At its Nov. 7 meeting, the Lake Zurich Village Board approved a total tax levy of $10.2 million to be collected next year — an increase of 6.1% over the current amount.
The money, which is to be approved for 2022 but collected in 2023, will pay for debt services as well as $$4.7 million for police and fire pension funds, officials explained. Applying the rates authorized by the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, the village is requesting a total levy of $10,193,977, which represents an increase of 6.1%. The tax levy request for 2022 includes $1,279,523 for debt service and $4,655,026 for the emergency responders’ pension funds.
Additionally, village Finance Director Amy Sparkowski told the board the levy increase is due to the consumer price index. She noted the CPI is up by about 7% from last year.
“It is in our practice that our costs will go up by a similar percentage,” Sparkowski said.
Officials explained that homeowners won’t be paying for the total levy hike, as added taxes will be levied against new construction and existing properties won’t be affected. By state law, municipalities can raise their tax levy to match CPI. Also as required by law, the village held a public hearing on the tax levy at the start of the meeting, and no one spoke out publicly.
Still, Mayor Tom Poynton wanted to reassure residents he and others on the board took the hike seriously and it was necessary in order to pay the village’s bills.
“Just as a point of information, this was one of our larger increases in the levy over the last five years,” he said. “We haven’t seen inflation like this in many, many years.”
He said the village — like families — is experiencing higher prices for basically everything.
“We don’t take this increase lightly,” he said. “The economy has forced our hand, the cost of goods has forced our hand and supply chain issues have forced our hand.”
Trustee Jon Sprawka agreed and said even with the levy hike, the village’s assessment on property bills is still a minority of the total bill.
“The village tax is still about 10% of the total property tax bill for residents,” he said, adding that other taxing entities, like the school district, charge more.
“We are a relatively small portion of the tax bill,” Sprawka said.
Village Manager Ray Keller said there’s enough money socked away in the village’s savings to pay down much of the existing debt obligations, so that won’t get passed on to taxpayers.
“That’s good news,” Poynton said.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.
