Deer Park may hike sales tax to fix roads

Deer Park trustees will likely ask residents this fall to increase the village portion of the sales tax to pay for what they say are badly needed road repairs.

The exact percentage of the increase hasn't been determined, but trustees voted 4-2 Thursday to have their attorney draft resolutions that call for either a quarter-point or a half-point increase.

The board will vote again Aug. 16 on a final draft of the question. If it passes it will appear on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

Deer Park shoppers pay a 7 percent sales tax, with 1 percent kept locally. The rest goes to Illinois and Lake County.

In choosing to move ahead with a sales tax increase, trustees rejected the idea of a property tax increase, a combination of the two taxes or a bond issue.

A half-percentage-point increase would raise another $800,000 for the village; a quarter-point would raise $400,000. Of the $1.6 million generated annually by the local sales tax now, about $1.5 million goes to Kildeer to pay for police protection.

Village President Bob Kellermann said the desire to step up road repairs comes because most local roads are 10 years past their optimal replacement times. He said the slow economy makes this a cost-effective time to do the work.

Nevertheless, Kellermann said the village is sensitive to the concerns of its businesses and he's planning to meet with representatives of the Deer Park Town Center next week.

He said the shopping center is performing exceptionally well in the current economy and he's loath to have the local government interfere with what the center's managers are doing right.

Town Center officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

The village is looking at a 10-year road repair program that would require about $1 million in new money a year.

Trustee Keith Olson, who chairs the village's finance committee and voted with the majority, said his personal preference would have been to get 25 percent of the needed revenue from sales taxes with the remainder coming from a property tax hike.

He is concerned that too high a sales tax could hurt the competitiveness of Deer Park businesses on the border of Cook and Lake counties.

Olson said there's some irony to his being in favor of the referendum - he said he is strongly anti-tax, and his own road is getting replaced this summer.

"I'm not a zealot on the campaign trail to get this passed," Olson said. "I'm not hellbent to raise taxes. I'm hellbent to give residents a choice."

Olson said he believes there is an overall need in the village for road repairs. The condition of local roads affects the entire assessed value of the village, he said.

Trustees Maureen Pratscher and Barbara Evans voted against proceeding with the referendum.

Evans said she didn't believe the village board has done its homework in terms of exploring other revenue sources, or reducing its costs to free up more money for road repairs.

Even so, Evans said she won't automatically vote "no" when the question returns to the board Aug. 16.

"I don't know how I'm going to vote," Evans said, saying the argument of putting the question to the people might be persuasive.

Deborah Barry, the secretary of the citizens group Deer Park Neighbors, said the sales tax option was the best of the choices the village board had, but she doesn't believe the referendum will pass in November.

Residents voted down a similar referendum two years ago.

Barry would prefer Deer Park spend the money from its new hotel tax on promoting the village as a shopping and tourism destination, saying that would boost the village's sales tax revenues enough without raising the percentage collected.