Posted by wlpo on May 22, 2011
While some cities have stopped making donations to local non-profits, Peru continues to set aside $20,000 in the budget for such things. That’ll be one of the things they’ll talk about at their council meeting Monday evening.
The council could also approve an agreement with the Ottawa Police Department that would allow the Peru Police Department to provide and receive help from Ottawa officers.
The Peru City Council meets at 7:30pm Monday.
18 comments:
Heard this on WLPO this morning. In my opinion it makes Peru sound pompous and like we have all kinds of money. On the other hand we turn around and ask all those who shop in Peru to pay an additional 1/2% sales tax so we can fix our roads. This, in my opinion, is wrong as is our going to Ottawa for police assistance.
Why would we need help from Ottawa police when we have so many good police forces right next door?
Anon 1:23 That is a very good question. Maybe it is political. I hope someone asks that question at the meeting tonight. What I do not understand is why the Chief of Police would have not made it perfectly clear last week that we do have agreements with neighboring police departments.
Where is the line drawn to what should be a acceptable agency to donate to and what should not? Boys and girls ball has a sposorship of over $3500.00 each from the city annually plus upkeep costs of the playing fields and a concession stand built on city property. The Better Fishing Association conducts a event on their own every year at Baker Lake for children and normally receive $1,000.00 from the city. Should this donation, a small donation when considering the amount of children and adults who get a vast amount of joy and knowledge from this day be stopped? I DON'T THINK SO! I hope all the surrounding towns donate to this event.
Another consideration is that Peru receives a pillow tax from the motels in the city. Why is this pillow tax collected? I would picture the reason is to promote and advertise local activities to increase business for Peru establishments. Maybe I am wrong in this line of thought because I have heard there was $600,000.00 available for street work this year until another $300,000.00 plus was moved from the pillow tax. Upon being asked by a alderman if this was even legal the Mayor answered with "Home Rule". Congradulations, now there is a reason in the future to move more money from the electric fund to the general fund to the pillow tax fund to promote Peru.
If there is going to be donations granted by the city there must be a stringent set of guidelines which have to be met,and the first is that it is a Peru function or a function in which the citizens of Peru have a large percentage of participation.
Another guideline is that there should be no political campaigning associated with the donation.
One event which I do not understand Peru doing on its own is the 4th of July fireworks. Has it ever asked cities from the surrounding area to co-op this prgram? If none of the cities were willing to actively participate could Peru do fireworks every other year or every three years until economics improve? Every expense should be reevaluated before another mention of a 1/2 percent increase in sales tax is mentioned. A 1/2% increase could create a huge decrease in sales tax revenue if a idea such as this angers citizens from the surrounding area to find other cities to shop in. Before Parkside School Peru was the lowest sales tax in the area and if another 1/2% increase was put in effect Peru would be the highest in the surrounding area. People are not going to pay their taxes and Peru's also-you can bet the farm on it.
What kind of help is the PPD to recieve from the OPD and what kind of help is the PPD to give to the OPD? With a police force of 26 does the City of Peru need help? If they do need help why did they leave Tri-Dent recently? Why are they leap frogging all the way to Ottawa? Is this because Tri-Dent will not leave them back in? If the Peru Police Force needs assistance why aren't calling upon District 17 or the LaSalle County Sheriff's Dept?
It is a good idea to get information from other areas but these ideas must be adapted to Peru not Peru adapt to these ideas. It must be remembered that Peru has low taxes but Peru also has a low wage scale. Retail areas do not have a high employee income.
Anon 4:31, Good comments and great ideas. Let's hope someone listens!
I agree that this is not the time to raise taxes without cutting expenses first but I also think it is fair to point out that there is a false perception that Peru has a high tax rate. You cannot compare Peru to most other surrounding communities because no one goes to other area communities to shop. So even though (for example) LaSalle's tax rate is 0.5 percent lower than Peru's, are you going to buy furniture at Turk's to save 50 cents if you spend $100? No, because you are going to look at the price and value of the item. It is insignificant. Ottawa's is the same rate as Peru's. Spring Valley's is .5 percent lower but what are you going to buy in Spring Valley?
Every area has a shopping "center", and we are very fortunate that this is in Peru. And the area is very fortunate to have Peru for the shopping center. Why?
