Burr Ridge Home Rule: Live Vote Totals

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr voters' verdict on home rule for the village should be known soon, with polls closing at 7 p.m. What home rule would mean for property taxes in Burr Ridge depends on which side you ask.

Under home rule, the village board would have more flexibility over taxes, spending and other issues. In December, the board voted 4-2 to put the home rule issue on the ballot. The dissenters were trustees Zach Mottl and Anita Mital. The issue became so contentious last week that participants in a meeting of home rule opponents shouted down Mayor Gary Grasso when he attempted to argue for home rule.

Home rule would give the village more power to raise property taxes. But in January, the village board voted for an ordinance stating it would not use such authority to hike property taxes. And if it did, the resolution states 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.

The mayor calls the ordinance "a pretty high bar" to raise taxes. Any board that attempted such a maneuver, he said, would likely be voted out. However, Mottl said the ordinance amounts to "paper handcuffs."

"There is nothing here that does anything to prevent raising taxes," Mottl said in a January board meeting. "I think this is the equivalent of paper handcuffs. It stops no one from doing anything... We make a promise today, and some emergency pops up and we have to change what we did. This is a joke. It's window dressing."

Grasso said the village board wants home rule so that it would have more flexibility on how it spends the hotel tax. Under home rule, he and others contend, the village could allocate much of the hotel tax, which amounts to $600,000 to $700,000 a year, to quickly escalating police pensions. Now, the hotel tax must largely go toward promoting tourism.

In a few years, Grasso said, the village's police pension payments will rise to $1 million annually. He said it would be better for out-of-towners at hotels, rather than local taxpayers, to pay those bills.