Homer Glen board OKs tax
Public works department to be created, blocks transfer
Homer Township filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop Homer Glen from seizing control of the Homer Township Road District and its property and equipment.
The action came the same day the Homer Glen Village Board approved an agreement with the township road commissioner to transfer to road district’s assets to the village. The board also approved a $1.5 million tax levy to pay for publicworks services.
Homer Township Supervisor Pam Meyers said the village of Homer Glen has every right to create its own public works department, but the village cannot simply take the township road district’s assets for its own use.
“Our issue isw ith the unlawful transfer of property,” Meyers said.
Meyers said it is her duty to the 40,000 residents of Homer Township, which includes all and parts of Homer Glen, Lockport, Lemont, New Lenox and the unincorporated area, to ask the courts to intervene and interpret the law.
The township, the village and the road district are three separate line items on the property tax bill. The road district collects taxes on behalf of all township residents, but only maintains the roads for the village of Homer Glen and unincorporated areas in the township. Roads within the municipal boundaries of Lockport, Lemont and New Lenox are maintained by those municipalities’ respective public works departments.
The Homer Township Board
controls the levying of taxes and approval of the road district’s budget, and the road district controls the decisions on the maintenance and operations of the roads.
The village of Homer Glen has been working with Homer Township Road District Commissioner Mike DeVivo on a plan to transfer stewardship of the road district to the village. The plan was announced in July, and the village board held public informational meetings in October. The proposal was also listed in the village’s newsletter and on its website.
The township board responded by putting a referendum on the November ballot to abolish the road district, that would have resulted in control of the road district transferring to the township board. That measure was defeated with about 56% of voters opposing it.
Homer Glen officials said acquiring the road district is about assuming control over the maintenance of roads in the village. Homer Glen relies on the township road district through an intergovernmental agreement to maintain about 135 miles of roads, but the agreement could be canceled with a year’s notice, leaving the village to scramble to provide services for the residents, village officials said.
Under the village’s plan, it will leave some of the road district’s equipment behind for the township’s use so that it can maintain about 18 miles of roads in the unincorporated area, but the rest of the road district’s assets would be considered surplus, village manager Karie Friling said.
Village residents have paid for the road district’s assets through their property taxes, so it would be “common sense” for the village to acquire the rest, Friling said.
“They will not need $2 million in equipment for 18 miles of road,” Friling said. “What do you do with that surplus equipment? Do you sell it? Do you make us buy it again, the very same residents who already bought it once? That’s ludicrous. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
A public works budget is not a one-time expense, so the village needs to levy a tax to pay for staff and maintenance, Friling said.
Since the village incorporated in 2001, it has not levied a municipal tax on its residents. According to the village, the estimated impact on its residents is about $57 per $100,000 of equalized assessed value.
Some residents spoke out against the tax at Wednesday’s board meeting, saying that levying a tax during a pandemic when many people have lost their jobs was not prudent.
Trustees Ruben Pazmino and Sharon Sweas were the only two board members who voted against the tax.
“No new taxes,” Pazmino said. “That’s what I ran on two years ago. … I’ve never seen a tax that has been eliminated or has gone down.”
The village wants to get the road district’s assets transferred by March 31, which could be hampered by the township’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Will County, argues the road district’s equipment and materials are actively used to construct, maintain and repair the roads in the township’s road system and are not unnecessary or surplus.
Highway Commissioner DeVivo indicated he intends to declare all the road district’s assets as surplus so that he could give them to the village “for free or for rates far below market value,” according to the lawsuit.
The sale of surplus property can be approved only by the township electors, who have not authorized the sale of any surplus property, the lawsuit states.