Latest news with #ChrisMinick
Chicago Tribune
20-07-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora City Council to vote on doubling hotel room tax
Aurora is considering doubling its hotel room tax rate, which has not risen since it was first adopted in 1987. The city's Hotel Occupancy Tax rate is currently set at 3%, but many nearby communities have higher rates that are similar to what is being proposed, according to Chief Financial Officer Chris Minick. He estimates that the proposed 6% rate would bring in an additional $1.1 million for the city each year, especially after the opening of the new $360 million Hollywood Casino-Aurora resort. The proposal is set to go before the Aurora City Council for final approval at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, when the council is also set to consider extending a 1% tax on groceries that would otherwise expire statewide at the end of this year. There are currently around 635 hotel rooms within city limits, with an extra 220 expected to come from the new casino resort, Minick told the City Council's Committee of the Whole at its meeting last Tuesday. At its current rate and number of hotel rooms, the city brings in between $550,000 and $585,000 each year, he said. That money mostly goes into the city's General Fund to offset operational costs, Minick said, but the city also uses around $225,000 per year to support the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The proposed increase of this particular tax has a number of benefits, according to Minick. For example, he said that the tax is mainly paid by people who are not residents of Aurora, and it is discretionary. Plus, people do not typically shop for hotel rooms based on the tax rate, but instead based on how close they are to whatever attraction the person is looking to visit, Minick told the Committee of the Whole. Because of how close hotels in Aurora are to amenities, he expects there to still be significant demand for those rooms, he said. The Hotel Occupancy Tax only applies to the price of the hotel room itself, not to other costs like room service. The proposed changes to the tax not only double the rate but would also add a $10 daily flat fee on rooms offered for free, which Minick said is a common practice at casino resorts. If passed by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday, the new higher rate would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. The new Hollywood Casino resort is expected to open in the first half of 2026, according to past reporting. The proposed Hotel Occupancy Tax rate increase was recommended for approval by the Aurora City Council's Finance Committee earlier this month, though committee chair Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, voted against it. Mesiacos also voted against recommending the local 1% grocery tax for approval at that same meeting. He told The Beacon-News just before Tuesday's Committee of the Whole meeting that he voted against the grocery tax because it would negatively impact the residents he represents. Illinois first put in place the 1% grocery tax in 1990 to help fund local governments, but it was repealed by a state bill passed last year. However, that bill allowed cities and villages to set their own tax to replace the statewide one, which Aurora is considering doing. Gov. JB Pritzker, who signed the bill, has said the statewide grocery tax hurts poorer people in particular because it takes a larger chunk of their income, according to reporting from the Chicago Tribune. For the same reason, Mesiacos said the tax should be reduced for communities like the one he represents. The grocery tax does not apply to those who receive benefits from the national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also called SNAP. However, after the Trump administration's megabill was passed and signed on July 4, many SNAP recipients may receive lesser or no benefits in the near future. Area elected officials criticized the federal tax and spending bill last week, saying it would hurt local residents. Aurora currently receives around $4.5 million in revenue through the grocery sales tax each year, and without those funds helping pay for public safety, road maintenance, public works, community programs and environmental services, the city would likely need to look to alternative funding sources or make cuts to services, city officials have said. And, as pointed out by Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, at Tuesday's Committee of the Whole meeting, the city has been 'painting a picture that we're fiscally challenged right now.' Mayor John Laesch has made similar comments about the city's finances in the past, and even said during his inauguration speech in May that the city is in 'serious debt,' that his administration needs to get the city's 'financial house in order' and that residents will likely be seeing a property tax increase. The grocery tax is a significant piece of funding for the city, Franco said, and asking residents to pay $1 for every $100 they spend on groceries for the city to get millions of dollars each year doesn't feel like a stretch, especially since other communities are doing the same thing. Cities and villages have until Oct. 1 to approve the local continuation of the 1% grocery sales tax, which would take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, just after the tax expires statewide. Many nearby communities have already approved local extensions of the tax, including Montgomery, Sugar Grove, North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles, as have others throughout the Chicago area and the state. Naperville, in contrast, is considering increasing the city's sales tax to compensate for its lost state grocery tax revenue, according to the Naperville Sun.
