Fox Valley Park District seeks operations property tax hike

Voters will decide next month whether the Fox Valley Park District should get more tax money to pay for operating and maintaining its parks, museums, recreation centers and programming.

Why? According to the district, part of it is it added assets in recent years while freezing its property tax levy for six years.

"The park district is going to need more money to keep the standard of care," board President Chuck Anderson said Monday.

"The six-year total aggregate freeze on our tax levy has had an adverse effect on our operating funds, coupled with the tremendous increase of capital assets due to two capital referendums. The economic downturn and decisions of the past have had a resounding effect and now challenge our once-solid financial position," wrote Executive Director Jim Pilmer in a memo in the district's 2018 budget.

In 2002 voters approved borrowing $22 million to build the Vaughan Athletic Center. In 2008, they agreed to borrow $44.9 million for land acquisition and other capital projects. The district estimates that it has seen a 228 percent increase in the value of assets since 2002, including adding the Stuart Sports Complex in Montgomery and Vaughan in Aurora.

It is asking March 20 to tax up to 7 cents more per $100 of equalized assessed valuation - a 20 percent increase.

If approved, and the full increase is levied, the district expects to collect $2.79 million more the first year, in 2019.

It would cost the owner of a $200,000 house about $46 more that year, according to an estimate provided by the park district. "I think this is modest," Anderson said. The public "likes the park district (quality) the way it is."

Anderson said about 34 percent of operating expenses go to paying people. So if the increase is denied, the district will be looking for ways to hold spending on that. That could include cutting back the hours facilities are open, how often trail maintenance is done, even how often the grass is mowed, he said.

The park district levies taxes in 10 funds. Eight of them are subject to the state's property tax cap law, which limits increases annually to 5 percent or the rate of inflation in the consumer price index, whichever is less. The taxes for debt repayment and special recreation are not subject to the cap. The 2008 debt will be paid off in 2027.

The district is the second largest in Illinois with 168 parks, several recreation centers, two museums and more on 2,500-plus acres of land in Aurora, Montgomery and North Aurora. It serves an estimated 236,000 residents.

The 2018 budget plans for $46.06 million in spending, including using $17.4 million to pay debt.

Property taxes account for 53.3 percent of the district's revenue.