Burr Ridge Referendum Asks Voters to Approve $520,000 For Infrastructure Maintenance

There will be a referendum on Burr Ridge’s ballot next Tuesday, but few people know exactly what it means.

The additional question residents will face at the polls will ask them if they would approve of raising the village’s corporate levy by $520,000, which is the same amount that taxpayers currently put forth every year for the bonds that brought Lake Michigan water to Burr Ridge, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The money would go toward maintaining village roads and improving infrastructure in the area.

The bonds connected to Lake Michigan water, however, expire at the end of the year, so residents will no longer be paying for them. If the referendum asking for half a million dollars passes on election day, residents of Burr Ridge will be paying the village the same amount as they have been — it’ll just be going toward road and infrastructure maintenance, the Tribune reported.

Burr Ridge officials have said that the $520,000 would be earmarked for roads and other improvements, but that money cannot be legally mandated to be used only for roads by future boards.

Stricker pointed to the 2008 recession as a reason not mandating that annual $520,000 for roads and other infrastructure may actually be a good thing.

"In 2008, the village cut 9.5 positions," Stricker said. "In dire straits like that, do we lay off police officers or do we take that money from the road program? I think most residents of Burr Ridge would support pushing back the road program for a year."

Because the binding referendum would raise the corporate levy after the water bonds expire, the nearly full-page ballot question does read as a "tax increase," which could turn off voters uneducated about the tax swap, Stricker said.

If the referendum is approved, property owners’ taxes would be raised by $16.63 per $100,000 of assessed valuation in DuPage County, and $12.81 per $100,000 of assessed valuation in Cook County.

Have any questions about this referendum? Ask us in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer them for you.

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