Winfield considers borrowing $4 million to fix roads

Winfield homeowners may see their property tax bills increase next year if village board members approve a plan to borrow $4 million to fix the town’s crumbling roads.

Trustees who support the idea say it’s necessary to stop further deterioration of Winfield’s 35 miles of roads. Nearly 30 percent of the streets are in poor to failing condition, they say.

If the borrowing plan is approved later this month, it will allow the village to repair its worst streets next year.

“We need to pave the roads,” Trustee Phillip Mustes said. “We need to get the village engineer working on engineering for next spring, and we need to get the roads done.”

Not everyone agrees.

While Winfield has the authority to issue bonds without voter approval, some trustees say that power shouldn’t be used for a large road project.

Trustee Tony Reyes says Winfield voters repeatedly have rejected ballot questions asking to raise property taxes for road repairs. The most recent referendum failures were in 2010 and 2012.

Reyes said taxpayers have made it clear they don’t want to give more of their money to the village. But if Winfield still wants millions of dollars to fix its roads, it should put the issue on the March ballot.

“If they (voters) say ‘yes,’ let’s do it,” Reyes said. “But to backdoor them with a bond, which is what we’re selling here, is insanity. They don’t want us to do that.”

The so-called general obligation debt certificate would be repaid over 20 years. It’s projected to cost the village a total of $6.3 million to repay.

Meanwhile, property owners would see an increase on their village property tax bill starting in June 2014.

It’s estimated the owner of a $235,000 home — the average value of a house in Winfield — would pay an additional $49 in property taxes to the village during the first year.

“I certainly think I can afford $4, $5 a month to raise the property value of my home and the homes of my neighbors,” Trustee Jack Bajor said.

He said the money would be used “to improve the roads and get them on track where they should be.”

If failing roads aren’t resurfaced in time, officials say, they would need to be reconstructed at a cost that’s up to four times more.

Village Manager Curt Barrett said delaying the repairs would increase the price tag for the work by about $1 million a year.

“Putting off the road repairs further drastically increases the cost to the village,” he said.

Reyes calls that claim “nonsense.”

“There’s no emergency to go get $4 million from the taxpayers,” Reyes said. “They are going to wake up a year from now and go, ‘What the heck happened to my tax bill? It just jumped. Again’”

Even if Winfield secures the $4 million for repairs, it will need about $650,000 a year to maintain its roads on a 20-year resurfacing cycle. The village gets about half that amount annually from gasoline taxes and other sources.

Officials hope to bridge that funding gap with development revenue and a local sales tax.

The village is planning to ask voters in March to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase to raise money for road repairs.

An identical measure approved earlier this year by voters increased the total sales tax paid in Winfield to 7.5 percent. That rate is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

If the second sales tax hike is approved, it’s expected to generate about $75,000 a year in additional revenue for the town. Qualifying food or drug sales would be exempt.

Voters would need to approve several more identical requests over the next few years for the village to raise the amount of revenue it needs for road maintenance, officials said.

Meanwhile, trustees are expected to vote as soon as Nov. 21 on the borrowing plan. Barrett said officials are working with bond counsel to bring the necessary documents to the board “as soon as they are ready.”