Naperville approves increase in property tax rate - for now

Naperville city councilmen gave their approval Tuesday to a 2 cent increase in the city's property tax rate.

However, they say they still plan to lower it before the bills go out in the spring.

Councilmen voted 5 to 4 to raise the rate to 73.67 cents per $100 of equalized assessed value. The bump is a 2 cent increase they say will provide extra cushion in the budget.

Councilman Doug Krause said the cushion is needed because state law requires the city to pass its levy now, even though its budget and property assessments won't be known for several months.

"Historically we've always abated taxes," Krause said. "We've given direction to the city manager ... that we expect the rate to be the same as last year or less. That's the goal and that's what we're going to go for."

Councilmen will have the opportunity to lower the rate back to the current 71.67 cents in April.

At 71.67 cents the owner of a $400,000 home can expect to pay just less than $920 for the city's portion of their property tax bill. If the 2 cent increase goes into effect they would pay roughly $25 more for the year.

Even if the rate remains unchanged, the city's portion of the tax bills likely will rise by an average of roughly 1.4 percent as a result of slight increases in assessed values.

Mayor George Pradel and Councilmen Judy Brodhead, Kenn Miller, Doug Krause and Jim Boyajian voted in favor of the tax levy while Robert Fieseler, Richard Furstenau, Paul Hinterlong and Grant Wehrli voted against it.

Furstenau and Fieseler said the cushion decreases the city's motivation to make spending cuts as it works to fill a $11.2 million budget hole for next fiscal year.

"I know we're talking about abating it but I think we need to keep everybody's nose to the grindstone," Furstenau said.

Wehrli said he opposed the rate because even if the city abates taxes in the spring as promised, it will still collect about $1 million more than last year.

After a subsequent related vote, councilmen approved a property tax levy of just over $52 million.