If you compare to other places people go to spend their hard-earned dollars, consider the following rates in those communties:
Peru %7.00
Ottawa %7.00
Bloomington %7.75
Normal %7.75
Peoria %8.25
Joliet %8.50
Champaign %8.75
These are downstate communities where people go to shop. Again, I am not saying taxes are not important, but it is misleading to say that Peru has a high sales tax rate or that people will run to other places to shop to save 50 cents for every $100 they spend. Burning one gallon of gas will change their mind in a hurry.
The fact of the matter is Peru has maintained low sales tax and low property tax rates, as our property tax rates are also far less than the surrounding area.
People in Peru and the surrounding area should be glad that we have such low tax rates and so much to offer. If they lived in or near any other area, they would pay far more in sales taxes, or they would be paying much more than that to drive to these other areas.
Again I am a believer in watching costs first but this is why these discussions need to include specific facts rather than broad statements about high taxes. All of this information and more is available at the Illinois Department of Revenue website.
As far as I understand, the agreement for the police departments is more of an exchange thing since it's hard to work drug cases when you're recognized as a police officer. So it will put strange faces in front of felons both here and in Ottawa to help stop drug sales in both towns. At least that's what the NewsTrib referred to.
I would have to guess that Ottawa was the choice since they are not in the task force either.
As far as the sales tax goes, I would much prefer that instead of the "curb" tax that was mentioned in another post. Nothing would upset people more than to be told they will be taxed for parking on the street especially if they have done it for years and don't have a driveway.
How about funding the fireworks like Streator does with collection jars in the stores? Seems to work for them since their show is a lot better than ours every year.
If you are going to donate then you have to donate to all. If they are limited then where do you stop?
I can hear it now..."the mayor likes baseball better than softball because they gave more money to baseball instead of us".
Make it pay to play just like the schools. We have about as much money for them as we do for a new pool. If we can't afford it then why are we spending it???
Let's not forget the fact that some of the small organizations that receive donations from the City brings visitors to the City which create sales tax. (and possibly hotel tax.) The City has very beautiful parks and our guests need to see our hospitality and what we have to offer. The small events hosted (with minimal donated money)have the potential of bringing so much benefit to the town overall. Please don't push these small town activities to other towns. While I do agree that there should be a pay to play, we should still offer a little help if we can.
9:17 a.m. How do you expect to keep low sales taxes if you are accepting a raise in them? yes every area has a shopping center and many have more than one - the second being built on account of the fact the first became obsolete and the second was built in a nearby surrounding area where expenses stayed down, including and primarly taxes and the second received many incentives to locate were it was built. Our outdasted mall is approximately 38 years old and given a opportunity there are surrounding towns which are looking to build a outdoor mall.
1:29 p.m. - I am not accepting a raise in taxes I was just pointing out that our rate is not high compared to other areas. I agree with everything you said except that sales tax rates do not change where people shop. An obsolete mall and oudated infrastructure certainly do have an impact and these are all things our city leaders had better stay on top of.
Citizens of Peru you do not have a sales tax of 0% going to 1/2%. The current sales tax is 7% and the Mayor of Peru is asking for a 1/2% raise which would increase it to 7.5%.
If the majority of our city leaders were on top of conditions in our area there would not have been any mention of a increase in sales tax for the City of Peru.
First effort was a utility tax by this administration,second effort was a sales tax increase of 1/2% here comes the Boston Tea Party all over again. Read my lips - no more taxes.
Why would a politician who is up for re-election in two years and does not not know if he will be reelected make a promise of a sunset of the proposed increase of 1/2% sales tax in 5 years - this increase would still be in effect 3 1/4 years after the individual has held office and has no control if not reelected to what is to become of the tax. Maybe the politician has become a politician, this would be very sad.
History proves that once a tax is established it does not go away but increases i.e. the State of Illinois Income Tax which was to last for 3 years and than be ended. It was established in the mid 70's and since drastically increased.
I think it should be made very clear to the citizens of Peru that no one wanted to deny "our youth" any donations or funding that was due them - as indicated by the news tribune reporter who was in attendance at the council meeting. What you have to remember is that the "cell tower" income was to be earmarked for boys baseball when it was put up many years ago. There were many who felt this tower did not belong in the middle of a city park. Therefore this money ($3500 to boys and $3500 to girls baseball) should not be considered a part of donations.
In less than a month we have a new alderman wanting to raise taxes, cut Little League and give a person already collecting TWO paychecks from taxpayers an additional one. Somebody needs to change this guys script.
I do remember controversy over the cell tower. Open forum letters. Does anyone else recall details between the boys baseball and the city?
Who and what are you talking about ANON 1:11?
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