Deerfield Trustees Consider 8.5% Increase To Property Tax Levy

DEERFIELD, IL — The Deerfield Village Board is set to hold a public hearing on a tax levy increase and a final vote on next year's budget Monday. Owners of median-priced homes are projected to pay an extra $120 a year in the village's share of property tax bills.

Village staff propose a 8.5 percent increase in its 2019 property tax levy, which will be collected next year. Taxpayers on a $500,000 home would go from paying less than $900 to the village in 2019 to more than $1,020 over the course of the next three years.

The village's share of property tax bills represents just 6 percent of the total bill, according to Village Manager Kent Street. Local school districts comprise a majority of the roughly $14,000 in property taxes paid by owners of houses assessed at the median value.

Deerfield's $56 million proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which begins in January, is 4.26 percent higher than last year's. The operating component rose by 2 percent, to $30.6 million, from the prior year.

At a Nov. 4 public hearing, Finance Director Eric Burk said the increase to the operating budget was "due primarily to cost of living adjustments as well as increases in various contractual services."

Trustee Tom Jester took issue with the staff characterization of the increases. He said he would support the budget and was pleased to see funding for capital improvements with long-term benefits, but village officials should be clear with the public about how much of the increase was going toward wage increases for unions.

"I believe that it's a little disingenuous to indicate that the increase in salaries and wages is cost of living. It's not. It's consistent with public sector union contracts that have been negotiated," Jester said.

"Just to put it in context, if you go back in the last five years in round terms the village of Deerfield's increase has been on the order of 15-16 percent — sort of like the Chicago Teachers Union contract going forward for the next five years," he said. "That's where we've been for the last five years and I can tell you for absolute sure that my social security payments, which are indexed up by the cost of living, haven't gone up anywhere near that much. "

According to village staff, personnel costs comprise 73 percent of general fund spending, not including nearly $3 million in spending on budgeted economic incentives, including $2.8 million for Walgreens.

Burk said the budget includes $8.9 million for infrastructure replacement next year. That includes resurfacing Deerfield Road from Wilmot Road to the Interstate 294 underpass, a Woodvale Avenue infrastructure project, continuation of the village's street rehabilitation project and various sewer and water improvements.

The finance director also noted the village's water supplier, Highland Park, has been raising the wholesale rates Deerfield pays. As part of the 2020 budget, Deerfield water customers will see a 9 percent increase in their water rates, rising from $5.00 to $5.45 per 100 cubic feet.

Two years ago the village was hit with a 15 percent whole rate increase, according to the village manager. Deerfield paid a 13 percent increase this year, and Street said he expects the village's lakefront neighbor to continue raising the wholesale price it charges for water by more than 10 percent in coming years.

"The work that the staff put in on this was just monumental," said Trustee Barbara Struthers. "I think we have a budget that is responsible and responsive to the needs of Deerfield."

Trustee Mary Oppenheim agreed. She said she appreciated efforts by staff to maximize efficiency and prudence.

"I can't say enough good stuff about how responsible I feel like this village is fiscally, truly," Oppenheim said. "Our residents do have high expectations and we fulfill them"

About $4.2 million of the nearly $7.9 village million levy will go to debt servicing for various general obligation bond requirements, such as the wastewater treatment plant reconstruction and other capital projects, according to the village manager's budget memo. While the village's levy increased, the library board decreased its levy by a one-hundredth of percent to just over $5.1 million.

"I am not happy that we are looking at raising our levy," Mayor Harriet Rosenthal said, noting trustees had kept it flat for the past two or three years and she had asked other local taxing bodies to do the same.

"We have fallen behind on some of our infrastructure," Rosenthal said. "We have a great public works department and they really put the effort in to stay with it, I hope we're not taking on too many projects," she said, a concern she shared during six hours of budget meetings. "We've learned something this year with the Greenwood Avenue project, and I hope that we are going to be smarter when we go out for bid and don't spread ourselves so thin."

No member of the public spoke at the Nov. 4 budget hearing. Dozens of people who showed up at the meeting to express their opinions on zoning code changes that could allow an adult-use cannabis dispensary to apply for a special use permit at some point next year departed before the budget discussion began.

The village board is scheduled to hold a public hearing Monday on the proposed 2019 tax levy and a final vote on its 2020 budget.

Read budget message and exhibits from Deerfield Village Manager Kent Street: