Home Rule for Villa Park

On Monday night’s meeting, Our Village Trustees voted unanimously to enact an ordinance further limiting their ability to create new taxes and gave the Villa Park Residents the ability to defeat any new taxes the Village might try to enact in the future. They did this not because they plan to create taxes, but instead have done this in order to reassure our residents that they are looking at Home Rule Authority as a tool for programs other then taxing.

Text of the ordinance that passed Monday Evening:

ORDINANCE REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 3449 AND
ADOPTING NEW POLICIES RE HOME RULE TAX LIMITATIONS

WHEREAS, a referendum is presently pending which would confer home rule status upon the Village of Villa Park if approved by the voters of the Village; and

WHEREAS, on December 10, 2007, by Ordinance No. 3449, the Village adopted certain policies regarding tax limitations and reductions or abatements; and

WHEREAS, President and Board of Trustees find and hereby declare that it is in the best interests of the Village and its residents to repeal Ordinance No. 3449 and to adopt policies with respect to property taxes and property tax reduction in the event that the village becomes a home rule municipality;

SECTION ONE: The recitals set forth hereinabove shall be and are hereby incorporated in this Section One as if they were fully set forth herein.

SECTION TWO: Ordinance No. 3449 of the Village, passed on December 10, 2007, shall be and is hereby repealed and shall no longer be in force and effect.

SECTION THREE: In the event the Village becomes a home rule municipality, it shall be the policy of the Village to levy real property taxes in the same amount and to the same extent as if the Village had remained a non-home rule unit and was subject to the maximum aggregate levy increase permitted by statute.

SECTION FOUR: In the event the Village becomes a home rule municipality, it shall be the policy of the Village to consider property tax reductions or tax abatements when revenues warrant.

SECTION FIVE: Except for real property taxes, as set forth hereinabove, in the event the Village becomes a home rule municipality, prior to the adoption of any ordinance imposing any new tax on any person or property in the Village that is not authorized under the provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code for municipalities that are not home rule units, the Board of Trustees shall follow the following procedure:

1. The Board shall cause preparation of a statement setting forth the intended use of the additional revenue to be derived from such tax and shall cause publication of such statement along with the publication of the text of the proposed ordinance on the Village website.

    

2. The President shall cause one or more public hearings to be held in compliance with the provisions of the Open Meetings Act (5 ILCS 120/1 et seq.) with respect to the proposed ordinance, which public hearing(s) shall be presided over by the President or the President Pro-Tem, at which any person interested in the subject matter of such proposed ordinance may appear, in person or by attorney, and submit statements and documentary evidence to the person conducting such hearing. Notice of the time and place of such hearings shall (1) be published on the Village website and (2) be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the Village not less than seven (7) nor more than thirty (30) days prior to the public hearing date.

    

3. The Board of Trustees shall receive all petitions and written statements supporting or opposing such proposed ordinance. If petitions opposing such proposed ordinance contain signatures of Village residents equal to 10 percent or more of the total votes cast for the office of Villa Park Village President in the last local election, it shall be the policy of the Board of Trustees to hold a general referendum on such proposed ordinance. If the majority of the persons voting at such referendum are opposed to such proposed ordinance, it shall be the policy of the Village not to adopt such ordinance.

SECTION SIX: Any and all policies, resolutions or ordinances of the Village of Villa Park that conflict with the provisions of this ordinance shall be, and they are hereby, repealed to the extent of such conflict.

SECTION SEVEN: This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, approval, and publication in the manner provided by law.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Villa Park Home Rule. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.