Lake County Board Approves Balanced Budget With No Increase in Tax Levy
At its Nov. 12 meeting, the Lake County Board unanimously approved a $573.2 million balanced budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. Under the budget, Lake County's tax levy will be flat, which means that there will be no increase in the dollar amount between the FY2020 property tax levy and the FY2019 property tax levy. As a result, homeowners will see a slight reduction next year in the Lake County government portion of their property tax bill. This is the first time in at least 20 years that the County has had a flat tax levy.
Under Illinois law, the Board could have chosen to raise the 2019 levy of $162.6 million to account for new property growth in Lake County, and to increase the levy up to the amount of the federal Consumer Price Index, but it chose to do neither in order to ease the burden on Lake County property owners.
As a result of the flat levy, it is estimated that homeowners with a $250,000 house will see a reduction in the Lake County portion of their property tax bill of about $10.66. However, because the County portion of the property tax bill represents just seven percent of the total bill, homeowners may still see an increase in their total bill if other taxing bodies--including school districts, municipalities, townships and park districts—increase their levies.
While the budget holds the line on taxes, it also includes funding for key items the board identified as priorities that will have a significant positive impact on Lake County residents.This includes funding for major transportation infrastructure projects, several green initiatives that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and projects related to water and wastewater facility improvements and stormwater management.
“This is a fiscally responsible budget that supports all of the County’s strategic goals,” said Lake County Board Member Paul Frank, who chairs the board’s Finance and Administrative Committee. “The fact that we were able to avoid increasing the tax levy and were able to sufficiently fund programs and projects that we identified as priorities is a significant accomplishment.”
The total FY2020 operating budget—which funds the County’s day-to-day operations--is $339.6 million, a 3.1 percent increase over the prior year.
Budget Highlights
Some of the highlights of the budget include expenditures in the areas of public safety, infrastructure improvements and many environmental initiatives.
The County is proactively downsizing datacenters and moving to cloud services. Services moved to the cloud save electricity costs, and result in carbon dioxide emissions savings of as much as 98 percent. Additionally, the County will be replacing older fleet vehicles with hybrid and electric vehicles, which will reduce tailpipe emissions in those vehicles by up to 72 percent.
The budget also includes $4.8 million to improve water and wastewater treatment facilities, as well as $2 million for new stormwater management projects, as it is anticipated that Lake County will continue to experience more frequent and intense rainfall and potential flooding.
Several major transportation projects beginning in 2020 are funded by a variety of sources, including the increase in motor fuel tax revenues. Projects include:
- $16.9 million to reconstruct and widen Buffalo Grove Road to four lanes from IL Route 22 to Deerfield Parkway in the Village of Buffalo Grove
- $9.2 million to improve the intersection of Hart Road at US 14 with the addition of turn lanes and non-motorized travel improvements in the Village of Barrington
- $3.4 million to improve the intersection of Dilley’s Road at Wadsworth Road as a new roundabout intersection in the Old Mill Creek/Wadsworth area
- $3.4 million to resurface Butterfield Road from IL Route 176 to US Route 45 in Libertyville, Mundelein and Vernon Hills
"We began working on this year’s budget back in March, and the document that was passed today reflects months of planning and effort on the part of our board and our very dedicated staff. The entire budget process this year was thorough and transparent, and reflects the input of every board member who participated in the budget process,” said Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart. “Through this work, we met our goal of producing a final budget that directs dollars into programs, services and projects that carry out Lake County’s vision of being a place where people, families and businesses thrive.”
Contact
Andrea Rosen
Communications Coordinator
communications@lakecountyil.gov
847-377-2550
|
