Elmhurst OKs Tax Hike; 1 Alderman Dissents

ELMHURST, IL – With one dissenter, the Elmhurst City Council on Tuesday approved a sale tax increase of half a percentage point to pay for stormwater projects.

The tax takes effect Jan. 1, expected to raise $4 million a year.

The money is set to pay for past and upcoming work.

The city says the previous projects have directly benefitted 473 homes and businesses.

Over the last year, the city's finance committee looked at ways to increase taxes to pay for drainage projects. Its members rejected a property tax increase and a stormwater fee.

In a speech, the committee's chairwoman, Alderwoman Noel Talluto, said the whole town has benefitted from the projects through increased home values.

"Elmhurst was getting a reputation as the city that floods," she said. "What we have done together as a community and paid for and are going to be paying for helps to stop the reputation that was developing."

The tax would sunset after 10 years. Then the City Council would be required to take action to keep the tax, officials said.

Such sunset clauses draw criticism in a state where some supposed expirations never happen. More than a decade ago, the state legislature enacted an income tax hike that was designed to go away in four years. It stayed.

During the council's debate, Alderman Guido Nardini said he would vote no. He said that of the three options, a sales tax increase seemed to be the least direct.

He said he was coming at the issue from his perspective as a small business owner.

"I just wish the outcome had been a different revenue stream," Nardini said, although he did not identify which one.

At the same time, he praised the finance committee's work, saying it solved a problem. Fixing stormwater issues, he said, was clearly a need.

The council voted 11-1 for the tax increase, with Nardini as the dissenter. Aldermen Emily Bastedo and Jacob Hill were absent.

After the vote, Mayor Scott Levin said other towns look to Elmhurst as an example of how to solve flooding problems.

Years ago, he said the city took the time to hire the best consultants to figure out the most effective ways to stop flooding. That, he said, was "despite a lot of people shouting to solve it now."

"For all the heavy rains we had this summer, we had really no significant events," Levin said. "I'm sure I'm going to get a couple of calls tomorrow that something happened, but nothing widespread like we used to see with manhole covers popping off and whole neighborhoods inundated."

He added, "We did the right thing. We improved the value of the city."