Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Rate cuts eased our property taxes (a little)

Transcript

Rate cuts eased our property taxes (a little) · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Rate cuts eased our property taxes a little Written by
• 0:09
  Tom Collins, this article is being read by an automated
• 0:13
  voice brought to you by Everlett. Every year a city
• 0:17
  in the Illinois Valley gets a gold Star for giving
• 0:20
  residents a break on their property taxes. This year, the
• 0:23
  winner is Streeter. Every single taxing body in Streeter cut
• 0:28
  its rates. City Hall and Streeter Elementary had particularly deep cuts,
• 0:32
  and the overall tax rate slid by a whopping ninety
• 0:35
  three cents per one hundred dollars of taxable value. Here's
• 0:39
  what's funny. Mayor Tara Betty is writing a larger check
• 0:41
  to LaSalle County than last year. Betty's bottom line climbed
• 0:45
  by just twenty dollars, though, and that's because the increase
• 0:47
  in the value of her home slightly offset all the
• 0:50
  tax cuts. The assessed value, paired with the rate decreases,
• 0:54
  kept it very close from last year to now. Betty
• 0:57
  said it's a common theme throughout the ill Illinois Valley.
• 1:01
  Most taxing bodies trimmed their rates, according to a Shaw
• 1:04
  Local News Network analysis of recently released tax bills. Still,
• 1:08
  homeowners typically have to cut bigger checks because their taxable
• 1:12
  values have climbed. In Ottawa, for example, every taxing body
• 1:16
  cut rates by a combined twenty six cents, behind only Streator. Nevertheless,
• 1:21
  Ottawa Mayor Robert Hasty seat said taxpayers report owing more
• 1:25
  this year than in twenty twenty five thanks to rising
• 1:28
  real estate values. Assessments are a problem in LaSalle County,
• 1:32
  Hasty said, and township's need assistance. It was the same
• 1:36
  story in Oglesby and Marseille, which delivered rate relief only
• 1:40
  a few cents behind Ottawa. The Oglesby City Council trimmed
• 1:44
  its rate, and virtually every other taxing body followed suit.
• 1:48
  The library raised its rate by a fraction of a cent,
• 1:51
  but that didn't put a dent into overall savings of
• 1:53
  twenty cents. Oglesby Mayor Jason Curran said he's only fielded
• 1:58
  one call from a taxpayer who won. I wanted to
• 2:00
  know why the police pension climbed. I explained the underfunded
• 2:04
  police pension problem that all cities are suffering from, Kurran said,
• 2:08
  as her sheet didn't really show that Marseille had a
• 2:12
  twenty cent overall rate cut despite increases by the grade
• 2:15
  school and library. Yet Mayor Jim Hollenbeck owes the county
• 2:19
  one two hundred dollars more than last year. That's because
• 2:23
  Hollenbeck's valuation climbed nearly a quarter. Other cities enjoyed smaller
• 2:28
  rate cuts, if also less dramatic increases in home values.
• 2:32
  Mendota's total tax rate climbed by just one cent and
• 2:36
  would have been a wash if not for an increase
• 2:38
  by Mendota Elementary. Yet Mayor David Bulk owes the county
• 2:41
  eight hundred dollars more than last year. Why his home
• 2:45
  was valued ten percent higher. I have said that the
• 2:48
  assessments from the county are what drove it up, Bulk said,
• 2:51
  which also should show that the value of your property
• 2:54
  has increased. But that does not make the medicine any
• 2:58
  easier to swallow. In Lasal, Mayor Jeff Grove is paying
• 3:02
  the taxman fifty eight dollars more. Every taxing body in
• 3:06
  Lasal cut its rates, but Grove's home is worth eleven
• 3:08
  percent more, and as with b D, the increase in
• 3:11
  valuation offset the cuts. Utica presents an exception. The county
• 3:17
  and the schools cut their rates, though the village and
• 3:19
  ancillary taxing bodies the Library, Fire District, et cetera passed
• 3:23
  along minor rate increases that combined for an eleven cent increase.
• 3:29
  Mayor David Stewart saw his tax bill climb from five
• 3:32
  thy one hundred and thirty four dollars to five three
• 3:35
  hundred and fifty dollars, but the increase has more to
• 3:38
  do with the five percent increase in his home value.
• 3:42
  I haven't gotten any phone calls to date, Stuart said
• 3:46
  of the reaction from constituents. What I told my board
• 3:49
  is that if they get phone calls, to make sure
• 3:51
  everyone looks at the breakdown of the tax bills to
• 3:54
  see where the amounts are going. Peru Mayor Ken Kolowski
• 3:58
  is paying more this year to his check will be
• 4:01
  two hundred and fifty dollars higher than last year, but
• 4:04
  it isn't because Peru's rates are higher. Most Peru taxing
• 4:07
  bodies cut their rates, while Peru Elementary and the Library
• 4:11
  climbed less than one percent each, Kulowski owes more because
• 4:15
  his home value climbed about seven percent. In a statement,
• 4:19
  the city said the tax rate has remained relatively flat
• 4:22
  since twenty twenty four, and look closely at the Peru
• 4:25
  tax bill the line item for the city is zero.
• 4:29
  Peru continues to levy taxes only for our police and
• 4:32
  fire pension funds. Read a statement from the city. The
• 4:35
  City of Peru does not keep any real estate tax
• 4:37
  revenue for operational purposes.