Plainfield Board Votes to Continue Gas, Sales Taxes

Plainfield village trustees on Monday voted 5-1 to approve a balanced $45.6 million budget that keeps a pair of tax hikes intact.

In 2011, the board approved a 2-cent gas tax increase, bringing the village's motor fuel tax to 4 cents per gallon. At the same time, trustees OK'd a half-cent sales tax increase, for a total home-rule sales tax of 1.5 percent.

The increases were designed to close a more than $1 million gap in the 2012-13 budget.

The increases included a "sunset" provision that would cause them to expire in 2015 unless the board took action. On Monday, they did just that, voting to keep the gas and sales taxes as-is.

Trustee Paul Fay was the lone holdout, voting against repealing the sunset provisions, as well as rejecting the budget itself.

Fellow trustee Margie Bonuchi said it was a tough decision, but through the hard work of village staff, Plainfield is headed in the right direction financially.

"They really helped put things back on track," she said. "The tough call is when we need to say, we need to do this just a little bit longer. We have some more work to do."

Garrett Peck also voted in favor of repealing the sunset ordinance, but clarified that the decision does not represent another tax increase.

"We're simply just not lowering taxes tonight," he said.

Trustee Jim Racich said his yes vote was a result of the need to be "responsive and responsible."

Like Plainfield, other nearby towns impose a home-rule sales tax, including Joliet (1.75 percent) Bolingbrook (1.5 percent), Aurora (1.25 percent), Channahon (1 percent) and Oswego (.5 percent).

Without Monday night's vote, Pleckham said the motor fuel tax would have expired on Feb. 1, 2015, while the home-rule sales tax would have expired on July 1, 2014.

Click to view Plainfield's approved 2014-15 budget.