City officials on Monday emphasized the importance of a referendum on today’s ballot that would increase property taxes to relieve Evanston Township’s $350,000 debt to the city and rebuild the municipality’s long-depleted reserves.

Betty Payne, township supervisor, said Monday that she worried the referendum’s wording would lead some to vote against a tax increase that would have a minimal effect on most voters’ pocketbooks.

The referendum asks voters to approve an increase from 2.7 percent to 76 percent in the state-imposed ceiling on the township’s property tax levy, raising an additional $733,000 for the township in the first year.

The township, a state-mandated municipality that shares its borders with the city, is designed to issue property tax assessments and to aid Evanston’s destitute residents. Its staff allocates general assistance funds, provides help with medical expenses and implements job-training programs.

“On a humanitarian basis, if you think of the needy in this community that need to be helped, you have to vote yes,” Payne said. “When you have the diversity that you have in Evanston, you are going to have a mix of people who need assistance.”

Payne said the volume of the tax increase could scare some voters because of its apparent size. If voters approve the referendum, a homeowner whose property is assessed at $200,000 will pay $39 more a year, she said.

“It’s not a considerable increase,” Payne said. “Everyone won’t even have to pay the extra $39, most people will pay a lot less.”

After the first year, township officials could raise the levy to a maximum of $1.1 million through annual referendums calling for 5 percent increases.

Payne said the township, which has decreased its client load from approximately 350 to 79 in her eight-year tenure, already has saved the city money by helping clients get jobs and get off the township’s general assistance fund.

Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said Monday he agreed that only a minimal increase in taxes would be felt by Evanston residents. The need for the township’s survival, he said, was why he would vote “yes” on the referendum.

“The impact will be so minimal as to be negligible,” he said.

Bernstein said the services provided by the township are vital to the Evanston community and, if the referendum did not pass, the city would be forced to take money out of its own budget to assume the township’s duties.

Payne said if City Council in 1995 had not taken away the township’s ability to annually raise its property tax levy by 5 percent without a referendum, the township’s financial troubles would not be an issue.

“It’s politics as usual, and it’s unfortunate that the poor have to pay when it could have very easily been prevented,” she said. “Now you just have to think in terms of how you would feel about helping your fellow man, and vote your conscience.”