Niles trustees voted unanimously last week to knock $1,800,440 off the village’s 2022 tax levy, trumpeting the second abatement in two years on the heels of a hefty tax increase.
In 2021, the village passed a tax levy that was 88% higher than the previous year, citing the need to fund the village’s police and fire pensions in accordance with a new state law.
In June 2022, the board voted to reduce the levy to a 63% increase thanks to a late-arriving audit of the village’s finances and a good year for sales tax revenue. That put the total levy at $12,144,344 — down from $13,944,774.
Last December, the board voted to institute another tax levy of $13,944,774, saying they were keeping the amount flat relative to the preceding year.
Village officials rehashed the recent history of the tax levy at the meeting before taking a vote.
“So, just to be clear, we are rebating, or not collecting, $1.8 million from our citizens?” Alpogianis asked Village Manager Joe La Margo.
“That is correct,” La Margo replied.
“Even though the levy was 88%, it’s flat, it hasn’t gone up whatsoever,” Alpogianis said. “I want to just clarify this. There was some confusion. Over two years, we’ve given our citizens a $3.6 million relief.”
At Trustee Craig Niedermaier’s request, La Margo walked through the developments that had led the board to raise the village’s tax levy to begin with in 2021.
“We were mandated by the state of Illinois that the police and fire pension needed to be fully funded by… 2040,” La Margo said. “Essentially, this is an unfunded mandate that all municipalities are facing right now.”
He said the shortfalls that led to the bump in the levy weren’t the fault of current board members.
“Many years ago, prior to anybody sitting up here, the village did not fully fund their portion of the pension,” La Margo said.
Niedermaier echoed the point that police and fire pensions have historically been underfunded, “hence our need to build it up to be in a healthier fiscal position going forward.”
Former village trustee and current board candidate Chris Hanusiak questioned the board during the public comment portion of the meeting about clarifying the size of the tax levy. This year’s levy still represented an 88% increase over the 2020 levy, and had been abated to be only a 63% increase, he said.
“[Now] the board is voting this evening to abate that 88% again, and I think Trustee LoVerde resigned because he couldn’t get clarification,” he said. “It wasn’t clarified, and now we’re abating it again… it was very confusing.”
Hanusiak was referring to an extended back-and-forth between former Trustee Joe LoVerde and village staff at the Nov. 15 board meeting in which LoVerde questioned why the tax levy was being discussed as flat on the heels of an abatement.