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Community Corner

Why Hike Tax When Golf Mill Didn't Do Upkeep?

The village could have been put in the position of having to grant similar tax increase requests from other malls and businesses.

 

The following is a Letter to the Editor from Niles Village Trustee Chris Hanusiak. 

During the recent March 27 Niles Village Board meeting, I pointed out that the management of Golf Mill Shopping Center has not kept up with normal maintenance procedures and now wants the village board to create a special taxing district which would impose an addition .25% sales tax on consumers at the mall.

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The tax would be collected by the village and then turned over to the mall management.

After a fact-finding tour of the Golf Mill facilities, I concluded it really is strange that the mall management now wants shoppers to pay more money to fix up the mall.

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Why should any customer pay more for goods just because the mall hasn’t done their expected job?

Earlier:

The mall wants the village to do this because the mall cannot get a bank loan. This puts the village in the position of having to grant similar requests from other malls, strip malls and businesses that see the village as a willing raider of customer pocketbooks.

I also disagreed with fellow trustee Andrew Przybylo. Andrew said that he didn’t want to raise taxes but yet he voted for the first step in that direction in creating a special district. If you’re against taxes, then vote against anything which would lead to it!

Mr. Przybylo seemed fascinated by the prospect of using a special tax fund created last January for residents’ storm water relief and village employee pensions for the benefit of Golf Mill.

However, homeowners and employee pensions are much more important than raising money to fix up Golf Mill’s problems when the mall didn’t address their own maintenance when needed.

The opinions expressed are those of the author. 

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