Wheaton OKs taxing district to promote downtown

A special taxing district that funds the Downtown Wheaton Association will continue through 2019 after a petition drive failed to get enough valid signatures to block the city from renewing the tax.

City council members on Monday night voted 4-3 to extend Special Service Area 7 in downtown Wheaton for seven years beyond its current April 30 expiration date. A tax charged to property owners within the area is the primary source of funding for the DWA, a business group charged with promoting downtown Wheaton.

“I think our downtown is better off than many of the downtowns in the area because of the Downtown Wheaton Association,” said Mayor Michael Gresk, who voted for the taxing district along with council members Tom Mouhelis, Todd Scalzo and John Rutledge.

Council members Jeanne Ives, Phil Suess and Evelyn Pacino Sanguinetti voted against the new district, which will have similar boundaries as the present one.

“This is an inappropriate way to fund this type of development,” said Ives, who tried to dissolve the existing district previously. “If we want to do something in this regard, it needs to be done in a different way.”

Businessman and property owner Glenn Kosirog earlier this month filed a petition in an effort to prevent Wheaton from renewing the special tax. Under state law, a special service area can’t be created if at least 51 percent of the property owners and voters within the district sign objection forms.

But a review by city officials found the petition doesn’t have enough valid signatures from voters to meet the 51 percent requirement.

Mark Stern, an attorney who represents the objectors, said that happened because county election records incorrectly indicate the number of voters living in the district. He said at least one “voter” died in 2008, and at least 12 others moved away “long ago.”

“The only way to defeat our majority is by counting dead people as supporters of this tax,” Stern said. “Is that a reasonable basis for setting public policy? Is that democracy?”

Property owners within the new district will be taxed 45 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value. That is less than half of the 95 cents per $100 owners now pay.

Opponents say the tax is unfair because some of the property owners who pay it see little or no benefit from the Downtown Wheaton Association.

But several business owners spoke in favor of the group during Monday night’s meeting. One called it “the most powerful marketing tool that the city of Wheaton has.”

Councilman Scalzo said the group is the best alternative. “The DWA is probably working better now and offering more services to its members than it ever has,” he said.