Wheaton city council approves slight decrease in tax levy

The Wheaton City Council unanimously approved the 2013 property tax levy Monday night.

The total tax levy amounts to nearly $22.2 million, with about $15.7 million going toward general purposes and about $6.5 million levied for the debt service.

That amount is a decrease of $100,000, or about 0.5 percent, from the previous year tax levy.

Of the $15.7 million general purpose levy, about $9.1 million goes toward the general corporate fund, while the library receives about $3.6 million, the police pension receives about $1.2 million and the fire pension receives about $1.1 million.

The city council also approved a $3.3 million abatement of the debt service tax levy, due to tax increment financing debt being paid from incremental revenue that is being generated from the city’s tax increment financing districts.

Because the abatement reduces the debt service levy from $6.5 million to $3.2 million, the resulting tax levy for 2013 is $18.9 million.

Based off the tax levy, the estimated property tax rate is $1.02 per $100 of assessed value. That is a 3.7 percent increase from the 2012 tax rate due to the projected 4.1 percent decrease in the city’s equalized assessed value.

Despite the increase in the tax rate, most residents should not see any significant changes to the city’s portion of their tax bill due to the decrease in assessed value and the slightly lower tax levy.