Frankfort trustees got a first look Monday at a cloud of questions surrounding a state effort to consolidated 911 dispatch centers, and they approved a slightly lower property tax rate for next year.
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The village is seeking $2.77 million in 2015 property tax income, a 2.76 percent increase over the current year. But county assessment records show that new properties grew Frankfort’s tax base by about 7 percent.
Trustee Cindy Heath said the combination will give Frankfort a tax rate “slightly under what it was last year. So this is at least, I think, 16 or 17 years in a row where the (village’s) tax rate itself has continued to decline.”
The effect will be felt on tax bills that homeowners and other property owners receive next spring and fall, though the impact will be limited.
“The village’s portion of your tax bill is only about 4 percent,” Heath said. “So what we’re talking about here really is a very, very small portion of the amount of property taxes that will be due next year.”
“If your home stays at the same value or goes down, you would pay less in taxes (to the village),” Mayor Jim Holland said.
School districts have the largest impact on local tax bills, as the property tax is by far their largest source of funding in Illinois. The sales tax is Frankfort’s largest revenue source, followed by the property tax and the village’s share of state income tax revenue.
Also Monday, Heath briefed the mayor and fellow trustees on the statewide 911 dispatch center consolidation that Gov. Bruce Rauner enacted in June. The law, Senate Bill 96, will require Will County to reduce its six current dispatch centers to three by July 2017, which Heath said is “not at all an easy task.”
Joliet is expected to keep its 911 center, Heath said, and the WestCom center serving communities in western Will County is expected to absorb Romeoville’s dispatch center.
That means the county’s dispatch center would be forced to merge with the EastCom center serving communities in eastern Will County and the Lincolnway center that serves Frankfort, Manhattan, Mokena and New Lenox.
The county Emergency Telephone System Board is overseeing the consolidation effort and wants local input by Jan. 1 so it can meet a July 1 deadline to present a plan to the state. Dispatching is funded in part by surcharges on cellphones and landlines, though Frankfort also pays about $350,000 a year.
Trustees questioned whether a consolidation would save money and if a new center would have to built, and at what cost, to facilitate a Lincolnway dispatch merger with the county and EastCom. No formal position was offered Monday night.
“We need to address these really significant issues ahead of us,” Heath said.
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter.