On Wednesday, April 17, I will be accompanied by City Administrator Bryon Vana, Alderwoman Mary Sullivan, and Aldermen Joseph Kenny and Gerry Leganski to Springfield, Illinois, for the DuPage Mayors and Managers Annual Drive Down. As Past President of the DMMC, I have made this trip each year since my election, and I have encouraged my fellow elected officials to join me as we seek to lobby the State Legislature and State Governmental leaders on issues that directly impact the state, DuPage County and the City of Darien.
This year, our main issue will once again be our request for an additional increase in the Local Government Distributive Fund. Back in 1971 when it was established, the state guaranteed municipalities that they (the State), would return ten-percent of income taxes paid by residents to each municipality on a per capita basis. That commitment was sustained until 2011 when the State suffered some financial setbacks, and the figure was cut to 6%. Unfortunately, the State reneged on its commitment, and the figure has never been raised back to its official funding level of 10%. Over the past thirteen years, all municipalities across the state have lost significant funding that would normally go toward public safety and infrastructure. Our lobbying efforts over the past three years have seen a slight increase from 6% to 6.47%. While not insignificant, we will once again seek an increase through legislation to 8%, with gradual increases to 10% by 2031. Because this is an issue that impacts all municipalities in the state, it will be our primary lobbying effort this year.
While we have a specific Legislative Action Program that will be our focus in Springfield, there are two other issues that we will spend time discussing with our state representatives. These two issues, the suspension of the 1% grocery tax and changes to Tier 1 and Tier 2 pension consolidation, will each financially impact all municipalities. While the 1% grocery tax suspension may save you $1 for every $100 you spend on groceries, it will see a loss of anywhere from $350,000 to $700,000 in lost revenue to our city. These monies again go to public safety and infrastructure improvement, and the loss of this revenue will impact budgeting for all local governmental bodies.
Our third major focus involves changes to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 pension system, which, if enacted, will see increases in our yearly funding of our police pension costs. Tier 2 legislation was created in 2011 in order to help municipalities maintain their pension costs, and the change has assisted us in meeting our pension obligations over the past 13 years. If changes occur to meld Tier 2 with Tier 1, it will significantly impact our rising annual payment. We are committed to maintaining a healthy pension system for our Darien police, and we, as well as other municipalities, will be lobbying to maintain the current system.
These are but three of the issues we will be concentrating on while we are down in Springfield this week; our goal, as it is every year is to maintain local control, eliminate costly mandates, and allow our local governments the opportunity to legislate that which is in the best interest of our residents.
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City of Darien representatives meet with State Senator/Minority Leader John Curran
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City Administrator Vana, Alderwoman Sullivan, Mayor Marchese, Alderman Kenny, and Alderman Leganski lobbied in Springfield along with the DuPage Mayors & Managers Conference.
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