Elmhurst City Council members Monday approved a no-increase property tax levy for 2014, coupling it with a plan to reduce debt service costs by $500,000, a combination expected to save the average homeowner a little more than $25 a year.
City officials put the market value of an average Elmhurst home at just under $293,000. At that value, the city portion of the tax bill will go down $27.31, while the Elmhurst Public Library portion will go up $1.93, resulting in a net tax savings of $25.38.
In a report to the council, Finance Committee chairman Ald. Kevin York and committee members aldermen Marti Deuter, Bob Dunn and Noel Talluto noted that the zero increase levy was made possible and prudent because a strengthening economy has brought fund balances back to healthy levels.
“The General Fund balance is expected to be above $19 million and the Working Cash Fund will be $1 million, where it should be,” York said.
Both York and Dunn said that is a long way from the dark days of 2009, when fund balances were dropping despite belt-tightening efforts. That was when the city’s practice of not taxing homeowners for debt service costs, called abatement, was ended.
This week’s action includes $500,000 in abated debt service costs and a plan to continue abating a portion of the debt service costs for general obligation bonds until those costs are fully abated within the next five years.
“We’re taking the first step in a five-year plan to roll back all debt service costs (to taxpayers),” York said.
Mayor Steve Morley called the zero increase levy “fantastic news.”
“Certainly I want to thank the citizens of Elmhurst without whom we wouldn’t be in this position,” Morley said. “Good news all around.”
The decrease in the combined city and library tax levy is about 2.5 percent in the city portion of a typical homeowner’s tax bill.
The combined city and library tax levy is about 14 percent of a typical homeowner’s tax bill, according to Marilyn Gaston, director of finance and administration, with the city’s portion 8.5 percent and the library portion 5.3 percent. By comparison, about two-thirds of the typical tax bill goes to fund Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205.
In the 2015 city budget, also approved Monday, property taxes are projected to provide about 20 percent of the general fund revenue.
The 2014 levy will appear on tax bills in 2015.
