Burr Ridge Eyes Zeroing Out Property Tax

BURR RIDGE, IL – Burr Ridge officials are contemplating doing away with the village's part of the property tax bill.

They would offset it with a sales tax hike.

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Throughout Illinois, schools account for about two-thirds of property taxes, with a variety of other taxing bodies making up the rest.

Burr Ridge's portion amounts to about 1.5 percent, or $300 of a $20,000 property tax bill.

Already, the village's property tax rate is lower than most other area towns. Even lower are retail-heavy villages such as Oak Brook, which has no property tax at all, and Willowbrook.

Burr Ridge has advantages over similarly wealthy towns. With far more retail, the village's sales tax income is more than most. And Burr Ridge has a lot of commercial areas from which to levy property taxes.

Also, Burr Ridge is a relatively young town. Because of that, it is unburdened by the aging infrastructure of towns such as La Grange and Western Springs.

At Monday's Burr Ridge Village Board meeting, trustees were presented with a proposal to zero out the property tax and institute a 1 percent sales tax that would exempt grocery and car purchases.

That would leave the village nearly $1 million a year ahead, according to a staff memo. The staff noted that out-of-towners pay much of the sales tax.

Trustee Russell Smith said, "It'd be nice to go to the public and say, 'You are no longer paying for property taxes on behalf of the village.'" Smith said.

Trustee Guy Franzese agreed.

"When the residents come to me and complain about their property tax bill and say you have to do something about it, I say go to a school board meeting and do something about it," he said.

However, Trustee Tony Schiappa disagreed with replacing one tax with another.

"Trading tax dollars, to me, is not effective," he said.

Trustees decided to resume the debate at their Aug. 10 meeting. They said they wanted to hear the views of Mayor Gary Grasso and Trustee Anita Mital, who were absent.

Burr Ridge is the rare town with no debt.