A year ago, the Geneva City Council voted to "freeze" the tax levy. This year, the recommendation is to take the full 3 percent increase as allowed by the tax cap. The School District earlier this week sought 1.5 percent.
There are always a lot of questions regarding a tax levy, but maybe the one that's on the top of Geneva residents' minds is whether the City Council will take a stand this year to keep it flat.
A year ago, in a split vote, aldermen decided to hold the line on the tax levy, which essentially limits the amount the city can collect from property taxes.
The entire process is convoluted and butt-backwards, because local government units have to set the levy amount before they know what the tax assessments are going to be. That means, as a strategy for the taxing entity, it's better to guess high in case the estimates don't come in as expected.
As Tim Moran pointed out earlier in the week, a taxing body can levy a trillion dollars if it wanted to, but tax-cap legislation still would limit the extension to a maximum of 5 percent increase or the consumer price index—whichever is less—over the previous year.
This year, as with most since tax-cap legislation came into effect, the CPI is the maximum. It's 3 percent this time around.
City of Geneva Finance Manager Thomas Dahl says the city’s equalized assessed value is estimated to drop by 2.9 percent, from about from $972 million to to about $944 million. That's not good, because when the tax base shrinks, property taxes go up.
For 2012, Dahl has recommended the city seek the full 3 percent.
At Monday's School Board meeting, board members passed a resolution to seek a 1.5 percent tax levy increase rather than the full 3 percent. The result was estimated to increase the property tax bill of an average $315,000 home by $340.
Following last year's spirited debate at the City Council level, it will be interesting to see what percentage the city will seek. According to an article in the Kane County Chronicle, aldermen are expected to vote on the issue at the Dec. 3 City Council meeting.
It's important to note that the city portion of a typical tax bill is a fraction of the school district portion. In 2010, the School District portion of the "typical" tax bill was 68 percent, while the city's portion was 8 percent. The Geneva Park District portion was 6 percent.
As the city's EAV continues to shrink, all taxing bodies are having to take hard looks at budget expenditures and belt-tightening.
2012
2011
Bob McQuillan
8:23 pm on Friday, November 16, 2012
Rick is right when he says the process is "butt-backward." Every taxing body is throwing a dart while blindfolded. They hope they just hit the dartboard because they know it is impossible to hit the bullseye. The tax levy is directly related to excess reserve funds. The taxing board doesn't know what they will need next year so that ask for the maximum possible and then don't spend what they get. The excess goes into the reserve fund. The tax levy is actually a legal way for every homeowner to be overtaxed year after year. There are a lot of things wrong with Illinois financing and this is the biggest rip-off of them all. Our elected officals need to get their act together and straighten school fund out immediately. The taxpayers only alternative is to go on strike or force the taxing bodies to change their policies. Look for more information on the school district tax levy in the next couple of days. There is no reason for us to give the school district more money.
Jack
12:39 pm on Saturday, November 17, 2012
Please let us all know, Bob, exactly how we taxpayers can responsibly "go on strike", because I think we are ready for just that.
We've recently been on the receiving end of that sort of credible threat from our Teachers' Union--maybe it's time we used the same pressure against those who presume to take our money (again) for needs that do not exist--and likely will not exist. In any case, unexpected costs can be paid out of our current huge reserve fund, if necessary.
Talk is cheap--ignorance is costly. What's the next step?
Jack
12:25 pm on Saturday, November 17, 2012
"Guessing High" is exactly the self-protective "to hell with the tax-payers" process that gave us inflated enrollment projections upon which we based the expenditure of millions of dollars in unnecessary school facilities.
Let's not let this irresponsible philosophy continue to cripple our family budgets. Money spent on property taxes is money that cannot go to higher education for our kids, nor can it go to rising health-care costs for all of our family members.
Geneva can protect itself from a flawed state-wide system--but only if we become better informed and fully committed to doing so. Let's bring our friends and neighbors into this discussion and help them get involved, before it's too late.