1994 "Citizens United to Keep Taxes from Getting So High That We Can't Afford to Live in Lisle"

Lisle Tax Watchdogs Fight Parks On Center

"Lisle has more than 40 parks and many more green spaces, and some residents are contending that the Park District is just about as large as it ought to be.

For them, the choice is crystal clear when they vote Nov. 8 on whether they favor construction of a $5 million recreation facility.

The opponents note that the Lisle Park District takes in more tax dollars than the village, and that while the average in yearly tax revenue collected by the 39 park districts in DuPage County is $1.64 million, Lisle collects $3.5 million.

Supporters of the facility are asking for a 15-cent property tax levy per $100 of assessed valuation, and they argue that if passed, the Park District levy will still go down by 3 cents. That's because the district recently paid off the debt incurred when it bought Hitchcock Woods with the DuPage County Forest Preserve District in 1989. However, if the referendum proposal fails, taxes will go down 18 cents, to 42 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Passage means the district community center, at 1825 Short St., will be rebuilt into a multiuse recreation complex.

Park Board Trustee Robert Pribish is vehemently opposed to the new center, but it is backed by board President Judith H. Loftus. "There is no question in my mind, as a resident and as Park Board president, that this facility will be used," she said. "We don't have the facility to program for the needs of the community right now. The Park Board has taken advantage of the 18-cent tax reduction over last year and offered this question to the public."

Pribish, meanwhile, has established a community action group called Citizens United to Keep the Taxes from Getting So High That We Can't Afford to Live in Lisle. And he said he's dead serious. "We have a lot of blue-collar workers here," Pribish said. "We have a lot of retirees here, and we're looking at the possibility of legitimately not being able to afford to keep living where we are. I'm on fixed income. There is an awful lot of emotion in the village on this referendum."

Only 10 cents of the 15 cents per $100 in valuation will go to the recreation center. About a third of the proposition's levy is needed to maintain park facilities.

Pribish suggests fiscal mismanagement, contending the Park District has been dependent on tax increases for far too long. He said he expects the recreation center, if built, to operate at an annual $170,000 deficit.

But district director Kim Paetschow argued the center will be a revenue generator because of new fees and cost shifting. An example of this savings, she explained, is $45,000 worth of upgrades required under the Americans with Disabilities Act that will be taken care of through the rebuilding. The new community center would include a gymnasium, program rooms and an indoor swimming pool.

About half of the 15,000-square-foot facility would be torn down and then replaced with a new two-story, 51,000-square-foot building.

The Nov. 8 vote will be a decisive one.

Paetschow said the board won't revive the plan if this one is defeated."

Chicago Tribune.