Friday, November 14, 2014 || By Michael Romain || Updated: 3:02 PM

MAYWOOD || At a Legal, License and Ordinance Committee (LLOC) meeting Wednesday, Maywood’s Board of Trustees discussed potentially reducing a liquor tax that, according to village officials, went into effect in 2010.

That year, the tax on packaged liquor rose from $2,500 to $10,000 — an increase of 300 percent. Mayor Edwenna Perkins, who was a trustee at the time, said that the tax increase was ostensibly meant to pay for a more vigorous police presence around liquor stores to combat loitering.

The increased police presence was supposed to be concentrated around stores south of Lake Street — namely 18th and St. Charles Road, the 1000 block of South 17th Avenue and at 19 N. Fifth Avenue, Mayor Perkins said.

However, at Wednesday’s LLOC meeting, Maywood Police Chief Valdimir Talley, who has been on the job for about a year, said that his department “never provided the service.”

“Some officers didn’t even understand what loitering meant,” he said, underscoring just how little loitering patrol some village officials believe police was doing at the time.

“[The tax was increased] solely so the police could staff and address the loitering around these facilities,” Talley said.

But he noted that, since the implementation of the tax, there’s been only one liquor store that has experienced a lot of loitering, despite the fact that the tax was imposed on all businesses that sell packaged liquor.

Talley said that the tax isn’t fair to many of the businesses who are paying an extra $7,500 to fund an increased police presence that never materialized. He said he learned of their grievances while walking around the community, talking to different business owners.

“When this was addressed to me, I immediately took it to [staff],” he said. “I’m about fairness.”

“Shame on us,” said Trustee Antonette Dorris, who wasn’t on the Board at the time the tax increase was implemented.

“I’m not for increasing the fee, but cutting it — I’m not in favor of that,” she said, noting that if taxes can’t be decreased for residents, they shouldn’t be decreased for businesses.

But Trustee Audrey Jaycox, who was on the Board when the vote took place, presented a much more complicated motivation for the tax increase.

“There was an increase because there were complaints from the liquor store owners in terms of the types of services that were being provided,” she said.

“A previous chief had indicated that [increased loitering patrol aroud the stores] was going to cost,” Jaycox said. “Truth be told, there were a couple of businesses that we were having a lot of trouble with [and] it was our hope at the time that…if the fee was raised, maybe [those trouble businesses] would close…and it would help lower [the cost of more loitering patrol].”

In keeping with Jaycox’s analysis, Mayor Perkins said in an interview conducted after the meeting that many of the problems associated with loitering had come after the village voted to allow the sale of alcohol within municipal boundaries. Prior to the passage of that referendum, Maywood was a ‘dry’ community.

Trustee Michael Rogers noted that, despite the underlying motivation for the tax increase, the additional funds that the village has been capturing since 2010 — even though they may not have been allocated for the specific purpose of the tax increase — have nonetheless been allocated to other uses.

Essentially, with the tax reduction, the village should look for less revenue coming into the coffers. Mayor Perkins, who said she voted against the increase when she was a trustee, claimed that the issue for her was bigger than revenue.

“I don’t like to squeeze anybody,” she said.

Talley, who mentioned that the tax increase only applied to stores that sell packaged liquor, was in support of the board reducing the tax from $10,000 to $6,000 for a period of one-year, after which the Board would revisit the issue and assess whether the tax decrease should be implemented again.

The Board voted 3-2 in favor of considering a reduction of the fee by $4,000 per the recommendation of the liquor commission. Trustees Dorris and Melvin Lightford voted ‘nay,’ while Trustees Jaycox, Rogers and Mayor Perkins voted ‘yea.’ Trustees Cheryl Ealey-Cross and Ronald Rivers were absent. VFP

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