Pingree Grove lowers SSA, plans levy amount

The Pingree Grove village board is planning to ask for about 8 percent more in property taxes than it asked for last year, but like last year officials expect to receive a lot less than that.

The village board on Monday approved drafting its 2011 tax levy, which will be up for vote Dec. 5 after a public hearing, Village Administrator Ken Lopez said. The proposed 2011 levy is $481,650 — up 8 percent from the 2010 levy of $447,000.

That increase is based on about 60 to 65 homes that were built last year entering the tax rolls, Lopez explained.

However, Lopez expects the actual tax extension approved by the county to be “considerably less.”

“We tried to capture all the new growth and (new) assessments in the community,” Lopez said. “We’re quite certain it’s going to come below that.”

Last year, the village asked for a $447,000 tax levy and received $229,000, he said. What the village actually receives should be determined in March.

On Monday night, the board also voted to decrease by 20 percent the special service area taxes paid by residents who live in certain SSA areas — numbers 4 and 9 — in the Cambridge Lakes South subdivision. The new rate for 2012 will be $224.75 per year, or $56.19 less than the current rate, Lopez said.

Village President Greg Marston is a longtime proponent of eliminating the village’s SSA areas, but said that they can’t be eliminated overnight. “It will be a multiyear project,” he said.