The Flossmoor Village Board voted to support a 1.95 percent increase in the 2018 tax levy and heard numbers showing a positive trend in the village’s property values.
If the board gives final approval Dec. 3, the levy increase would mean the owner of a $200,000 home pays about $13 more in property taxes, and the owner of a $300,000 home pays about $21 more.
The levy, which got the board’s backing at the Nov. 5 meeting, represents the amount of tax money expected to be needed for the village’s operating fund, an estimated $6,469,377 for 2019.
Cook County will set the village tax rate using this number as well as equalized assessed value (EAV), or the overall taxable worth of property.
Flossmoor’s 2017 EAV was determined to be $242,753,750, a 15.2 percent rise over 2016. This is the second year in a row the village’s EAV has increased following a 38 percent decline from 2011 to 2015.
Flossmoor’s EAV rose 9.5 percent in 2016, a boost largely attributed to the June 2015 opening of the Meijer superstore at 3800 Vollmer Road.
The boost continued into 2017 because of increasing property values and a 5.7 percent increase in the state multiplier (equalization factor), another figure used to set the tax rate, to about 2.96, according to village documents.
Scott Bordui, Flossmoor’s finance director, said this upward trend is good news for the village.
“We recovered a fairly good chunk from where we were at at our high point (an EAV of $310,504,571 in 2010), and that brings us back to our 2011 level,” he said.
Trustee Perry Hoag asked about the “driving force” behind the EAV doing so well and what the board should be doing to facilitate growth.
Bordui said new businesses are main contributors to moving EAV in the positive direction.
Meijer continues to have a “big impact” and has attracted other businesses to outlots at the shopping center, Bordui said.
“It’s a direct enhancement to EAV certainly,” he said.
The new Buona restaurant, AT&T store and Starbucks built near Meijer in 2017 were not recognized in the 2017 levy, so they are being included again in the 2018 levy, Bordui said.
Despite increasing housing values into 2017, new property was only a small factor of the most recent EAV, representing less than 1 percent, or $198,181.
“As far as new property, there was very little in the 2017 levy,” Bordui said. “We did not have an additional increment from Meijer or see any new property from the new developments as we levied for 2017, but we did put developments back in for 2018.”
Tax caps limit the village to a Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 2.1 percent for the 2018 levy, the same rate as 2017.
The combined village and Flossmoor Public Library increase is less than 5 percent, so a public hearing will not be required before the board votes on the final levy in December.