Naperville city officials want (not need) about $6 million. For once I can agree with city officials because I also want $6 million. It’s nice to want things, it’s not so good to need things. Some city officials thought they had the answer when they proposed to double the city sales tax, but it didn’t happen. So most likely they will go to the next lowest hanging fruit and ask for a property tax hike. The answer is always the same; squeeze it out of the residents and taxpayers. Naperville city officials can’t seem to come up with a creative answer.
But alas, maybe with a stroke of serendipity the council has stumbled on a possible solution other than painfully extracting it from the good folks of Naperville. The answer is right there in the numbers. Maybe, just maybe, Naperville councilwoman Becky Anderson was just one dot short of connecting the dots.
A few months ago Anderson brought up the idea of making Naperville a ‘Welcoming city’. She didn’t quite have enough courage to use the words ‘sanctuary city’, so she went with ‘welcoming city’; it sounds so much more appealing and less threatening.
Get ready for the missing ‘dot’; it’s the word ‘census’. The City of Naperville is considering approving a special census count in 2018. More people in Naperville means more money for Naperville. How simple is that. That’s the answer.
Here is how it would work. If Naperville adds 4,650 people to its population count, it would bring in about 1.6 million in additional federal and state funding. If you extrapolate that to bringing in the $6 million the city wants, you would have to increase Naperville’s population by 17,437 for this special census, which equates to ‘welcoming’ one new person for every three homes in Naperville.
Naperville would have to make it happen fast before the census. If a bus holds 100 people, it would take only 175 bus loads of people. Drop one person off at every third house.
Bingo, problem solved. No increase in city sales tax, and no property tax hike. The only downside to the solution is that Anderson would be assured of at least 17,437 votes in her next election.
Sometimes the answer is right there in the numbers. All it takes is one dot to make it happen. It probably wouldn’t hurt to get the word out to the world, that our new motto is “Naperville, The Welcoming City”
It is doubtful this whole $6 million will come from a property tax increase since that would mean an over 17% increase which will certainly get people yelling and speaking out at council meetings. There have been other means suggested in the past for raising additional funds and most likely these alternative sources will be used to raise most of this money.
The real estate transfer fee for Naperville has been discussed several time and in some neighboring communities is significantly higher (there are cities in this country that raise their entire budget for these fees alone). So the real estate transfer fee (or tax if you wish) is actually the next lowest hanging fruit.
Why not declare Nitra week during the same time as the census. Every household can host one, two or several residents of the sister city Nitra, Slovakia. Census worker comes by and asks how many people live in the residence. Bingo, the 2018 Naperville population boom in full effect. One way to put Naperville on the map… not cheating but say flexing the rules. Welcome to Naperville
How about reducing expenditures