Channahon Residents Will Pay Telecommunications Tax Through Year's End

Residents in Channahon will continue paying a 5 percent telecommunications tax until at least the end of this year.

Trustee Judie Nash ask to revisit the issue at Monday's Village Board meeting. She moved to reduce the tax to 2.5 percent and Trustee Debbie Millitello seconded that motion. Nash and Millitello were the only two trustees to vote yes to the reduction, which failed 2-4.

“The reason they brought it forward is that any changes would have to be in to the Department of Revenue by March,” Channahon Village Manager Joe Pena said.

In September, trustees approved a 5 percent telecommunications tax, under the impression that they would be able to further discuss the issue before residents were affected. That was not the case. The vote to approve the tax was a tie vote. Channahon Village President Joe Cook broke the tie and approved the tax.

That vote left residents with a 5 percent tax they needed to pay until June 30 of this year. If trustees wanted to reduce or eliminate that tax by July 1, they would have needed to notify the Department of Revenue by March 20.

The next deadline for trustees to change the tax is Sept. 20, which would change the tax effective Jan. 1, 2013.

Nash said she is frustrated by the whole process. She said when board members met in December to talk about budget, they agreed to revisit the issue.

“That meeting never happened and I am not sure why it never happened,” Nash said in an interview Tuesday.

Nash said she requested numbers before Monday's meeting to evaluate what changing the telecommunications tax amount would do to the overall budget.

“I said, what kind of deficit we would be in if we kept the 5 percent, what about reducing it to two-and-a-half, and what would be the deficit if we went to zero,” she said. “Apparently no other trustee asked this question.”

The numbers Nash received indicated that if the tax was reduced to 2.5 percent, the village would face a $155,000 deficit.

“We approached a number of scenarios on where those cuts could be,” she said. “It did not necessarily mean a public safety officer being cut; it did not necessarily mean a public works (employee) being cut.”

As it stands now though, residents will be paying the additional tax until the end of the year. The issue can be raised by another trustee at the next Village Board meeting March 5, but it cannot be raised by Nash again.

“Through rules of order, I can't bring it up because I voted for the (reduction),” Nash said.

She said she was prompted by her constituents who are upset by the tax and the way it was enacted.

“I bring things up because people have come to me with concerns and they are upset,” she said.

She said she was further frustrated by the process of the approval.

"The bottom line is that I am really fed up with the way we have been doing business over the last couple years,” she said. “We cannot continue to do business the way we have been doing business.”