Lake Zurich Village Board approves budget with property tax hike

Lake Zurich officials approved a 3.81% property tax hike at the village board meeting on Dec. 1.

This is the second property tax hike in as many years and the mayor says it is mostly due to the higher costs of business everywhere. The village held a meeting on the tax hike in November.

According to the agenda from the Nov. 3 meeting, the village will use the extra revenue for pensions and debt obligations and $400,000 will go toward improvements in the village’s special recreation area.

Troy Smith, a village resident, asked the board of trustees on Nov. 3 why taxes keep going up.

“Why is it we can’t seem to live within our budget?” he asked. He pointed to the healthy housing market with property values bringing in higher taxes, but still, he said, the village is going back to the taxpayers for more.

Mayor Tom Poynton asked the Public Works Director Mike Brown what his budget looks like.

“The cost of materials, the cost of everyday construction the cost of labor, just everything is going up,” Brown said. “The cost of everything is extremely higher than it was five years ago. Labor costs continue to climb, materials continue to climb, and unfortunately, that’s the cost of everything we do.”

Still, at the Dec. 1 meeting, Poyton announced the village holds a “stable financial position” with the budget.

He said the budget took months of work, is balanced but no department got everything it wanted.

“This has been another challenging fiscal year for the village and a challenging process, which starts in July,” Poynton said. “Nobody is getting everything they wanted nor everything they needed.”

The total budget is just over $90 million. There is $5.5 million in funding for roads and infrastructure $6.8 million in land and building improvements and $6.3 million in water and sewer. The general fund will receive $38.8 million, an increase of just over $5.3 million.

A copy of the budget is online at the village’s website and paper copies are at the library and at City Hall.

Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.