Lake Barrington approves revenue sharing plan with Speedway
The Lake Barrington board of trustees approved a plan Tuesday to share some of the sales tax revenue generated by the new Speedway gas station with its owners over the next 15 years.
Under the plan, the village will split the first $160,000 of new sales tax revenue collected at Speedway with the company. Any tax collected beyond the first $160,000 collected will go to the village. This means at most Speedway would receive $1.2 million from the village over the life of the agreement.
Lake Barrington Village President Kevin Richardson said the plan was similar to others that encourage businesses to come to the village.
“What I can't stress enough is the need for us to stay competitive and make sure our tools to stay competitive are current,” Richardson said after the meeting.
The incentive plan comes before the board two weeks after the trustees voted unanimously to allow Speedway to build a 20-pump gas station at the intersection of Northwest Highway and Kelsey Road.
That meeting lasted around seven and a half hours and featured dozens of Lake Barrington and Barrington Hills residents expressing their opposition to the plan.
On Tuesday, just three residents spoke against the incentive plan.
Jim Foote, a Lake Barrington resident, told the board that Speedway didn't need a financial incentive to build on the site.
“I think it is highly unlikely they are going to walk away having just been granted a special use permit,” Foote said. “We do not owe it to Speedway to go do this.”
Several trustees, as well as Village Administrator Chris Martin and Village attorney Jim Bateman, said the practice of giving incentives to high-sales tax earning companies was a common practice in the area and the state.
Before voting in favor of the plan, Trustee Karen Daulton Lange said businesses have come to calculate sales tax incentives into the cost of doing business.
“If they get $80,000 and we get $80,000 I think it is good business practice,” Daulton Lange said. “We're not going to be giving away sales tax dollars because we don't have any sales tax dollars there.”
Martin said the property that Speedway has permission to build on contains an abandoned animal hospital, which generates no sales tax revenue. Martin said the village estimates that Speedway will make around $20 million annually. The village sales tax is one percent, so that would net the village around $200,000, minus the $80,000 owed to Speedway under the plan passed Tuesday.
Martin said the village usually collects around $330,000 in sales tax each year.
Martin said the new gas station will benefit other municipalities as well.
“The (Barrington 220) school district's share of the property tax revenue will jump from about $13,000 to $108,000,” Martin said. “That's around one and a half teachers.”
The village trustees also passed an ordinance establishing a liquor license for gas stations and convenience stores that Speedway would likely apply for if they decide to build in the village. The liquor license would permit the sale of beer and wine ending at midnight.
Both plans were approved unanimously.