The Tinley Board Village Board agreed Tuesday to raise the village’s property tax levy by 3.8%, citing rising costs overall along with rising post-employment benefit expenses.
The decision still needs to be reviewed by the Finance Committee and officially voted on by the Village Board, but trustees reached consensus Tuesday night, said interim Finance Director Hannah Lipman.
If passed, this would be the first tax levy increase by the village since 2018. The Board has until Dec. 16 to make its decision and adopt a new levy, according to a village memo.
The tax levy increase would equate to a $43 increase in taxes for each household in Tinley Park, Lipman said. Trustee Colleen Sullivan called this increase reasonable.
Trustee Ken Shaw said it’s obvious the village will eventually have to increase its tax levy and said now is the time.
While the village budget is balanced this year, Shaw said future costs are a point of concern and expenditure reductions alone won’t cut it going forward.
“Our principles about trying to maintain efficient small government and holding the line on taxes, we’ve done very good the last few years,” Shaw said. “But there’s just certain things we have no control over. As much as we’d like to, we don’t.”
Shaw said the village needs more revenue for overall rising costs, based on a recent budget analysis, and he said he does not intend to hold off on addressing this.
Shaw also said post employment benefits are one of the fastest rising costs for the village. The village spent just over $1 million on the benefits this fiscal year, compared to spending about $614,000 in fiscal 2023, according to budget documents.
These health insurance benefit costs are voluntary and are for certain retired, formerly full-time, personnel in the village’s health and accident insurance program, as defined in 2026 village budget documents.
The tax levy would support the police pension fund and library funds in addition to overall costs.
The Tinley Park Public Library would receive 0.9% of the levy increase. Mayor Michael Glotz said because the library operates separate from the village, he does not know details about their spending or their capital improvement projects.
Under state law, the Tinley Park Public Library is considered part of the village for both budget and levy purposes, although it has its own administrative governing board.
The levy increase also calculates a request from the Tinley Park Police Pension Fund Board to levy the fund’s required $5.74 million, which represents a 4.9% increase over last year.
Over the past three years, the required pension contribution has grown by $1.6 million, or 35%, according to the levy memo. Village officials said because the village has kept its overall levy flat the past two years, it absorbed these rising pension costs, but that reduced funds available for other village operations the full $1.6 million, unless this year’s levy increase is addressed.
Trustees Michael Mueller and Sullivan both cited the levy’s support for the police pension fund when agreeing on the increase.
Glotz blamed the possible tax increase on rising costs, along with Illinois state legislators. He cited unfunded state mandates, such as requirements to purchase police body cameras.
“That’s at a cost that we have to keep eating,” Glotz said.
He also said Tinley Park receives significantly less state funding compared to nearby municipalities such as Matteson, Orland Hills and Frankfort.
Tinley Park officials have, at times, frozen the property tax levy to avoid adding financial burdens on households, a point of pride for local officials. A levy increase in 2018 was the first since 2011, and officials stated at the time the increase might not result in higher individual bills due to a larger total property value base.
Tinley Park also increased a sales tax and an amusement tax in June that largely fell on concertgoers. The home-rule sales tax, now at 0.75%, will increase to 1% and the amusement tax, now at 5%, will increase to 6%. These hikes are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1
Also taking effect Jan. 1 is a 1% grocery tax approved by village officials in May.
awright@chicagotribune.com
