Warrenville revises plans for tax hike
With a vote scheduled next month to approve a series of tax increases to pay for capital improvements, Warrenville City Council members have made several revisions to make the plan more palatable for residents and businesses.
If approved, the multifaceted plan still would generate enough new money to address a projected $1 million deficit in the city’s capital improvement program.
But council members this week made several changes in the way the money will be raised in response to feedback from the community.
“We can’t always give people exactly what they ask for,” Mayor David Brummel said. “But I think it’s important to listen to them and try to modify what we’re trying to do in the direction of what they asked for.”
For example, Warrenville no longer is considering eliminating its hotel-motel tax grants. Instead, the grant program would be cut in half to provide $100,000 annually to help pay for events, including farmers markets, art shows and summer concerts.
Officials also are proposing a larger local gasoline tax of 4 cents per gallon. That allows them to reduce a projected utility tax increase to 1 percent — half of what the original plan called for.
Alderman Matthew Wiesbrock said the gas tax is a good option because people from outside the community also will pay it.
“If we did not have ... the gasoline tax, the entire weight of this tax increase would be on the citizens of Warrenville,” he said.
The proposal still calls for the creation of a 3 percent natural gas utility tax. In addition to new taxes, Warrenville would increase the rate of its telecommunications tax from 4 percent to 6 percent.
Officials are talking about postponing the tax increases for up to a year to give people time to prepare. The city would be able to do that by spending about $700,000 of its reserve cash to pay for capital improvement projects in 2012.
“In this plan, I think we’ve done the best we could possibly do to try to answer the questions and concerns and the input that we got from the citizens,” Wiesbrock said. “Give them what they want, but still give them what they need.”
A final vote on the tax plan is scheduled for Sept. 6.
Officials say higher taxes are needed to address the $1 million deficit in the capital improvement plan. Most of the roughly $1.9 million a year Warrenville spends on capital projects is devoted to roads, sidewalks, storm sewers and streetlights.