they need to stay competitive with larger corporations and neighboring cities.
"With the way the economy is right now customers are looking at every penny," said Amit Patel, who runs a BP station. "They are considering that a station a mile down the street is five cents cheaper they'd rather go down there."
Councilman Jim Boyajian countered that other factors affect people's choice of gas stations in addition to price and City Manager Doug Krieger added while Naperville has a gas tax, other cities have a city sales tax instead.
Councilman Richard Furstenau expressed concern about how the proposed gas tax would affect businesses and said he would support no more than 2 cents.
He was one of three councilmen on Tuesday who indicated they do not support at least one portion of the proposed tax changes. Furstenau said he believes the city can further cut spending.
Councilmen Doug Krause and Paul Hinterlong both indicated they would prefer to raise the property tax rate so that people can deduct it from their income tax returns.
Councilmen Robert Fieseler and Grant Wehrli both said they believe expenses have been cut about as far as they can go without serious effects on service for residents. Wehrli also called for a sunset clause for the taxes.
"I ... don't want to support this with the knowledge it will go on forever because once government gets its hands on money it's really hard to get us to stop spending it," Wehrli said.
Other said they would prefer a provision requiring them to review the taxes after a certain amount of time. But Krause said he doesn't think a sunset provision would be realistic.
"I don't see things changing around radically in the next two years, even three years," he said.
The council could vote on the tax changes March 2.