In fast-growing McHenry County, the population count is more than just a numbers game.
At least 20 McHenry County municipalities have hired the U.S. Bureau of the Census to conduct special population counts–some of them more than once–in the last 10 years. Four more have hired the bureau to conduct special counts in 1998.
The reason is simple: Illinois is one of a handful of states that allocate certain tax revenue based on population. In McHenry County, one of the state’s fastest-growing, it is only prudent to keep close tabs on the population, which can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in additional revenue.
“The special census cost us about $40,000, it added 1,444 residents to our population and it gained us about $136,180 in extra revenue per year,” said Cary Village Administrator Lawrence A. Asaro, referring to the village’s special census in 1997.
The extra $136,180 is a tiny fraction of Cary’s $10 million annual budget, but the money comes without strings attached and without the need for referendums.
And besides, every dollar counts, especially for communities that are being squeezed to provide more services necessitated by rapid development.
Algonquin Village Manager William Ganek said, “We run the village like a business. We don’t have excess funds, and we look for every dollar of revenue we can.”
A special census being done this year, the third since 1992, is expected to add about $160,000 to Algonquin’s budget, which this year totaled $6.5 million.
A special census in Crystal Lake, the second of the decade, is expected to show that the city’s population has grown by 6,000 from the 1992 total of 28,016. That would bring in close to $600,000 extra a year, boosting the city’s total take from the state to roughly $3 million.
Although only a small portion of the municipal budget, the extra money is nothing to sniff at, said City Manager Joseph Misurelli.
“Real estate taxes are about 11 percent of our revenue, sales tax about 19 percent, and (the rest comes from) a host of other smaller sources like vehicle stickers, user fees and special assessments.
“It’s a real laundry list of different sources, but we have to take advantage of them all if we want to maintain a high level of city services,” Misurelli said.
The money at issue is the municipalities’ share of state taxes on income, motor fuel, photo finishing and on purchases from out-of-state catalog companies. Those funds are allocated to Illinois municipalities on the basis of population. The greater a municipality’s population, the greater its take from those taxes.
Larry Frang, assistant director of the Illinois Municipal League, said that in the 1996 fiscal year Illinois municipalities got $93.82 per resident from the four taxes.
In the current fiscal year, that figure will rise slightly, to $97.65.
For fiscal 1996, the breakdown for each of the four taxes was this:
– Ten percent of the income tax collected in Illinois goes back to municipalities. Based on state population of about 11.5 million, the Illinois Department of Revenue returned $60.14 per resident, according to the Municipal League.
– Of the motor fuel tax collected, the state keeps 60 percent and returns about 20 percent–or $23.13 per person–to municipalities.
– The 1 percent tax on catalog sales of consumer goods (not cars, boats or airplanes) purchased outside Illinois produced $8.76 per resident in fiscal year 1996.
– A 0.02 percent tax on photo finishing returned $1.79 per resident.
Only a few states, including Illinois, Iowa and Arkansas, allocate taxes to municipalities based on population. Accordingly, these states account for most of the 440 special municipal census counts the U.S. Bureau of the Census has conducted since 1992, when the bureau resumed special censuses two years after the 1990 decennial census.
About 250 of the 440 special censuses have been done in Illinois, according to Elaine M. Csellar, of the bureau’s Office of Special Censuses in Washington, D.C.
Municipalities that wanted a special head count before the 2000 decennial census had to sign a contract with the bureau by last Dec. 15. The special counts will be completed by mid-June, and no more will be done before the 2000 census is completed.
Communities that don’t have special censuses by then will keep the official population counts they have now until the new counts are released in 2001.
The bureau will decide in 1999 whether to offer special censuses in the next decade, said the special census office’s Csellar.
Time is certainly a concern in Woodstock, where the official population of 16,179 is expected to grow by about 1,500 in its special count, according to Cindy Smiley, executive assistant to City Manager Timothy J. Clifton.
The estimated 1,500 additional citizens there would be worth more than $145,000 in extra revenue.
“If we don’t do the special census now, it would be 2001 before we’d get our next population figures, and we’d have to wait until then to get those increased revenues,” Smiley said.
