More Top Picks Sensory Meltdown Vs Tantrum How To Tell The Difference
player ready...Ross E. Doyle isn’t particularly comfortable in the area of public speaking.
So having to stand up before the Batavia City Council during a recent public hearing to voice his objections to a special business tax wasn’t an appealing option.
Instead, while sitting down, he unwittingly stood up for other business owners who are also confused or upset about paying a new city tax.
“I’m normally stage-shy, so I didn’t think I could stand up and be able to do it,” said Doyle, who owns a parcel in downtown Batavia with a Domino’s Pizza and a three-flat residential unit. “I thought I was alone on this. When people came up to me afterwards and told me they were glad I had said something, well, I had no idea. That’s when I felt good I had said something.”
The public hearing was called to hear opinions on the special services area the city would like to establish to help fund its participation in the Illinois Main Street Program. The city found out in March it had been chosen to participate in the 8-year-old state program that helps revitalize downtowns by providing help in several areas, particularly technical assistance.
The irregularly shaped special services area follows the same boundaries of a tax incentive district designated by the city in 1989 in the central business district, said City Administrator Ron Podschweit. The business district comprises streets on both sides of the Fox River, several blocks north and south of Wilson Street.
Businesses within the special service area were served legal notice last month of the hearing and of the city’s goal of collecting an annual tax from the businesses for three years at 28 cents per $100 assessed value. Those tax funds would be paired with the $30,000 a year for three years pledged by the City Council and an additional $10,000 from fundraising projects, all directed toward funding the Main Street program, said Podschweit.
But the boundaries of the area and therefore which businesses would be taxed, as well as what the money would be used for is disturbing and confusing to Doyle and other business owners.
Doyle said he objects in particular to the fact his entire parcel is being taxed as if his three-flat were a business. And, he said, he also found several parcels, some with well-established businesses on them, which are contiguous to the special service area that would not be taxed.
And if the funds are going to go to a consultant, he said he wouldn’t want to waste the money that way.
Ray Hogan, owner of Hogan Heating and Air Conditioning on Wilson Street, shared Doyle’s objections and confusion.
“I think it’s too muddied up,” said Hogan. “It’s very vague as to what the purpose of the (program) is going to be. And certain businesses seemed to have been exempt.”
All of the funds will stay in the city and will go toward, among other things, paying the salary of the state-required, full-time downtown manager, said Gerry Dempsey, owner of Batavia Enterprises, a property management company and one of 13 members of the recently formed Main Street volunteer board of directors.
The public hearing has been continued to June 15.