Bartlett Fire District asking voters for tax hike
Bartlett Fire Protection District officials say they've been financially conservative, but rising costs and long-delayed needs are driving a request for a tax hike to keep service standards at current levels.
An April 4 referendum will ask voters for permission to increase the district's tax levy by 19.5 percent at the end of the year.
Without such permission, local taxing bodies can raise their levies each year by 5 percent or the rate of inflation - whichever is lower.
The district is in Cook and DuPage counties, so officials calculated the tax impact on homeowners in each if voters approve the referendum. The owner of a Cook County house with a fair market value of $100,000 would pay $33.49 more per year and a DuPage County owner $42.84 more per year.
District Trustee Frank Giovennelli said he understands people think their property tax bills are too high. But he's been trying to explain that what other local governments collect provides no help to the fire district, which covers and surrounds the village of Bartlett.
For instance, for a resident on the DuPage side of Bartlett, the fire district makes up 6.09 percent of his or her tax bill. In contrast, the local schools constitute 69.95 percent of the bill, he said.
Though the district's last referendum in 2006 succeeded in increasing service by building Station 3 and renovating Station 2, gradual cuts have been made since 2010 to address rising costs, Fire Chief Michael Falese said.
This year will be the first with a deficit budget during his watch, Falese said. By next year, all $2 million of current reserves will be spent just to pay for such necessities as gasoline and electricity.
He said the reason a referendum wasn't sought earlier was he didn't want to bring such a recommendation to district trustees without being able to say he and his staff had done everything they could first to make ends meet.
And so, firefighters have lived without air conditioning and heat at some stations when those systems have broken, made plumbing repairs themselves, and worked with protective gear and other equipment well past their recommended service lives, Falese said.
However, equipment aimed at serving the public is in danger of failing at critical moments, the chief added.
At different times, an ambulance enduring deferred maintenance stalled just before a set of railroad tracks and an aging fire truck's fuel tank fell off. Neither was responding to a call at the time, though the fuel tank did require a cleanup effort, Falese said.
The proposed tax hike would contribute $600,000 per year to the reserves used for such contingencies, allow some vacant jobs to be filled to avoid current overtime issues and allow for a third medical unit when the district's population warrants it, he said.
From 2009 to 2017, the district's revenue has risen 1 percent while the number of calls has risen 16 percent, Falese said.
Though the district population has been fairly stable, two care facilities - soon to be three - have opened during the same period. And an industrial park has been booming and adding to the area's daytime population, Falese said. Because it's in a tax increment financing (TIF) district, the fire district has about eight more years to wait for an increase in its property tax revenues.
Falese and Giovennelli said they and other officials are reaching out to local groups and organizations, including the Bartlett Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club and Rotary Club, to answer questions about the referendum.
Falese and the district board also will host a general town hall meeting to discuss and answer questions about finances and the referendum at 7 p.m. Monday, March 20 at Fire Station 1, 234 N. Oak Ave. in Bartlett.