Rolling Meadows tax levy going up, but by how much?

The Rolling Meadows City Council is expected to take a preliminary vote on a 2012 property tax levy Tuesday that contains a sizable increase over last year — but how much that increase will be is unclear, with estimates ranging from 13 to more than 18 percent.

The originally proposed 2012 levy reflected a 15 percent increase, which would bring in an estimated $1.5 million in additional money.

At the Nov. 8 committee of the whole meeting, however, four of the seven aldermen voted to also increase pension funding for police and fire by an additional $200,000 each.

This change would bring the property tax increase to 18.4 percent, or $1,905,548 more than last year.

Mayor Tom Rooney said he doesn’t think an 18.4 percent increase has the votes to pass the council, and expects the levy to be amended at the meeting Tuesday.

“There’s no way in the world that’s going through un-amended,” Rooney said.

Rooney attributes the need for tax rate increases to the city having to play “catch up” for past economizing.

There will be no salary increases for any employees in 2012, but no layoffs are planned either, Rooney said.

“We have to find the balance between where does trying to keep taxes low become irresponsible versus where does trying to be responsible hit the residents too hard,” he said.

Part of the balance includes a debate over putting more money into the city’s police and fire pensions, which have been underfunded for years, as the city diverted money for other things.

Alderman Brad Judd proposed the idea to put more money into the pension funds, and Aldermen Robert Banger, Mike Cannon and Jim Larsen supported it.

“We would like to try to catch up because if we put it off it will just make it worse,” said Cannon, who said putting an extra $400,000 into the pension funds now will save the city money later.

However, those four aldermen aren’t necessarily supporting an 18.4 percent increase in the tax levy, which means they may want cuts to be made elsewhere.

“I’m very frustrated to have to raise taxes, but I don’t know what choice we have at this point,” Cannon said.

Rooney said the two things that appear to be on the table are the extra pension funds, and building up the city’s cash reserves, the latter of which has his support.

Alderman John D’Astice vowed this week to vote against a budget that has an 18 percent increase.

“Overall it’s just too much taxes, it’s crazy,” D’Astice said. “There’s no way I’m going to ask the residents to pay 18 percent more.”

D’Astice said he would rather take longer to fund the pensions than burden residents. D’Astice and Alderman Larry Buske will both be missing Tuesday’s meeting due to conflicts and both are against the pension funding.

“That was completely wrong,” Buske said Friday of the pension funding decision. “There’s no way I will vote for an 18 percent raise.”

Buske said he understands the city has bills to pay, but doesn’t want to pass every burden onto the taxpayers.

“No matter how bad the economy is, you still have to run a city,” he said. “We fail big time in priority setting.”

For an average $200,000 house in Rolling Meadows, a 15 percent increase would mean a $112 increase for residents next year. A 14.5 percent tax increase would mean a $106 increase, and a 12.6 percent increase would mean an $80 increase.

On Tuesday, the levy is expected to have a public hearing and then a first vote, with the final vote coming at a later meeting.

The council is trying to stay on track to approve the 2012 budget in December. They have added an additional committee of the whole meeting on Nov. 22 to continue discussing budget issues.