Hanover Park approves $61.1 million budget, flat levy for 2017

Hanover Park will keep its village services on their current course in 2017, resulting in a property tax levy with no increase from last year's.

The total levy will remain at $13.4 million, the sum of $11.6 million for operations and $1.8 million for debt payments on the village's relatively new police and fire stations, Finance Director Remy Navarette said.

Because Hanover Park has diverse revenue sources - including sales and hotel taxes recovering slowly but steadily from the 2008 recession - the village has been able to avoid raising the property tax levy, she added.

The balanced $61.1 million budget's biggest projects include $1.78 million for street rehabilitation, information technology and engineering and another $1.1 million for improvements to the water and sewer infrastructure.

"We just want to make sure our residents' streets are OK in their neighborhoods," Navarette said. "We don't have any major plans."

While road repairs always will be necessary, the village is moving toward resolution of the emerald ash borer damage of the last several years.

For the second year in a row, 2017 will see the planting of 300 new trees to replace those cut down during the years before, Navarette said.

Village hall will see some minor upgrades during the year, including a widening of the customer service desk for the finance department, but nothing that would compromise the ability to keep the property tax flat, she said.

The village board unanimously approved the recommended budget and levy Thursday night.