Journal & Topics Media Group

After Contentious Meeting, Glenview Park Commissioners Adopt $18.7 Million Tax Levy

10.2% Hike Includes Referendum Bond Payments

Glenview Park Center. (Journal file photo)

Glenview Park Board commissioners adopted an $18,732,024 property tax levy last week, which includes bond and interest payments approved by referendum in March for bonds sold to pay for major renovations at the Glenview Ice Center and improvements at The Grove National Historic Landmark.

The levy was approved on a split vote after a contentious park board meeting Thursday, Dec. 13. The overall property tax levy is being increased 10.22 percent, or $1.7 million, over last year’s levy. The owner of a $500,000 home would see an average increase of $80.06 on their property tax bills, Glenview Park District Deputy Executive Director Katie Skibbe said.

The overall property tax levy includes a 1.8 percent increase equaling a rise in the consumer price index, a 1.85 percent increase related to new property coming on the tax rolls for the first time, along with more than $3 million in overall debt service payments on bond issues including the ice center and Grove referendum issue.

Park district officials sold $17 million in municipal bonds on the bond market Tuesday, Dec. 4 related to the ice center and Grove referendum issue approved by voters in March.

Moody’s Investor Service maintained the park district’s Aaa bond rating for the sale, which saw a slightly lower than expected 3.32 percent interest rate when bonds were sold.

Park district officials are expected to issue $10 million in alternative revenue bonds next year which are also related to the ice center and Grove renovations. The park district issues $10 milion in alternate revenue bonds each year. Those funds were being used to abate $700,000 in bond payments for 2012 park district pool projects. The pool bonds will retire in several years.   

At issue were several competing options for the levy amount, as a 1990s bond issue called the “Farm and Fields” fund is paid off this month. That annual debt payment was $1.2 million, of which the park district abated about $700,000 per year and paid about $500,000 from its Corporate Fund supported by the corporate property tax levy and other park district fees.

Option B, which was not chosen by park board commissioners, would have amounted to $18,321,114, or an increase of $56.59 on a $500,000 home. That levy would have been about $500,000 lower than Option A, which was adopted. An early levy proposal made in November was higher at $18,750,468.

Park commissioners argued whether the levy should be reduced by the $500,000 being saved by the retirement of the Farm and Fields bond issue, or whether reserves had already been drawn on too much, leaving the park district vulnerable to unexpected expenses.

Voting against the Option A levy proposal were commissioners Dave Dillon, Daniel Peterson and Robert Patton. Remaining commissioners voted in favor of the Option A levy.

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