By Stephen Nelson
At their January 17 meeting, the Bourbonnais Village Board approved a resolution that will allow a referendum to be placed on the April 4 Municipal Election ballot that, if passed, would allow Bourbonnais to collect a one percent increase in the sales tax.
Mayor Paul Schore said the major benefit of the increase would be a rebate to residents from the village portion of their property tax.
Schore said, “We received a lot of feedback that showed residents did not have a good understanding of the referendum,” which failed by a 2-1 margin when offered on the ballot back in November 2022.
Schore promised a greater effort will be made this time to educate residents about all the potential benefits of a sales tax increase.
The Village of Bradley passed a sales tax increase in 2019. Since then, it has begun offering 100 percent village property tax rebates to residents and has amassed a $5 million surplus.
In other business, the board approved a new three-year contract with Bourbonnais’ Police Patrol Division, which is represented by the Fraternal Order of Police Post 64. The contract calls for raises for officers of 4 percent – 2 percent and 2 percent over the term of the contract, which will expire on April 30, 2025. Police had been working without a new contract since April 30 of last year.
The board also approved resolutions that will add more than $65,000 to the final cost of the Municipal Campus renovation currently underway. The contractor discovered both a gas line and a water main will have to be relocated to allow work to progress. This is not expected to result in any significant delay in the completion of the project.