Winfield president candidates oppose vehicle sticker plan

Winfield village president candidates are voicing opposition to plans to reinstate a vehicle sticker program.

Instead, they want the village to explore other ways to raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to maintain Winfield streets.

"There are other ways to generate revenue. Stickers are not the answer" said Village President Rudy Czech, who is in a four-person contest against trustees Deborah Birutis and Angel Oakley and Community High School District 94 school board President Tony Reyes.

The state of Winfield's roughly 31 miles of roads is a point of concern because a 2006 evaluation found 45 percent were in fair to poor condition.

Winfield currently only earmarks about $150,000 a year for street repairs. Officials say the town would need to raise an estimated $850,000 annually to resurface all its roads on a desired 15-year cycle.

To help raise part of that money, trustees recently talked about the possibility of resurrecting the vehicle sticker program that ended in the early 1980s. The $30-per-car cost could bring in an estimated $232,000 a year, officials said.

But the idea is proving to be so unpopular that none of the village president candidates support it.

"I am opposed to the vehicle sticker because our residents would rather have the property tax increases versus the vehicle sticker," Birutis said. "So what we need to do is have numerous meetings discussing the other options that we have available to us to hear what the residents have to say."

If voters approved a property tax increase, the village could generate $750,000 a year for street repairs. It also would add $195 to the annual tax bill for a home valued at $300,000.

A second option could be for the village to borrow $5.5 million to reconstruct its most deteriorated streets.

Still, voters would need to approve that plan, which requires the loan be repaid over a 15-year period. It would cost the owner of a $300,000 home $165 a year in additional property taxes, officials estimate.

But the soonest the village could go to the polls with any proposal is February 2010.

Reyes says he opposes any plan that increases property taxes.

"Going back to the voters for more money is never an option," he said, adding that the village should first try to find extra road money within its budget and draft a capital spending plan.

Reyes also said the village could get more tax dollars by enticing more businesses to move to town.

Oakley agreed that getting more businesses in Winfield is key to getting additional dollars for road repairs.

Meanwhile, all the candidates agree Winfield should pursue state and federal grant money, including cash from the economic stimulus package.

"We haven't really been actively pursuing grants," Oakley said. "We haven't really had the staff with the knowledge base to go after those things."