GENERAL GOVERNMENT BUDGET
The General Government Budget helps determine how many dollars our community will need to collect in property taxes (the tax levy) in order to provide services in the upcoming year. Annually, department heads work with the Village Administrator to revise budgets to meet public service expectations in the most efficient manner possible while working to protect our community's infrastructure. The Village Board reviews and questions individual components of proposed budgets and requests modifications when warranted. The Board holds the ultimate responsibility for approving or rejecting the budget.
BUDGET'S IMPACT ON PROPERTY TAX
After holding a public hearing in November, the Village Board approved the final version of the 2017 General Government Budget. As approved, the budget will result in a $459,860 increase, or 4.17%, in the property tax levy, from $11,024,953 in 2016 to $11,484,813 in 2017. A portion of the increase in the levy is attributable to growth in new construction over the past year and a portion has been adjusted for debt. The mill rate will decrease from $4.64 during 2016 to $4.46 during 2017.
As a point of reference, for a home in the Village valued at $205,400, this will translate into a $26.20 increase in the Village portion of your property tax bill, with a total Village property tax of $915.82 for the year.
The Village uses 21% of your total property tax payment to provide municipal services (please click here to learn how the 21% will be allocated and which entities receive the remaining 79%). With the Village portion of your property tax payment, the Village provides the following services: assessing, building inspection, community development/planning, elections, engineering, finance, fire and rescue, human resources, police, road improvements, and snow plowing.
WHERE WILL MONEY BE DIRECTED
During 2017, the Village has planned to increase funding for paving and road improvements from $1.6 million to approximately $1.8 million. By increasing the funds available for paving projects, our community will build a sustainable paving program that has consistent financial footing and will be able to keep pace with maintenance as our road infrastructure ages. During 2017, the Village will also complete communications infrastructure improvements to ensure reliability and position staff to be adequately trained to accommodate future retirements.
PROPERTY TAX AND LEVY LIMITS
When setting the Village property tax levy, the Village must work within a limit established by the State. The State levy limit allows communities to increase their property tax levy in order to account for borrowing for capital expenditures and for new growth that occurs in the community. As new development (or growth) occurs, municipalities have a one time opportunity to increase their property tax levy to fully accommodate the additional services that will be provided to the new development.
If a community does not recognize the full impact of growth by increasing the tax levy to the State levy limit, it would not have the opportunity to do so in the future, which would lead to a fixed number of dollars being stretched to serve a larger community with a growing demand for municipal services. Over the past year, the Village experienced 4.61% growth in new construction.
BUDGETING OBJECTIVE
Village Administrator Michael Pollocoff explained the Village's budgeting objective, "As a municipal government, our work is to provide services to our citizens. Our goal is to keep our community as resilient as possible and able to confidently face the future despite the impacts of forces we cannot control. We aim to achieve and maintain stability for our community." To read more about the 2017 General Government Budget, please click here.