Mount Prospect residents likely to see higher tax bills

Mount Prospect residents can expect an increase in the amount they pay the village in property taxes next year, under a $18.3 million levy village trustees are expected to vote on later this month.

Village officials detailed the levy and $112 million 2016 budget Tuesday during a public hearing. A second hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15, after which the village board is expected to vote on both.

Officials said that under the tax levy proposal, the owner of a home with a market value of approximately $350,000 would see a $37 increase in the village's share of their property tax bill. The village's portion accounts for about 12 percent of the total tax bill, Mount Prospect Finance Director David Erb said.

The levy is up about 3.3 percent over last year, Erb said. About a third of that is to support the hiring of six firefighters through a federal grant. The grant will fund the firefighters' salaries and benefits for two years, after which the village is on the hook.

The $112 million budget is 10.7 percent lower than last year's spending plan, due to the completion of significant capital projects.

The operating budget will increase by 4.4 percent to $68 million, due to several factors, including the new firefighters and hiring of four community service officers - two full-time, two part-time - in the police department.

Trustee Richard Rogers pointed out that much of the increase in the levy is due to pensions, which are state mandated.

"We really don't have a choice but to somehow fund those pension increases," he said.

The levy for police pensions, for example, is up more than 10 percent, from $2.8 million to $3.1 million.

Trustee Colleen Saccotelli called it a responsible levy that holds things flat except where increases are required by law.

She called the 1 percent increase for the additional firefighters a "responsible and smart thing to do."

Citizen input included comments by resident Jerry Boldt, who reminded trustees of their obligations to seniors and others on fixed incomes.

Boldt said the village's 2.48-percent increase in the levy last year, which was a compromise between proposals ranging between 1 percent and 4.42 percent, seemed to work.

"That conservative increase hopefully saved a few seniors and others on fixed incomes from being forced out of their lifelong homes because they could no longer afford to pay the ever increasing taxes to the village government," he said. "The sky did not fall, and the village seems to have done very well with the 2.48 percent."