Chicago Tribune
18-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora considers giving $500,000 to VNA in support of newly-opened clinic
The city of Aurora is considering giving VNA Health Care $500,000 in support of its newly-opened clinic at the Bloomhaven campus on Aurora's near East Side. The current proposal, which is set to go before the Aurora City Council for final approval on Tuesday, would split the payment in half, distributing $250,000 this year and $250,000 next year. This year's amount is set to be paid from city interest earnings, and the funding source for next year's payment will be decided during the 2026 budget process, according to Aurora Chief Financial Officer Chris Minick. The funds are going to support the opening of VNA's new Primary Care Center at 323 Weston Ave., which offers primary care and pediatrics as well as urgent care, mental health care, outpatient physical therapy, podiatry, OB/GYN, vaccines, lab testing, nutrition counseling and more, with all services offered in both English and Spanish. The organization invested around $8 million in the clinic, and financial planning for the project included the $500,000 pledged by the city, according to a city staff report about the project included with a recent committee meeting agenda. Staff said in the report that the funds were pledged because of the 'nature and extent of the medical services provided by VNA to the Aurora population in general and specifically to the neighborhood surrounding the development.' Although the $500,000 was pledged by city administration last July and formally recognized through a letter signed by both former Mayor Richard Irvin and VNA CEO Linnea Windel, the agreement never went before the Aurora City Council for approval, nor was it included in the 2025 budget. VNA's agreement with Aurora was that, once the clinic was fully built-out and received a Certificate of Occupancy, the city would pay out the full $500,000, according to the signed letter. So, after the certificate was issued in April, VNA came to the city to ask for the funds. The proposal was then set to go through the process of getting Aurora City Council approval, which starts at one of the City Council's committees. But when Mayor John Laesch's incoming administration saw the item, which was planned to go before the Finance Committee on May 15, just two days after Laesch was inaugurated, they were confused about why it hadn't previously gone before City Council for approval, and they requested the item be held so more research could be done. That's what Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron told the Finance Committee on May 29, the first time the proposed $500,000 payment to VNA was publicly discussed by members of the Aurora City Council. An item like this one most likely should have gone before the Aurora City Council for approval when the agreement was made, she said at the time, and it seems like it was simply an oversight of the previous administration. In addition to the signed letter, there were also many emails from city officials pledging the funds to VNA, according to Cameron. 'While it is a bit of a legal gray area, whether we actually owe the funds, we are in support of the VNA and the work it does,' she said. 'We want to make good on this promise.' At various Aurora City Council committee meetings, Minick has said the funds were not included in the 2025 budget because of the timing of the agreement. The proposed payment was again held at the May 29 Finance Committee meeting after several aldermen questioned and discussed how this happened. Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, said it is a 'disservice to our citizens' when things come before the Aurora City Council for ratification after they've already happened. When this has happened in the past, departments were told this is 'not how we do business in the city of Aurora,' he said. Minick agreed with Bugg and said ratifications will be held 'to an absolute minimum' and be used only for emergencies. This is an early cautionary tale to the new administration, Cameron said, to make sure everything goes through the proper process. The item came back before the Finance Committee on June 12, this time with a proposed change by Minick: pay out half now and then half next year. VNA tentatively agreed to this change, according to the staff report. Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, who chairs the Finance Committee, said Minick's proposal was 'very equitable.' Aldermen on the Finance Committee recommended for approval the amended proposal, with Bugg voting against. The Committee of the Whole, which sets the agenda of the upcoming Aurora City Council meeting, reviewed the proposal at its meeting Tuesday and decided to place the item on the 'unfinished business' portion of the June 24 Aurora City Council meeting agenda. That means the proposal will be discussed and voted on separately from other items, which is typically done if an item is particularly important or controversial.
