Anyone who buys gasoline in Sycamore will soon pay 3 more cents per gallon after a Sycamore City Council vote to raise the city’s motor fuel tax this week.

Sycamore alderpersons voted 6-2 to raise the Sycamore motor fuel tax from two cents to five cents per gallon on Monday. City Manager Michael Hall suggested the city raise the tax to four cents per gallon, but 1st Ward Alderman Alan Bauer suggested upping it to five cents per gallon.

Before the vote, Bauer said he was in favor of increasing the motor fuel tax because he’s “always been a proponent of getting the streets fixed.”

“The streets are actually in pretty good shape,” Bauer said. “They’re much better than they were 10 or 12 years ago, and I think I’d like to keep that going.”

When it came time to vote, not everyone agreed, however. Second Ward Aldermen Chuck Stowe and Mike Rodriguez voted against Bauer’s motion.

After the meeting, Rodriguez said he needed more information.

“I wanted to know a little bit more information on how much it was going to be, the impact of some of the other things, and just making sure that it was going strictly for road repair,” Rodriguez said.

Bauer’s motion to approve the gas sales tax increase included a clause that the funds generated could only be used for street maintenance.

First Ward Alderwoman Alicia Cosky voted in favor of the gas tax increase.

“For those of us who are drivers, we should accept that responsibility for road maintenance, in terms of what we pay for gasoline,” Cosky said.

Fourth Ward Alderperson David Stouffer said he voted for the gas tax increase because when he first joined the City Council, he was advised that maintaining infrastructure should be among the city’s top priorities.

“It makes sense, we’ve got to keep reinvesting in the city,” Stouffer said.

Citing information presented by Hall during the meeting, Bauer said he wants the city to prepare for future stresses on public services, budget and planning needs.

“I think we’ve been guilty in the past, like those 12 years of not hiring any people, and then all of a sudden we’re hit hard,” Bauer said, referencing a period between 2010 and 2021 when the city did not expand personnel.

In 2022, the Sycamore City Council voted to increase its property tax levy. Hall said that allowed the city to fund three new firefighters, two new police officers and one additional city planner.

Bauer said failing to gradually adjust taxes and fees can mean any increase required at a later time can be “extreme.”

“It’s kind of a hard hit,” Bauer said.