Burr Ridge Voters Reject Home Rule

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge voters on Tuesday appeared to handily defeat the referendum to designate the village a home rule town, which would have given it more powers over taxes, spending and other issues.

According to unofficial results, nearly 70 percent of voters rejected the idea of giving home rule to Burr Ridge, an idea supported by Mayor Gary Grasso and the Village Board majority. A few precincts had yet to be counted Tuesday night, but as of 9:30 p.m., nearly 2,300 votes had been counted, a number that makes up more than 20 percent of the village's entire population.

Two of the board members, Zach Mottl and Anita Mital, opposed putting the question on the ballot.

"They say you can't fight city hall, but we did here," Mottl said in a telephone interview. "I'm glad the voters voted on the merits of the issue."

In a text message to Patch, Grasso said, "I — and I am sure the Board too — respect the voters' decision. We'll move on to what is more important, trying to keep the coronavirus out of Burr Ridge and keeping our residents as safe and informed as possible."

In December, the board voted 4-2 to put the home rule issue on the ballot. The issue became so contentious last week that participants in a meeting of home rule opponents shouted down 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 called 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 amounted 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 argued the village board wanted home rule so that it would have more flexibility on how it spends the hotel tax. Under home rule, he and others contended, 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.