Sales Tax Money Surges In Burr Ridge

BURR RIDGE, IL – Burr Ridge has seen a dramatic increase in sales tax income in recent times, statistics show.

On April 30, the end of the last budget year, the village collected $3.1 million in sales taxes, up from $2.6 million the previous year, or a 19 percent increase.

A decade ago, the village collected $2.3 million in sales taxes a year.

"Sales taxes remain very strong," Village Administrator Evan Walter told the Village Board this week. "We've had some downtown development. We've had some good industrial users come into our existing industrial parks, which are providing quite a bit of sales taxes to our community, both retail as well as online."

On another matter, Walter told the board that the village's police pension account dropped to 59 percent funded. That is a long-term indicator of whether a pension fund has enough money to pay out benefits to current and future retirees.

Walter said the lower ratio is nearly all related to a loss in market value.

"It was a tough year in the stock market," he said.

Looking at the village's finances overall, Walter said, "The general sense of the village is that it continues to be trending in the right direction. We're making sure we're ready for opportunities when they come up as well as being prepared for anything that may happen in the future that is negatively impacting us."