Sandwich City Council weighing tax levy options

Sandwich residents will know in the coming weeks whether they will be paying more in taxes to the city portion of their tax bill.

City Council members are weighing the options being presented by Wesley Levy, a government finance consultant with Naperville-based Lauterbach & Amen. Illinois property taxes are paid one year in arrears.

Any payments made in 2024 will be applied towards 2023 taxes. As Levy told City Council members at their Nov. 6 City Council meeting, the city saw a “fairly significant” increase in its equalized assessed valuation this past year.

“We did see new growth in EAV of about $3.3 million,” he said. “That’s new construction and improvements. But total EAV increased by 9.42% from last year.”

The city’s tax levy can increase a maximum of $118,387 or 7% higher than the city’s 2022 extension. Last year, Sandwich levied about $1.7 million.

With that 7% increase, the city is calculating a maximum levy of about $1.790 million this year, Levy said.

Levy presented with City Council with four different options, including an option that calls for no increase in the tax levy. Another option would be to just capture the new growth with the levy.

A third option would be to increase the levy by 5%, which would only take in account the consumer price index. He is recommending the city increase the tax levy based on the consumer price index and new growth.

The levy would increase by 7%, to about $1.8 million.

“Considering the increases the city has experiences in the police pension tax levy, as well as ongoing increases in operating costs, the City Council should consider approval of the tax levy attributed to new growth and the increase in the CPI,” Levy said.

The owner of a house valued at $200,000 last year could see their city taxes increase by about $72. That would be contingent on their house being reassessed at 12%.

“Obviously not all homes and properties are equal in that regard,” Levy said. “But this gives you an idea of what a change in the tax bill might look like.”

If the City Council decides to increase the levy by more than 5%, it would first have to hold a truth-in-taxation hearing in November or December before approval of the levy ordinance.