The Orland Park Village Board of Trustees voted last week to give the coming Amazon store a big tax break, but not all on the board were on board with it.
The vote passed 5-2 the Cook County Class 7(b) incentive with Cindy Nelson Katsenes and William Healy voting “no.”
Katsenes sees the break as unfair.
“We have a company that Fortune Global 500 says is No. 1, and they made $717 billion last year,” she said. “They came to Orland; we didn’t come to them.
“They are getting a tax break, and we have a lot of businesses that have been here that aren’t (getting the break). In my opinion, it doesn’t seem fair. It just doesn’t seem right.”
The passed resolution is consenting to a property tax rate incentive designation for 15901 S. 92nd Avenue and 9600 W. 159th St. that will house Amazon Retail for a 225,000 square foot facility.
The property will be assessed at 10% of the market value as opposed to 25% for the first 10 years, 15% for the 11th year, and 20% for the 12th year.
“We’re giving them a break and small businesses in town don’t get a break,” Katsenes said.
Trustee John Lawler pointed out if Orland Park didn’t give the tax breaks, he feels Amazon would have gone to Will County and that “Orland Park would not be getting any of that money.”
He added that the 7(b) break will make Amazon competitive with Costo, located a short distance away on 159th Street.
“We want them (Amazon) to stick around for a long time,” Lawler said. “They will be bringing jobs in. People who shop there will visit other stores. We give a lot of incentives to a lot of businesses.
“All in all, it’s necessary.”
Orland Park Mayor James Dodge put the onus on Cook County.
“I would like nothing better than if Cook Country did not have a tax system that would put us in the position of having to do this,” he said. “You can make a strong argument that 6 and 7 tax incentives are there because of how disproportionally heavy Cook County is on businesses.
“This program allows us to assist, help etc. big new developments in Orland Park.” Dodge added.
Dodge said the incentives were necessary.
“Amazon asked the question early,” he said. “I personally believe there were some kind of incentives in the wayback machine for Costco and just about every other big development including most of the auto dealers on 159th Street in some way, shape or form.”
