Jennifer Bruzan Taylor: 2025 candidate for Naperville city council

Bio

Office Sought: Naperville city council

City: Naperville

Age: 42

Occupation: Naperville City Councilwoman

Previous offices held: Naperville City Council since 2021

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the city council respond to it?

The largest issue we face for 2026 and beyond is the state repealing the grocery tax municipalities collect, which causes an approximate $6M reoccurring revenue hole for the city.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to solve that shortfall, and it will take several solutions to fill this gap. I am committed to evaluating each potential solution and listening to community feedback before a decision is made. What I also am committed to is not cutting any of our public safety personnel. I recognize our current shortages, looming retirements, and the burnout being experienced by our public safety personnel.

To help this situation, the city needs to continue to focus on economic development. This means supporting our business community and reasonable development, so that we can resolve this revenue gap and maintain a high level of city services while maintaining one of the lowest tax rates in the area.

This includes a revitalization of the I-88 corridor, to make the area an economic powerhouse again. To start this process, I voted to hire a consultant to study the best use for the I-88 corridor and for targeted marketing to attract such businesses.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Naperville is unique because the city supports a thriving local economy that allows us to collect more revenue from food, beverage, and sales tax than from property taxes, and about half comes from visitors. Out of a $641M budget I voted for in 2025, only $58.8M is paid for through property taxes. Property taxes do not pay for any of the city’s infrastructure projects.

This is because the city supports our business community and so we enjoy the second largest hospitality industry in the state, and we are the second largest economic center in the state. Since elected in 2021, the tax rate of the city portion of your property tax bill has gone down each year. For the 2025 budget, I voted for the lowest property tax rate since 1968 — no other local government body can say the same.

I voted for numerous developments all over Naperville that helped us accomplish this goal. I will reserve comments as to future spending until as a council we discuss the grocery tax shortfall and possible solutions.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

Public safety is my number one job on city council, and includes investing in our infrastructure, especially our water infrastructure. Our water infrastructure is facing the end of its useful life, which means significant investment over the next five years. If we delay, we risk unsafe drinking water and sewer backups in basements. We already aggressively invest in replacing all our lead piping, years ahead of the Illinois EPA requirements. 99.17% of all lead pipes in Naperville are replaced, and unlike most communities, the city pays for the replacement from the street to your house water connection.

In the 2025 budget, I voted for multiple water infrastructure projects, and to balance the cost between both our current and future ratepayers since both will enjoy the benefits of these improvements. As to a back burner project, although I support the undergrounding of our electric lines on major roads to further improve reliability of service, we may need to delay the undergrounding in neighborhoods based on new cost estimates. The law of diminishing returns kicks in as to reliability, especially as compared to cost, once we start working in neighborhoods.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your city council.

I am a current Naperville City Councilwoman and I have a track record of focusing on city business only. I rise above partisan politics to ensure that my decisions are best for our community as a whole, not special interest groups. You may not always agree with my decisions, but all my decisions are based on facts, research, and speaking to stakeholders, staff, residents, and business owners.

This is how all decisions should be made, and not be predetermined before doing the work and listening to community input. I also follow a cooperative approach when working with my fellow council members.

My professional career honed my ability to find common ground with anyone and to use that connection to build a professional relationship based on respect and trust. We all have different backgrounds and life experiences and it is important to always listen and learn from each other. This is why I built a reputation on council for reaching out to my fellow council members to learn their perspective before a vote. On council we may disagree at times, but we must strive to remain respectful.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

For the same reasons I outline in the question above. In addition, as a former Cook County prosecutor, my prosecutorial training and experience interviewing people honed my ability to make credibility determinations that significantly impact people’s lives. I know how to actively listen and ask the necessary questions to get answers. I can think on my feet and quickly pivot when the unexpected arises. I have interviewed violent offenders, I cannot be intimidated from doing the right thing.

As a current member of the Naperville City Council, I regularly tap all these skills to get the information needed to make accurate, data-driven decisions for the residents of Naperville. I do not back down and am not afraid to ask the tough questions, as seen both on and off the city dais.

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

The I-88 corridor is a massive amount of land, the former BP Campus alone is over 177 acres. As I stated earlier, this area is in desperate need of revitalization and we hired a consultant to provide us with a plan. I met with the consultant and asked them to explore creating an entertainment district within this revitalization plan. Naperville receives so many requests for large festivals and concerts, and we currently are restricted as to what we can handle.

For having the second largest hospitality industry in the state, it is surprising that we lack an entertainment district like you see with Drury Lane or Ravinia. There is enough real estate that we can have indoor and outdoor concerts, festival grounds, and even a theater. This would be a destination for both residents and visitors. With the convenience of being right off I-88 we do not need to worry about cut through traffic.

Creating an entertainment district would be a new revenue source that would help, if not completely offset, our looming $6M grocery tax shortfall. I look forward to the consultant’s future report, and I hope it includes a discussion regarding an entertainment district.