Tabled indefinitely: Freeport sales tax debate spirals once again

After months of debate, Freeport City Council members on Monday voted 5-3 to stop talking about a proposed sales tax to fix the city's roads.

Council member Donald Parker made the motion to postpone the matter indefinitely after a request was made for the public works staff to produce a study detailing the conditions of each road in the city as well as an estimated cost to repair each road.

"I think that task is almost impossible for an overworked understaffed department already," Parker said. "You want to see (the condition) of the roads? Drive and you can see it."

Fehr Graham engineer, Darin Stykel, who serves as the city's engineer, said a such a study could be done, but it would take several months to produce.

Parker later clarified his motion to postpone the matter indefinitely saying, "When I say indefinitely, I don't mean forever. This is going to give these people (City Administrator Rob Boyer and Stykel) the opportunity to put together a new program for us that we won't have to discuss every meeting."

Council members Joy Sellers, Rachel Simmons and Cecelia Stacy casted the no votes Monday night.

In recent weeks, the council rejected a 1% sales tax increase that was to be implemented without a referendum because the city has home rule authority to do so.

Last week, a revised proposal that called for a .75% sales tax increase was to be voted on at a special city council meeting, but the meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum.

More: Freeport sales tax proposal falls short again

Monday's discussions about a proposed 1% sales tax referendum that would be placed on the March 14 ballot quickly deteriorated when Stacy questioned why the referendum was written as an advisory as opposed to a binding referendum.

According to the city, 60% of Freeport's 139 miles of roads are in need of a "full reconstruction."

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Sales tax discussions to fix Freeport roads postponed indefinitely