Candidates for Niles Village Board sparred March 18 over balancing village services with taxes, occasionally confronting one another as they forayed into issues around safety and cannabis zoning.
“This is not a Harry Potter world we live in,” Planning and Zoning Commissioner Morgan Dubiel said at one point. “Taxes are the way government pays for the things we want.”
Dubiel was defending the current village administration against comments from challengers Chris Hanusiak, Pradip Pandya, Sherry Bailey-Schutt and Marko Ratic over recent property tax hikes.
Dubiel is running with incumbent Trustees Craig Niedermaier and Dean Strzelecki alongside registered nurse Maryann Warda. There are also two independent candidates running — James Mahoney III and Edina Zvizdic. Zvizdic and Niedermaier were absent from the debate, hosted by local publication Journal and Topics at the Niles Park District Howard Leisure Center.
Strzelecki emphasized, in the face of calls to cut taxes, that Niles would have to cut services. He said there had been protests when the village had considered reducing its Family Services program.
“The people want these services,” he said. “We have to keep them, we have to keep them viable, make sure we keep the costs down, but we have to keep them.”
Hanusiak, Ratic, Pandya and Bailey-Schutt objected to a recent decision to adjust the zoning requirements for adult-use cannabis dispensaries to require that they be 250 feet from schools and places of worship as opposed to the previous 1,000-foot requirement.
Ratic called the decision “a disrespect to our religious institutions, it’s a disrespect to parents who are trying to keep their kids off of drugs.”
Dubiel said he thought the original 1,000-foot rule had been “fine” when it passed through the zoning board, while Warda said she wasn’t involved in that decision.
Strzelecki said after 39 years fighting the use of recreational cannabis as the chief of the village police department, he had “no problem” with the location rules and pointed out that dispensaries can generate serious tax revenue for the village.
Tax revenue and how the village funds operations occupied most of the hour and 15 minute session. The village approved an 88% property tax rate increase in late 2021, though trustees later abated that increase to a 63% bump.
In November 2022, they approved the same tax levy, 88% over the 2020 rate, and then abated it to a 63% increase at the February 2023 board meeting.
– Original Credit: Handout
The rate hike and subsequent abatements were what motivated Hanusiak, who last served as a village trustee in 2009, Pandya, Bailey-Schutt and Ratic to run for the board, they said.
“Seeing the high taxes that are going through was kind of a shock to me,” Bailey said.
Ratic echoed that point, saying that while it may be necessary to raise taxes, “the amount of taxes raised is the question,” he said. “When you increase taxes to a point that affects [citizens’] lives, that’s on us. That’s our responsibility.”
They also called on recent increases to water bills and the move to separate the garbage bill from other service bills, with Hanusiak condemning the latter as not transparent.
Strzelecki said residents’ water bills have jumped because the city of Evanston, where Niles purchases its water, had increased its rates, and added that new state laws had forced the village to raise property taxes in order to fully fund its police and fire pensions by 2040.
Hanusiak said that Niles’ impressive sales tax revenue, which may break a record level this year, should prompt the village to lower its property tax rate, not increase it.
Instead, “the village has been buying buildings and spending money like there’s no tomorrow,” he said.
Warda, who is running alongside the two incumbent trustees and Dubiel, used her time at the microphone to say that Niles’ property taxes are still some of the lowest in the area.
Independent candidate Mahoney also disagreed with Hanusiak and his running-mates.
“Everyone else is paying more than we are in the village of Niles,” he said. “I’ve seen the services we get for the money we pay, and I think our taxes are okay right now.”
At one point, Dubiel addressed Hanusiak directly, saying that a unilateral push to cut taxes would compromise the village’s offerings to its residents.
“Chris, you’re running as the no, no, no party,” he said. “If you’re gonna cut taxes, you’re gonna increase debt, or you’re going to cut services. You can’t have it both ways. We do our best every chance we have.”
“You have not been on the board,” Hanusiak said.
“That is true, no rebuttal needed,” Dubiel replied.
Asked what service programs he would change in Niles if elected trustee, Pandya said his main concern was lowering the property tax rate, the water bill and the garbage bill.