06/26/2025
VILLAGE SEEKING INCOME TAX INCREASE … Village council has decided to put a proposal on the November ballot that would increase the income tax rate from 1.5 percent to 2 percent.
If approved by voters, it is expected to generate an additional $1.3 million in revenue per year, starting in 2026. The money is needed to fund ongoing road repairs and reconstruction efforts, officials said.
Village Administrator April McDonald said the ever-increasing cost of road repairs is having a deleterious effect on Village finances. The costs are driven by increasing prices and by the increasing scope of work needed on many streets.
Fishbeck, the engineering firm hired to assess the condition of the Village's streets, estimated the Village will need to spend nearly $21 million over the next 20 years on road repair and resurfacing projects.
This is the first time Village officials have sought an income tax increase since the early 1970s. They did, in 2014, ask voters to approve a 3.9 mill levy to generate funds for road, bridges, and sidewalks. That measure passed 1,098 to 668.
“The [2014] road levy only brings in $595,000 a year, and we get an additional $90,000 from TARTA,” McDonald said. “For 2026, the road budget is $3.1 million, mainly for the Edgevale Road project.”
A project in 2027 to replace the Evergreen Road bridge is expected to cost $2.8 million. In that instance, officials anticipate the state will reimburse the Village up to $2.5 million of the cost of the bridge project.
“The problem is we have to front the cost,” McDonald said. “We will get reimbursed, but it may not be the same year.”
Other big ticket road projects in the near future include the reconstruction of Brittany Road for $1.7 million, Hasty Road for $2.4 million, and Edgehill Road for $2.7 million. All of the projects would be the complete tear out and reconstruction of the road, McDonald said.
“We have been told you can only mill and fill a street just so many times,” she said.
Mill and fill refers to the process of scraping off the top layer of the road surface, making basic repairs to what remains, then paving over the repaired surface. If voters to not approve the income tax increase in November, Village officials will have to diverge from the recommendations of the engineering firm that was hired to assess the condition of the streets in the Village.
“If we cannot reconstruct, then we will have to get on a mill and fill plan and only spend what we are bringing in,” McDonald said.
Engineers have indicated the complete reconstruction of a road is part of its life cycle, and continued mill and fill efforts would only delay the inevitable.
Village officials decided to go for an income tax increase as opposed to a levy, which would impact property taxes, in large part due to historical precedence.
“The schools are going to be going for a levy in the next few years. Normally, the schools go for the property taxes,” McDonald said. “We are usually income taxes, so we decided to ‘stay in our lane.’”
