The Village received an “Anti-Corporate Welfare” petition being circulated by an organization outside of Arlington Heights at the September 6th Village Board Meeting. Petitions for the initiation of new ordinances are provided for under Section 2-204 of the Village Code. The Code requires that any petition have 557 signatures, that is the equivalent of 1% of the voters of Arlington Heights, in order to be valid. The initial petition did not meet the requirements of the code as it had only 544 valid signatures. Seventy (70) of the signatures were from individuals who were not registered to vote, 8 did not live in town, and 55 had other disqualifying factors.
The ordinance, if enacted, would prevent the Village from “offering or extending any financial incentive to any business or corporation to operate in the Village”. This ordinance, if enacted would eliminate and/or prevent the use of a number of current Village programs including:
- Funding for Arlington Alfresco
- Class 6b and 7c Tax Abatements
- Small Business Zero Interest Loans
- Covid Small Business Assistance Programs
- Retail Sales Tax Rebates/Abatements
- Tax Increment Financing
- Village provided public parking
- Industrial Revenue Bonds
- Use of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- Inclusionary Housing Ordinance programs
- Any future business assistance programs
These programs have been used successfully to assist dozens of local businesses, help create over 1000 jobs, and most notably- created our award winning downtown. In order to help the public understand the nature of the proposed ordinance, Staff provided a presentation at the September 19th meeting on its impacts on the Village’s current programs. A video of the presentation and discussion can be found here: http://arlingtonheightsil.swagit.com/play/09202022-925/#36
At the meeting, a number of business owners, local groups- including the Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters, and residents spoke out against the proposed ordinance. Since the meeting, the Village has also received multiple emails from residents who had signed the original petition, indicating that they had been misled and would like their signatures removed from the petition after learning what the petition would do. The Village also has seen a large number of social media posts opposing the ordinance.
On September 22nd, the outside group which has been circulating the petition did submit additional signatures to supplement their original petition. Thirty additional signatures have been received. Of the new signatures received, 8 were not registered to vote and 1 did not have a matching signature. Therefore, 21 valid signatures were present for a total of 565, which is over the 557 threshold.
The code requires that this ordinance appear on the next Village Board agenda. This item will be on the agenda for the October 3rd meeting under petitions and communications.
Based on an analysis of the impact and the feedback received from businesses and other members of the Arlington Heights community, Staff does not recommend approval of the proposed Anti-Corporate Welfare Ordinance.
Staff Recommendation:
That the Village Board vote to reject the proposed “Anti-Corporate Welfare Ordinance” at the October 3rd Village Board meeting.