Channahon administrator urges continuing new tax
BY JEANNE MILLSAP Correspondent December 22, 2012 4:40PM
Updated: January 24, 2013 6:40AM
CHANNAHON — The five percent telecommunications tax on cell phones, land line phones, Internet and email services instituted in the village one year ago may continue for another year.
This week, Village Administrator Joe Pena recommended to Channahon trustees that the tax continue throughout 2013 and that it remain at five percent, but perhaps only for one more year.
“While we still have concern over sales tax dollars and rebate fund issues,” Pena wrote in a memo to the board this week, “we have achieved stability and appear to have begun to turn things around.”
The tax was instituted as a way to increase revenue into the cash-strapped village at a time when state reimbursements were continually late, property tax revenue was down, and the village’s sales tax rebate agreements with certain businesses had come to a sudden halt with three lawsuits against the village and the state withholding the village’s rebate money.
Before setting the new tax, the village first went through payroll and decreased staff through attrition, early retirements, and downsizing. Then, in a meeting one year ago, the board created the tax and set it at five percent.
Pena said the village originally projected $400,000 in revenue from the new tax, and the village so far has seen $190,358. Projections for the year are around $380,000. Pena recommended the village keep the tax at five percent and continue to use it for operational needs.
Channahon residents did get some good news at the meeting. Pena also announced that the next electric bill residents will receive should be lighter than the ones before, with the effects of joining the electric aggregation kicking in.
