Wilmette trustees have backed away from a 7.08 percent tax levy increase that administrators recommended for their $77 million 2017 budget, opting instead to pay for an increase in their road repair program by hiking the village’s gasoline tax from one to four cents per gallon, and increasing the tax levy by just under 5 percent.
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The smaller levy hike will be less of a shock to property taxpayers who haven’t seen increases of more than 3.9 percent since the 2009 recession, some board members said during an Oct. 26 committee of the whole session on the budget proposals. That, plus the gas tax hike, and $125,000 from Wilmette’s unexpectedly high 2016 building permit revenue, will be enough to move the annual road improvement program from $1.5 million to $2 million, they said.
“There is a natural connection between car and gasoline usage and roads, so a gasoline tax, with some correlation with road use, makes sense,” Village President Bob Bielinski said Oct. 28.
“The board has been so diligent in keeping the property tax levy increases as low as possible,” Trustee Carol Ducommun, who chairs the board’s finance committee, said Oct. 28. “We wanted to look at all our revenue sources.”
Board members, who have held several budget sessions since August, eventually agreed to bulk up the road repair program in three ways:
* Increasing the gasoline tax, which will generate an additional $225,000, all of which will go to the road program, according to Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman;
* Increasing the property tax level by 4.97 percent. The breakdown of that includes the .90 percent hike now targeted for road repairs, which translates to $150,000; a 1.27 percent increase to cover growth in Wilmette’s operational needs; 2.41 percent that goes to state-mandated pension obligations; and .39 percent which pays down village debt, Braiman said.
* Trustees eventually agreed that the remaining $125,000 could come from permit fee revenue.
Both Ducommun and Trustee Julie Wolf asked where the village would find that $125,000 in future years.
On Oct. 28, Wolf said, “This year we had the non-recurring revenue but there are only so many large houses on Michigan (Avenue) that can be torn down … I think there are a lot of people on the board who don’t want to raise property taxes very much, but I guess I’m a little more of the opinion that we have got to do what it takes to make sure we can fix our roads.”
At the meeting, Bielinski said, “I agree with Julie. Next year, we need to track that money down.”
Braiman told trustees that staff could work over the next year to find savings in village spending that would make the numbers fit during next year’s budget preparations.
Trustees agreed to strip two programs from the 2017 budget: $100,000 to repair the Sheridan Road retaining wall, and $80,000 to develop a master bicycle plan for the village.
“The board just felt that with all the priorities we have, these could be removed,” Braiman said. “With the bike plan, we want to look and see if it should actually look at more than bike and pedestrian needs, more general transportation issues.”
Wilmette will also put $156,000 of the unexpectedly high permit revenues into its sidewalk, curb, pavement marking and brick street maintenance programs, Braiman said.
The budget will be formally introduced at the board’s Nov. 8 meeting, and trustees are expected to approve it on Nov. 22, Braiman said. The 2016 property tax levy will be introduced on Nov. 22 and given final approval Dec. 13, he said.
People can view the proposed budget by visiting Wilmette Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Ave., or by going to www.wilmette.com
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
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