A new front opened in DuPage County’s battle for financial health when the County Board decided Tuesday to consider a sales tax increase referendum at its next meeting.
Board members at Tuesday’s regular meeting voted unanimously to place the issue on the agenda of the Feb. 14 meeting. If the proposal passes, the county would place a referendum on the April 17 election ballot asking voter approval of a one-fourth of 1 percent sales tax increase.
The tax increase would raise an estimated $35 million and could allow the county to restore some budget cuts imposed this year, or at least prevent the need for more cuts in the 2008 budget, officials said.
Several board members were doubtful that there would be enough time to organize and implement a publicity campaign to convince voters of a need for the tax.
But board member Robert Schroeder, who proposed the referendum, said the effort should be made.
“The county Forest Preserve District got a $65 million bond issue passed with ease in the November election. They got a 60 percent vote for trees! This would be for people,” Schroeder said.
The county has been grappling for several years with rising expenses and stagnant revenue. The county has passed real estate tax increases for two years in a row but was forced nevertheless to lay off 20 employees last week in the County Convalescent Center and eight court clerk employees in November.
A total of 174 county jobs were eliminated in the 2007 budget, but most of those are vacant positions that will go unfilled this year.
Revenue from the proposed tax increase could be spent only on public safety functions such as the county sheriff, state’s attorney’s office and courts. But county funds now spent on those functions would be shifted to other county departments including the Convalescent Center and other human services, officials said Tuesday.
The county now collects a one-fourth of 1 percent sales tax countywide and an additional 1 percent in unincorporated areas. Together, those rates will raise an estimated $44.6 million for the county this year, according to county budget documents.
The total sales tax rate varies by community and is a combination of state, county and local taxes plus taxes imposed by agencies such as the Regional Transportation Agency. For example, the total sales tax on general merchandise is 7 percent in Oak Brook and 7.25 percent in Bloomingdale.
The county was relying on the state legislature to pass a bill that would allow DuPage County to impose a sales tax of up to $2 per pack of cigarettes. The House passed the bill but Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) refused to permit a vote on it in the last days of the 2005-2006 legislative session. ———-
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