Posted: 5:46 PM Jan 20, 2013
Reporter: Jessica Geraci

MACHESNEY PARK (WIFR) -- Things are heating up at the Machesney Park Village Hall over a proposed utility tax.

Village trustees will vote on the measure Tuesday. Mayor Tom Strickland is against it. The proposed 5% hike would be placed on gas and electricity bills. The money is supposed to pay for infrastructure improvements around the village. Strickland says the proposal is too open ended and the money could be spent anywhere. If a tax is passed, he suggests using it to run more utilities to the I-90, but he'd prefer this tax not pass at all.

“Everybody says this is only $8 dollars a month, but $8 here and $8 there, how can you tax people that are overtaxed now? That's where I have the big problem with this, every time you turn around, someone wants to tax you more," says Mayor Tom Strickland.

He adds, if the tax passes, there is a sunset clause written in the ordinance so the tax would go away at the end of 2019.

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