Kane County tax levy freezes come to an end
Kane County has been a land with frozen tax levies for the past five years. On Tuesday, county board members and forest preserve district commissioners let it go.
Board members serve dual roles on the forest preserve commission. Many of them campaigned on platforms of maintaining frozen tax levies for both entities as long as possible. On Tuesday, officials voting in favor of increasing both tax levies said rising costs and declining income have made the freezes untenable. But the good news for taxpayers is that they will still pay less taxes overall.
The tax levy for the forest preserve district will increase nominally. It will include new construction and a hike to account for inflation. But the district also recently refinanced some debt that will save taxpayers $1.2 million. That means the impact of the tax levy increase will see taxpayers saving less rather than paying more.
Here's how that works:
The owner of an average $250,000 home paid $227.64 to the forest preserve district in the most recent tax year. Because of the debt refinancing, that same taxpayer was set to pay $185.84 to the district next year. That's a savings of $41.80. However, adding in the new construction and inflation to the tax levy means that same tax bill will now be $186.47. That's a savings of $41.17, or 63 cents more than the taxpayer would pay without the levy increase.
"We've done everything we can to run efficiently as possible and be as lean as possible," said Mark Davoust, chairman of the forest preserve district's finance committee. "We're not greedy in this operation. But, eventually, it catches up to you."
Several commissioners said, given the need to increase the levy, they would not support any push to ask taxpayers for more money to buy more open space any time soon.
Commissioners Cristina Castro, Don Ishmael, Brian Pollock, Monica Silva, T.R. Smith and Susan Starrett voted "no" on the forest preserve's levy increase.
On the county side, the levy increase comes as part of a monthslong effort to solve a $5.7 million budget deficit heading into 2017. Almost all of the deficit stemmed from calls for more staff from various departments within the county's justice system. On Tuesday, the county board agreed to increase the county's tax levy to account for new construction in an effort to help provide some of those additional employees.
Raising the levy will reap at least $400,000 in new income for the county. In trade, the county's justice system will account for more than $1 million in budget cuts and new income to help close the deficit. A series of new court fees, income transfers from other accounts and the use of more than $800,000 in savings accounts for the rest of the plan to close the deficit.
The state's attorney's office will get three new employees. The public defender will get four new employees. The sheriff will receive a new deputy and a new corrections officer as well as two new court security officers through the plan. County finance officials didn't break out exactly what the levy increase means to the average taxpayer.
Castro was the lone "no" vote on the county's levy increase. Board member Doug Scheflow voted in favor of both levy increases. He said taxpayers should consider them together. If they do so, they'll see their total taxes paid to the county will still decrease next year.
"If you add up all the real estate tax levies from the county and forest district, the levy will go down," Scheflow said. "That savings at the forest preserve side (from the debt refinancing) exceeds the overall increase. So the idea that we haven't maintained a freeze isn't true; we've actually decreased the levy."