Woodstock residents will be seeing an increase next year in the portion of their tax bills that goes to the city.

The City Council recently signed off on a 2.9% property tax levy increase, the most allowed under the tax cap law, in addition to new growth.

Although Woodstock is a home-rule municipality, it chose to hold itself to the property tax cap when the city became home rule in 2016.

Paul Christensen, deputy city manager and executive director of strategy and planning, wrote in a memo to the council that raising the levy is meant “to address unavoidable increases to fund the police pension fund along with other inflationary increases in other governmental funds.”

Those are similar to the reasons city officials cited last year, when the City Council, despite much handwringing, approved a maximum 3.4% property tax levy increase.

This year’s levy increase passed the council unanimously as part of a consent agenda, in which several items are bundled together for one vote. The City Council did not talk about the levy before taking the vote earlier this month, and no members of the public weighed in.

The city’s levy this year is about $10.47 million, excluding debt service, according to city documents. The levy for debt service is about $5.46 million, according to records.

City documents indicate that a homeowner with a $250,000 home in tax year 2024 paid about $1,225 in city property taxes. Assuming the same home is now worth $275,500, that homeowner will pay an estimated $1,352 in city taxes in tax year 2025. Christensen wrote that the estimate assumes all debt service levies will be abated in January or February.

In addition to the property tax, the City Council earlier this year approved an increase in the local sales tax of 0.25%. That adjustment is meant to fund the rec center renovations and other infrastructure needs, city officials have said.

Officials said they did not want to raise property taxes for the renovations. Shoppers in Woodstock will pay a total sales tax of 8.5% when the higher tax kicks in Jan. 1.