Burr Ridge Official's Tax Stance Bother Colleagues, Who Defend Village Finances

BURR RIDGE, IL – The Burr Ridge Village Board on Monday zeroed out its property tax and raised its sales tax, netting the village an estimated $1 million more a year.

During the debate, one trustee argued against hiking the sales tax to the point of bringing in the extra $1 million.

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The sales tax, excluding such things as groceries and car purchases, will rise by three-fourths of a percent.

Trustee Russell Smith said a half-a-percent increase was all the village needed to offset the property tax loss. He said he favored the higher tax if the village set the extra money aside for future boards and opportunities.

"We're not in need of revenue," Smith said. "Let's face it, we're not real good about holding on to our money. We tend to spend it for whatever purpose – more roads, police equipment, more everything."

He added, "We're sending kind of a weird message where we're saying to the public we're going to abate our property tax, yet we're still going to increase our revenue by a million dollars a year."

His statements didn't sit well with his colleagues. They noted the village was debt-free, which is unusual for municipalities.

"I have to take a little exception to characterizing our budget and spending as weird and that we tend to spend," Mayor Gary Grasso said. "I couldn't push back harder to those kinds of statements."

He said the extra money could be spent, in part, on two more police officers, which he said the police department indicates it needs.

Trustee Tony Schiappa also said he disagreed that the village is not good with its money.

"We have the best roads in DuPage County. We have the best police department in DuPage County. We always have money left over to put in fund balance," he said. "Being the best in DuPage County costs money."

Trustees Guy Franzese, Anita Mital and Joe Snyder echoed Schiappa's and Grasso's comments.

In Burr Ridge, the municipal property tax is on the low side, about 1.5 percent of the total bill.

In Illinois, schools make up the vast majority of property tax bills.

Burr Ridge, one of the state's wealthiest towns, is well-positioned to do away with its tax.

Like other towns that have done so, Burr Ridge has many sales tax-generating businesses. They are not just the stores in Burr Ridge Village Center and County Line Square.

They are also the companies in industrial and office zones that sell products, which are some of the town's biggest sales tax-generators, the village says.

At the board meeting, Smith asked his colleagues to vote to hike the sales tax by half a percent. No one joined him.

The board ended up voting unanimously for both zeroing out the property tax and increasing the sales tax by three-fourths of a percent.