Naperville increasing taxes $24 for average homeowner
Property taxes residents pay for city services in Naperville will rise for the first time in four years, officials say.
The city will levy a total of $47,931,702 from property owners to support its budget for the fiscal year that runs from May 1, 2015, to April 30, 2016.
To bring in that much, taxes for the owner of a $367,000 home - the average in Naperville - are expected to increase $24.
City council members, who approved the higher levy by a 6-3 vote, said one of the main reasons for the increase is $3.2 million in additional debt payments that will be coming due next year.
"This will actually be the first time, in a whole dollar amount since I've been on the council that the taxes have gone up. And I realize that a lot of it has to do with debt and debt that we've, even I've, voted to take on," said city council member Robert Fieseler, who voted against the tax levy because he thought it was set too high. "But I just don't think were digging deep enough."
The levy is a $1.6 million increase from the $46.3 million brought in from property taxes last year. City Manager Doug Krieger said it will help pay back debt to cover the cost of completed projects that include two fire stations, the Van Buren parking deck, a public works facility and road improvements at 75th and Washington streets.
A future parking deck at the Water Street District also required the city to borrow roughly $7 million this year, and begin paying it back with a first payment this month of $100,000, Finance Director Rachel Mayer said.
"We have increased our debt significantly over the last 10 years. It's no different than a household budget. Get rid of your savings and keep running up your credit card debt, that's kind of like what we're looking at right now," said council member Steve Chirico, who joined Fieseler and council member Grant Wehrli in voting against the levy. "I think we better find some revenues to get this thing back into a fiscally secure situation."
Although the tax levy is increasing from last year, it does not automatically balance the city's next budget, Krieger said. A gap of $12.7 million identified last month has been narrowed to $12.5 million, but the city does not expect to completely close the hole in one year.
"The plan would be to, because of the size of it, address it over a two-year period," Krieger said about the budget deficit. "But there is a significant amount of work to do, and it is not that the levy at this point balances the budget; it certainly does not."
Krieger said he and Mayer are meeting with department heads to find budget reductions.
The move to increase the levy reverses a four-year trend in which Naperville lowered its total property tax collection from $49 million in 2010 to $46.3 million last year.