Nile Public Library District officials are debating whether they should reduce, maintain or increase the district’s 2015 property tax levy.
Greg Pritz, the library district’s business manager, laid out four options regarding the annual property tax levy during a board of trustees meeting Wednesday night. Last year, he said, the board filed a levy request of just under $6 million, which represents over a $200,000 decrease to the 2013 levy.
Pritz outlined the possible effects on the library’s budget if the board voted to further cut the levy by $500,000, keep it level, increase it slightly by $300,000 or dramatically by $1 million.
Assuming the library’s expenses increase 2.7 percent annually over the next five years, he said, a reduction of $500,000 would result in a budget deficit of about $380,000 by next year, while maintaining the current levy would push the deficit to about $40,000 in 2017. A slight increase would keep a deficit at bay until 2019, Pritz said, a $1 million increase to the levy provides a deficit-free forecast for at least the next five years.
Trustee Carolyn Drblik appeared not to favor any increase in the levy.
“I would like to know if there is also a way to look at this in terms of decreasing spending… We never consider cutting expenses,” Drblik said.
Pritz noted that he did provide the board a scenario in which the property tax levy was reduced, and he said it’s the board’s responsibility to determine how much to levy for in any given year.
But he urged the district’s elected officials to consider several factors that could potentially impact future revenue and funding needs when making their decision, including the recently established Gross-Point-Touhy tax increment financing district in Niles. Niles village officials voted in August to create the new district, which encompasses an area known as the Touhy Triangle and several lots to the north and west. Establishment of the new district, Pritz said, could cost the library district up to about $360,000 in property tax revenue over the TIF’s 23-year lifespan.
Additionally, Pritz said the popularity of the library’s new Creative Studio and Wonder Ground spaces — newly debuted amenities that include educational activities for children and equipment, including a 3-D printer, available for use by adults and teens — may generate a demand for more library services. Library staff and officials will also embark upon a new strategic planning cycle in the coming months, he said, and the end result may call for additional expansion of programming in the district.
State law limits levy increases to either 5 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is lower. But taxing bodies that decreased their levy the previous year are allowed under the law to base the next year’s increase off whatever the highest property tax levy was during the preceding three years.
Using the 2012 property tax levy, which totaled roughly $7.1 million, as the base for next year’s extension, the library district could levy for as much as $7.2 million, Pritz said.
Board members agreed to vote on a property tax levy for 2015 at a special board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 5. Depending on how much district officials ultimately decide to levy for, a public hearing on the issue may be required. State law requires the board to adopt a property tax levy by the first Tuesday in December, Pritz said.
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Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.