The Village of Homer Glen's Push to Dissolve Homer Township WHY!!!

The new Mayor of Homer Glen is pushing to dissolve Homer Township and the Homer Township Road District. She convinced the new Homer Glen Village Board to vote to include a non-binding referendum on the March 2024 ballot to ask this very question. The key here is NON-BINDING, which means just that. If all of the Township’s unincorporated voters want to stay unincorporated, this measure should fail.

This article will set the record straight on the Homer Glen Mayor’s false rhetoric on this matter. The following facts are based on the current approved budgets and tax levies of both the Homer Township Road District and the Village of Homer Glen’s Public Works Department.

Misconception #1 – “The Village of Homer Glen’s Public Works will take over the Homer Township Road District”.

According to State Statute, the only way to dissolve a Township Road District is if the number of miles of road maintained drops below 5 miles, or for State lawmakers to pass legislation in Springfield to do that. The Homer Township Road District currently maintains 18.5 miles of road and has NO PLANS to reduce this number. In addition, the Homer Township Board would have to approve any change to the scope of the Road District, and the current Board would never vote to reduce this number or vote to dissolve itself as they are there to protect the unincorporated residents of the Township.

Misconception #2 – “The Homer Township Road District is more expensive to run than the Village of Homer Glen’s Public Works”.

The Village Mayor is billowing a lot of smoke on this topic. In reality, the cost per mile of road is LESS for the Homer Township Highway Department than the cost per mile for the Village of Homer Glen Public Works. That is a FACT based on current fiscal budgets. The cost per mile of road for the Homer Township Road District is $43,000 per mile. The cost per mile of road for the Village of Homer Glen Public Works is $63,000 per mile, which is 47% HIGHER than the Homer Township Road District! It is important to note, and the Mayor always skips this part, that only half of the annual tax levy by the Road District actually ends up at the Road District, as the other half is distributed to the municipalities in the Township as per state statute as the “half share”.

Misconception #3 – “The Village of Homer Glen Public Works is run more efficiently than the Homer Township Road District.”

One way to look at “efficiency” is by looking at the number of employees it takes to maintain the total miles of roads under your responsibility. The Homer Township Road District has three employees, of which one is the ELECTED Highway Commissioner. The footprint of the Homer Township Road District includes ~18.5 miles of roadway. So, 9.3 miles of roads are maintained per employee. The Village of Homer Glen Public Works has 17 employees, of which one is the APPOINTED Public Works Director, and one is the Admin. So, 9.0 miles of roads are maintained per employee, a slightly less efficient number.

Misconception #4 – “The Village of Homer Glen Public Works is already maintaining 8 miles of Homer Township roads”.

Just a plain FALSE statement. Here are the facts. In the winter of 2022, the Homer Township Road District temporarily paid Village staff to “help” plow 8 miles of their roads for a handful of snow events. That hardly justifies the statement above! This year, the Road District is training and licensing the Township Park Maintenance team to drive snowplows, which will save taxpayers even more money – and not have to pay the Village or hire any additional full-time employees.

Misconception #5 – “Homer Township Road District staff make double what the HGPW staff does.”

Based on the current budgets this year, the compensation for both the Village of Homer Glen Public Works department and the Homer Township Road District are fairly compatible. However, the Village has decided to unionize its Public Works employees, which will cause their overall payroll to increase at a much greater rate than the Township Road District. Village union staff are also pursuing “lost wages” retroactive to the starting date of the union negotiations which taxpayers will also be liable for, in addition to the generous annual union wage increases.

Misconception #6 – “If the Village of Homer Glen takes over the Homer Township Road District, your property taxes will go down”.

Based on the 5 points made above, and actual tax bills, this is extremely likely not to be the case.

In 2019, the former Homer Township Road Commissioner and the former Mayor of the Village of Homer Glen cooked up a backroom deal to transfer over 85% of the then Homer Township Road District to the Village creating the new Homer Glen Public Works Department in 2020. This necessitated the very 1st Homer Glen Municipal Tax. Look at all of your property tax bills before 2020, and you’ll see this 1st Homer Glen Municipal Tax appeared for the first time in 2020. Since then, in 3 years of operation, the Village of Homer Glen Public Works has not been able to find any efficiencies to reduce this new tax burden. As a matter of public record, the prior Mayor wanted to double the levy, but the Village Board wisely voted his proposal down. Given the new unionization of the Village workers and the need for future Village road improvements, this tax line will likely be going up.

For contrast, look at your 2021 and 2022 Property Tax Bills under the Taxing Districts called HOMER TWP ROAD FUNDS and VIL HOMER GLEN RD BR. You’ll see that the current Homer Township Road District Highway Commissioner (Brent Porfilio, PE - that you ELECTED) has reduced these tax levies significantly… from 2020 to 2021 by over 200%... from 2021 to 2022 by 25%... and the 2022 to 2023 tax levy has been submitted to the County for another reduction as well despite the current 7%+ inflation rate. The record shows that the Homer Township Road District Highway Commissioner knows how to cut needless spending and save you, the taxpayer, money in many different, creative ways.