Village OKs $13.9 Million Levy Request

trustees signed off on a $13.9 million 2011 tax levy request, an 8.15 percent increase over last year’s $12.8 million total levy.

But the actual levy — or the amount of taxes collected by the village from residential, industrial and commercial property owners to pay its operating costs for the coming year — may not amount to such a large increase when all is said and done.

“Every year, we do set the initial levy artificially high for various reasons,” said village Finance Director Kirk Openchowski.

That’s because taxing bodies are required to file their levy requests with the Will County Clerk by the end of December, long before the actual property values are known.

A second ordinance approved Wednesday by trustees will give village staff leeway to adjust the levy down during the 2012 budgeting process next spring. By then, the equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of all the properties in the village will be known.

At a time when many taxing bodies, including , are seeing little revenue growth from new construction, Romeoville is projecting an additional $13 million in EAV for next year.

“Anything new is a plus in this economy,” Openchowski said.

The levy request sets a maximum tax rate of $1.2 per $100 of EAV, compared with the current rate of $1.056 per $100 of EAV. But the actual rate also won’t be known until the spring.

“We’ve only just begun the budget process so we won’t see the impact on the actual tax rate until April,” Mayor John Noak said.