Why property taxes are staying flat in Naperville
After three votes to increase different taxes, Naperville City Council members were able to take at least one to keep property taxes the same.
The council voted unanimously last week to abate $1.8 million from the $48.6 million property tax levy approved in December.
The amount of the abatement fell $300,000 short of a goal council member Kevin Coyne set late last year of lowering the levy by $2.1 million to come in under the total sought last year.
But the result achieves the desired effect of keeping property taxes roughly flat for the average homeowner because equalized assessed home values increased slightly more than projected, city spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said.
With the abatement approved in time to apply to this year's property tax bills, the owner of a $395,000 house, the average in the city, will owe about $810 for city services, an amount similar to last year, LaCloche said.
Allowing the city to return $1.8 million from the amount it originally planned to levy are four factors - three of them tax increases.
In recent months the council has voted to:
• Increase the home-rule sales tax by a quarter-percentage point to 0.75 percent, effective July 1; this gives the city a total sales tax rate of 7.75 percent.
• Increase the telecommunications tax by 1 percentage point to 6 percent, effective July 1.
• Increase the hotel/motel tax by 1.1 percentage points to 5.5 percent, effective April 1.
The city also saved $200,000 on the cost of borrowing money by securing a lower interest rate than projected.
Together, the moves are estimated to generate $2.5 million, which allowed enough budgetary space to make the $1.8 million abatement.