By Marney Simon | Enterprise Staff
The village of Plainfield looks to maintain services next year at a similar, if not the same, tax rate as what residents are currently paying.
On Nov. 14, members of the board of trustees took a look at the latest facts and figures related to this year’s annual tax levy.
The annual levy is part of a long paper trail of work that municipalities are required to perform each year in order to keep things running financially running. The levy represents the amount of cash the village seeks to collect through annual property taxes, through an estimate based on Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of all the property within the village limits.
The EAV is the average of property valuation over a three-year period.
The village hopes that the levy will maintain the current tax rate of .4669, but still get a small boost from an estimated 4 percent increase in overall EAV.
Rather than calculate the levy based on maintaining a specific dollar amount, the village of Plainfield sought to maintain the levy rate. The board approves the levy amount, then passes that on to the Will and Kendall Counties.
The EAV is, at best, a very good guess. The official EAV is not available until the spring, however, all municipalities in the state must have their levies filed with their respective counties by the last Tuesday in December. Because of that, all municipalities essentially ask for more than they will get, in an effort to capture all that they can.
The levy will ultimately determine the tax rate – the amount of money per $100 of assessed valuation that property owners pay in taxes.
The village hopes that the levy will maintain the current tax rate of .4669, but still get a small boost from an estimated 4 percent increase in overall EAV.
That means that on a tax bill a property receives, the line item for the village distributes about 4.9 percent to the village. That means that for every dollar paid in property taxes by village residents, 4.9 cents are paid to the village.
For comparison, 65.5 percent is of that tax bill goes toward District 202 schools, and 10.53 percent goes to the Plainfield Fire Protection District.
While the village hopes to maintain the tax rate, the levy must be asked for in terms of dollar amounts, not rates. The total estimated EAV in Plainfield for 2016 is $1.3 billion, compared to an actual EAV in 2015 of $1.2 billion.
The money the village hopes to collect through the levy based on that EAV is $6.1 million, however, the actual amount the village will receive will likely be less. Based on the 4 percent overall EAV increase, that means the village should see an overall increase in funds of $226,000 next year. However, some of those funds are already earmarked to cover increased needs in the police pension, reducing overall funds available in the general fund.
The public hearing on this year’s tax levy is Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the Village Hall.