Increase in tax levy likely for Wheaton

Wheaton taxpayers will likely be paying more to the city next year.

The owner of a $300,000 home can expect to pay about an additional $41 to the city in fiscal year 2016, should the city council approve its first increase to the property tax levy in five years.

City Manager Don Rose said he typically would recommend keeping the levy at the same level as the previous year, but the council needs to consider several factors that are impacting the city.

Those factors, he said, include the high likelihood of a two-year property tax freeze by the state; the possibility of a 50 percent or higher reduction by the state of the amount of income tax money distributed to municipalities; relatively flat local revenue coming in from sources like electric utility and telecom utility taxes; and limited remaining options for dealing with lost or frozen revenue from the state.

The council was presented with four options Monday. Option one would include increases for the police and fire pensions, which would result in a 2.4 percent increase from the 2014 levy. Councilman Thor Saline was the only person expressing support for it.

Option two represented no increase in the total levy. Councilman Phil Suess and Councilwoman Suzanne Fitch said it is the route they want to take.

"I think it's extremely important that we live within the money we have," Suess said. "I know there's uncertainty in the future, but I also think we have a number of tools available to us to address an uncertainty."

Suess suggested taking another careful look at the city's spending and considering a home rule sales tax, among other options.

"I'm very confident we can make this work without increasing our levy and I think it's a very important message to our community, saying that we will make it work without increasing the levy," he said. "We're in an environment, even with professional people making good money, there aren't any raises, health care costs are going up, there's no pension. We raise taxes, they have to make a decision as to where that money is going to come from."

Fitch said she doesn't think it's fair for the city to be forced to raise taxes on residents because of the "dysfunction" in Springfield.

"It would be my hope that there would be some actual structural reforms that would eventually be enacted that would reduce our costs in the long run, for all municipalities," she said.

Option three and four - the latter of which would result in about a $52 increase in taxes for the owner of a $300,000 home ­- gathered the support of the other council members.

Option three would include increases for the police and fire pensions and provide an additional $300,000 in general fund revenues. Option four would increase the pensions and provide an additional $500,000 in general fund revenues. It would also require a public hearing, as the levy increase would be greater than 5 percent.

Councilman Todd Scalzo said he doesn't want to do "the easy thing" by being against taxes and then having the city "scrambling later because of actions by Springfield and a whole host of other issues, mainly labor costs, that are really beyond our control."

"We've shown that we're good stewards of taxpayer dollars and I think that's just as important, if not more important, than the exact penny or percentage of the tax levy," he said.

Councilman John Prendiville added that he felt it's not just uncertain, but instead "probable," that decisions made in Springfield in the near future will have a negative impact on the city. He, along with Mayor Michael Gresk, said increasing the levy gives the city a chance to control "our own revenues" instead of relying on lawmakers downstate.

Even if the council adopts a levy increase, it has until mid-March to abate it. An ordinance on the levy will be brought to the council for a first reading on Dec. 7. Final adoption is scheduled for Dec. 21.