Lisle trustees are expected to begin discussing on Monday ways to generate revenue to support a downtown revitalization plan other than setting up a tax-increment financing district.
The village’s staff has collected data and compiled a report that was given to the trustees June 5. The report emphasizes that the review was conducted at the trustees’ request and delivered “with the understanding that it is not to be interpreted in any way as an indication by the staff that any additional taxes … should be considered.”
Last summer, the Village Board approved a wide-ranging plan to redevelop and beautify much of downtown. The estimated $15 million plan, however, came with a recommendation from the Economic Development Commission that the board establish a tax-increment financing district, or TIF, to support it.
That possibility sent shudders through Lisle School District 202 officials because the district relies heavily on property taxes for revenue. Partially in response to the district’s concerns, the mayor and Village Board suggested in December looking at other revenue sources and the pros and cons of home-rule status.
Among the taxes examined were those for the corporate fund, police protection, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and the Police Pension Fund. The plan also looked at insurance costs, school crossing guard taxes, hotel/motel tax and utility taxes, as well as the sales tax, a sales tax rebate and pledged sales tax income.
Those are the taxable funding sources that are available to the village, according to guidelines in the Illinois Municipal Handbook. The report addresses those taxes that are possible under the village’s current non-home-rule status, as well as those that would be feasible if the village were to become a home-rule community. The village already levies some of the taxes, and the review includes that information and any maximum rates.
For example, the corporate fund tax and police protection tax have caps unless the village asks voters to lift them. It levies a 0.2432 percent property tax for its corporate fund, which has a maximum of 0.25 percent, and 0.0743 percent for its police protection fund, which has a cap of 0.075 percent.
The village also levies a tax on telephone users but not on other utilities such as gas or water. It could start a tax on those utilities without a referendum.
The report also states that home-rule powers eliminate any restrictions on how hotel and motel taxes can be used. In 1999, that amount was about $922,000. The village has an agreement through April 2004 to provide 80 percent of those funds to its visitors bureau. Home-rule status would allow the village to alter that arrangement and decrease that percentage.
Home rule also could let the village impose a real-estate transfer tax of 50 cents for each $500 of real estate being transferred.
With home rule, local governmental units have any power not specifically denied them by the state. Without it, they have only the powers specifically granted by the state. Under the Illinois Constitution, home-rule powers are granted through referendum or automatically when a municipality’s population reaches 25,000.
In 1975, Lisle voters approved becoming a home-rule community, but trepealed that vote several years later. The village’s current population is 20,913.
In a related matter, Lisle trustees at their June 5 meeting recessed discussions begun several months ago with other village taxing bodies to address details and financing options for the village’s downtown master plan.
“This has become a `which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ approach and our projection is that we are not getting any place,” said Village Manager Carl Doerr, who has been representing the village at the talks, along with Trustee Joe Broda.
They have been meeting periodically since January with representatives from the Library, Park and Fire Districts; Lisle Township; and School District 202 to try to answer questions about the estimated $15 million plan.
Those discussions quickly overshadowed the board’s own deliberations on the plan, especially when school district officials became falsely alarmed that the city already had chosen to fund the work through a TIF.
School board members believe such a choice would divert millions of dollars from their struggling district.
“Until the council determines what projects in the plan it would like to pursue, these discussions are not going to be fruitful with other agencies,” Doerr said. “The village needs to be exploring various aspects of the plan or consider retrenching.”
Broda agreed, saying the two were being asked to answer questions about the plan too soon.
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“We need to put our cards together first before we talk with them anymore,” Broda said.
Regrouping is fine, said Mayor Ron Ghilardi, but not downsizing the plan.
“We have conceptually adopted this plan,” he said. “I don’t think we should start whittling it down.”
Ghilardi suggested that the village’s financial and design consultants should look at the original plan and factor in whatever comments were made at the meetings between the village and the other governmental agencies, then present the results to trustees at a workshop session in July or August.
Trustees agreed that once their questions were answered, the village could move forward with the intergovernmental discussions. They also voted to add $13,000 to the financial consultants’ $32,900 contract for the additional time and to complete work on the conceptual portion of the downtown plan.