DuPage ballots to include questions about taxes, consolidation

Several ballot questions will be considered by DuPage County voters during Tuesday's election.

Here's a look at the referendum questions that will be decided by voters in Lisle Unit District 202, Naperville Township, Villa Park and the Warrenville Fire Protection District.

Lisle District 202

A question in Lisle Unit District 202 will determine if the school district's property tax levy is reduced by roughly $1.2 million.

The binding measure was proposed by a group of residents who argue that District 202 has overtaxed property owners for years. The group collected more than 1,400 signatures to put the question on the ballot.

The residents were able to propose the ballot question because of a state law that says school districts with an "adequacy level" for education funding that's 110 percent or more are eligible for referendum questions seeking tax cuts. The adequacy level reflects how much the state believes a school district should be spending to educate students in comparison to what the district actually spends.

District 202 has an adequacy rate of 149 percent.

If the tax-cut question is approved, District 202's education fund will be reduced by roughly $1.2 million to $17.15 million. District officials say the loss of funding would force them to consider cost-cutting measures, including increasing class sizes, reducing the number of teachers, reducing support personnel positions, reducing the number of honors courses and eliminating 10 percent of athletic and extracurricular activities.

Meanwhile, it's estimated that property taxes homeowners pay to the district would decrease about $67 per $100,000 of a home's value.

Naperville Township

Voters in Naperville Township will decide whether a previously approved plan to consolidate a road district should be scrapped in favor of another proposal to dissolve the small unit of government.

Residents in Naperville and Lisle townships in 2017 approved a measure to combine their road districts to form one agency. The consolidation is scheduled to take effect May 2021.

But Naperville Township officials put a new question on the ballot that asks voters if they want to follow a state law that allows the township government to absorb the road district.

Naperville Township officials say they believe the outcome of Tuesday's vote would supersede the decision from two years ago. But they don't know for certain that the idea of absorbing the road district into the township legally can replace the previously approved - and now required - merger.

Villa Park

The fate of Villa Park's Lufkin Pool rests on how residents vote on a nonbinding ballot question.

The aging pool has been a subject of discussion on and off since November 2017, when village trustees rejected two separate repair proposals that could have allowed the facility at 1000 Ardmore Ave. to open for another year.

Some argue the pool should be demolished. Others say it's a village landmark that should be preserved and reopened.

So village officials are asking residents if they support a property tax increase totaling $1 million to fix the pool. The outcome won't obligate the village to do anything and won't automatically lead to an increase in taxes because the vote is nonbinding.

Warrenville Fire

A roughly 23 percent increase in emergency calls since 2014 has Warrenville Fire Protection District officials saying the department needs more firefighters.

So voters are being asked to approve a property tax hike that would generate roughly $570,000 a year in additional revenue for the district that includes Warrenville and unincorporated areas near Wheaton and Naperville.

"We're just trying to maintain our service because of the increased call volume," Fire Chief Dennis Rogers said.

If the ballot question is approved, the district will be able to increase its daily staffing to eight firefighters per shift. Currently, it has six firefighters per shift.

It's estimated the property taxes homeowners pay to the district would increase by $33 per $100,000 of a home's value. The median price of a home in the district is $245,100.