Yorkville approves $5.12 million tax levy, up from last year

After hearty debate, a tie-breaking vote by the Mayor saw the Yorkville City Council reject an amendment to freeze property taxes, later passing a $5.12 million tax levy, a 4.39% increase from last year.

Mayor John Purcell said during the meeting that the increase is necessary to cover new construction costs and operating expenses across the city, which has a rapidly expanding population. After receiving from county officials updated equalized assessed value figures, assigned values to properties, Yorkville’s city levy is now $4,051,430 and the library levy is $1,066,623.

Rob Fredrickson, the city’s finance director, said the average owner of a $300,000 home can expect to pay about $100 less on their property bills compared with last year because the library levy is significantly lower than last year. This is because the library has finished paying off the construction costs of their new library building.

Along with approving the 2024 tax levy ordinance, the City Council approved at their Nov. 26 meeting a resolution instructing the county to levy the city and library separately in the future. This practice is common in most larger towns.

Alderman Chris Funkhouser proposed an amendment during the meeting to freeze the city’s portion of the levy at last year’s amount of $3,880,669.

With Alderman Craig Soling absent, those who voted in favor of the tax freeze included Funkhouser, Rusty Corneils, Ken Koch, and Seaver Tarulis.

Although only three aldermen, Dan Transier, Matty Marek, and Joe Plocher voted against the tax freeze amendment, Mayor Purcell cast the tie-breaking vote against the measure because at least five votes are required to pass by majority on the eight person board.

Once Funkhouser’s amendment failed, it was back to the original levy containing the 4.39% rate increase.

Another topic of discussion was whether the total levy should only cover the increased EAV from new construction, as the city has decided in the past seven years, or also account for inflationary costs now that the savings from the lower library levy allowed the chance to cover city costs while keeping the effect of property bills minimal.

“The inflationary portion of the levy would have increased a homeowner’s city property tax bill by an average of $15 next year,” Fredrickson said. “However, the City Council has chosen to forgo the inflationary portion of the levy for 2024, because the direction from the city’s Administration Committee, and the staff recommendation to the Council in my memos was for the city to levy for new construction only.”

The final approval vote for the $5.12 million tax levy ordinance, containing a 4.39% increase from last year, covering new construction costs but not inflationary costs, had only Funkhouser and Tarulis vote against it.

According to city documents, the county’s official figures as of Nov. 13 give the city’s an EAV of $918.4 million, a 15.5% increase from last year. Close to a third of this total increase in EAV is attributable to new construction in the area.