Well, it looks like Riverside’s plan to capture some revenue-estimated at between $120,000 and $150,000-by going after vehicle sticker scofflaws has hit something of a snag. While there may be a boatload of attorneys on the village board, there is a bigger boatload in Riverside as a whole, meaning that they were going to run afoul of one at some point.
The board ran into a tenacious one, it looks like, in Shannon Capone Kirk, who had the board on its heels last week, attacking the village’s vehicle sticker late fee collection plan with enough ammunition to sink it.
With a promise to get back to those who appeared on April 21 to argue against the fairness of the village’s collection campaign, the village attorney, board and staff will be going over Kirk’s evidence line by line.
What we hope they conclude is that there’s some middle ground for maintaining compliance. It should include a late fee that’s appropriate (that $110 per year hit is awfully big) and force collection of past sticker fee payments.
The village ought to amend what it is demanding, though, for past years and then give this another whirl.
A blanket amnesty, however, should be out of the question. While there may be some who are new to town and may miss that first-year sticker, there is really no excuse for anyone who has lived in town for many years.
Nearly every town in Cook County mandates the purchase of a vehicle sticker, and cars all over Riverside have the stickers displayed on the windshields. The village does send out reminders in newsletters and water bills.
Some have said that there ought to be more of an effort to notify residents of the sticker requirement. Apart from a personal phone call, which is not feasible, we can’t imagine what that would be. The village’s effort to notify residents is appropriate.
Let’s face it, there are people who simply don’t feel they should have to pay for the sticker and thumb their nose at the village’s requirement.
Caught doing that, folks have come up with any variety of explanations and justifications. For that, you get hit with a late fee. It shouldn’t be the exorbitant one in place now, but there ought to be a penalty for not doing what 95 percent of Riverside residents do every year.
Serving as the background to this is the issue of village revenue and the futility of trying to nickel and dime your way to a balanced budget.
While the village ought to be collecting the revenue it expects from things like vehicle stickers, the way to really solve the problem is for the village to face the reality of its now chronic budget issues and make its case to voters.
That discussion needs to take place sooner rather than later.