Burr Ridge Voters To Decide On Home Rule

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge voters will decide in March whether to give the village board more power over raising taxes and regulating land use, among other things. The mayor contends the village needs a home-rule designation to shore up the police pension fund, but one village board member says the expansion of power is unnecessary.

Earlier this month, the village board voted 4-2 to let voters decide in the March 17 election whether to designate Burr Ridge a home-rule community. State law often gives home-rule towns greater flexibility.

If Burr Ridge voters favor home rule, the village would join more than 200 towns with such a status, including Elmhurst, Darien and Willowbrook. Many other towns, though, do not have home rule. Among them are Hinsdale, Western Springs and La Grange.

One of the biggest arguments against home rule is such power gives towns the ability to raise taxes beyond state caps. But Mayor Gary Grasso disagreed with suggestions the village wanted home rule to raise property taxes. To emphasize his point, the mayor urged the village board to adopt a resolution pledging not to use home-rule powers to raise property taxes beyond tax caps.

"I'm in favor of as many handcuffs as possible on the use of home rule," the mayor said.

But board member Zach Mottl doubted a resolution would mean much. "It would be totally nonbinding. Today, we make a promise, then a crisis comes up and we have to increase property taxes. I don't see how we can make that pledge. It is a hollow, nonbinding compromise," Mottl said. "(Home rule) would take a lot of checks and balances off the village and open yourself to infinite tax increases."

Grasso responded that good leadership has long served Burr Ridge, saying he doubted future boards would do away with such a resolution on a whim.

Village officials have given three reasons why they want home rule:

• Flexibility to allow hotel taxes to be used for the police pension and road funds.
• Expansion of local judicial powers to allow more tickets and fines to be adjudicated in Burr Ridge, giving the village more of the money generated from such actions.
• More regulatory authority to address land use and environmental issues.

The mayor said the big reason to go to home rule is to get the power to designate hotel taxes for the police fund. According to the state comptroller's website, the police pension account is 61 percent funded.

The village, Grasso said, is appropriating the state's recommended amounts into the fund every year, but "we continue to fall behind." Now, police pension costs take up about 60 percent of the city's annual property tax levy, a number that is expected to rise to 100 percent by 2038, officials said.

Mottl said he did not see a crisis, especially when comparing to the many Illinois towns that are far less than 60 percent funded.

"I'm not 100 percent convinced that we have to do anything other than what we are already doing," he said. "We have been far more responsible than 90 percent of towns. The solution will be forced on all of us when other towns go bankrupt. I don't know if this is a problem we need to solve right now."

Grasso agreed the village is not facing a crisis. But he said the board should look to the long-term. Using the hotel tax for police pensions, he said, would likely put Burr Ridge in a good position for the next couple decades, reducing pressure on property taxpayers.

"The property tax has been slowly going up and used more and more by the police pension fund," the mayor said.

Four village board members — Guy Franzese, Al Paveza, Joe Snyder and Antonio Schiappa — voted to let voters decide on home rule. The dissenters were Zach Mottl and Anita Mital.