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View Full Version : Champaign IL council votes 8-1 to increase sales tax by 3% to hire 6 cops




Keith and stuff
06-13-2013, 10:42 AM
The Champaign, IL city council voted 8-1 to increase the combined state/local sales tax by 3% to hire 6 additional police officers. Then it voted 6-3 to increase the sanitary sewer fee. The new rate for Champaign is 9%. That isn't the highest in IL, though. The rate in Chicago is 9.25%. Cicero, a Chicago suburb, has a 9.5% rate.

Champaign council votes 8-1 for sales tax increase
Patrick Wade
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-06-04/champaign-council-votes-8-1-sales-tax-increase.html

Here's the 1st half of the article.

CHAMPAIGN — A quarter-percentage point sales tax increase passed with little resistance from audience or city council members on Tuesday night, and the surcharge city officials will use to pay for police, fire and library services will go into effect Jan. 1.

In an 8-1 vote, city council members gave final approval to the $2.8 million per year revenue generator on the same night that they approved a $114.6 million budget for the coming fiscal year.

The sales tax increase, which brings the rate from 8.75 to 9 percent, will pay for six more police officers, keep a fire engine in full service on the city's west side and keep the library open on its current schedule for at least one year.

Those three items collectively will cost $1.7 million annually. City council members will discuss in the coming weeks how to use the remaining $1.1 million.

The sales tax increase was one vote among a slate of budget-related ordinances on Tuesday night. Among those was a sanitary sewer fee increase — which, like the sales tax increase, council members had supported in the past few weeks and finalized on Tuesday.

At 6-3, however, the vote on the 6 percent sanitary sewer fee increase was a bit more narrow. It immediately followed the sales tax vote, and three council members said they could not support another tax or fee increase after approving the sales tax.

City council members nonetheless adopted a fee of $3.02 per average daily cubic feet of water usage, up from the current $2.85 rate. That means a typical single-family home using an average of 25 cubic feet of water per day — or about 187 gallons — would pay $75.50 annually, up from the current $71.25

Without the increase, city officials had said the shortfall likely would lead to more sewer breakdowns and sewage backups on private property.

"I feel like, as council member (Will) Kyles suggested, I don't have a problem using funds from our home-rule (sales) tax increase to support needs in this arena and cannot support another tax," said council member Paul Faraci. He joined Kyles and Karen Foster in voting against the sanitary sewer fee increase.

Mayor Don Gerard supported the sanitary sewer fee increase and said the extra money left over from the sales tax increase could be used to pay for economic development incentives.
Continue reading. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-06-04/champaign-council-votes-8-1-sales-tax-increase.html

oyarde
06-13-2013, 10:50 AM
Ridiculous.

tsai3904
06-13-2013, 10:50 AM
passed with little resistance from audience

I attended my city council meeting for the first time this week. I spoke against giving $7,500 raises to fire fighters earning over $200k and against the city's proposed budget. There were less than 10 people in attendance for a city of over 200k and I was the only one who spoke on the budget.

Seems like civic participation beyond simply casting a ballot is a real problem.

Anti Federalist
06-13-2013, 11:00 AM
I attended my city council meeting for the first time this week. I spoke against giving $7,500 raises to fire fighters earning over $200k and against the city's proposed budget. There were less than 10 people in attendance for a city of over 200k and I was the only one who spoke on the budget.

Seems like civic participation beyond simply casting a ballot is a real problem.

"That's boring"

"I don't pay attention to politics"

"The game is on"

That's usually the case when I decide to go agitate at the local police review board meeting.