Burr Ridge Realtors Would 'Yell And Scream': Mayor

BURR RIDGE, IL – In March 2020, Burr Ridge voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give the village home rule authority.

That was after opponents argued such a designation would grant the village greater powers to raise taxes.

At this week's Village Board meeting, Mayor Gary Grasso, who favors home rule, said he wanted the village to take another look at what he saw as the advantages of the designation.

"I realize the Realtors will come out and yell and scream about property taxes, which is a total red herring," Grasso said. "Nobody is going to do home rule for property taxes."

He said the battle against the now-closed Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook is an example where home rule could help. The factory was believed to have emitted cancer-causing pollutants, with a jury recently issuing a $363 million judgment against the company.

"Willowbrook could not have done one thing about stopping Sterigenics because they were non-home rule," Grasso said. "Now, because they are home rule, they could have done something about it."

Grasso also contended that if Burr Ridge were home rule, it would have had more power to deal with the recent placing of 64 Venezuelan migrants in a local hotel.

With home rule, he said, the village could have enacted an ordinance that might have avoided the migrant situation or at least kept the town better informed.

The mayor criticized the state's home rule law.

"It's a very antiquated law, and you can trace it back to the late 19th century," he said. "It was based on villages of less than 25,000 basically being considered incapable of self-governing."

Before the March 2020 election, the Burr Ridge Village Board adopted a resolution stating it would not use home rule authority to hike property taxes. And if it did, the resolution stated that revoking the ordinance would require the support of four of the six trustees, a written notice sent to all property taxpayers, and discussions at four board meetings.

At the time, the mayor called the measure "a pretty high bar" to raise taxes. Any board that attempted such a maneuver, he said, would likely be voted out.

However, then-Trustee Zach Mottl said the resolution amounted to "paper handcuffs."