Comparing City & Village Tax Takes

Yesterday, we took a look at what school districts requested to be collected last year and this year.

Today we’ll look at municipalities.

Taxes collected last year by McHenry County cities and villages, as well as what they billed this year.

Taxes collected last year by McHenry County cities and villages, as well as what they billed this year.

A number of McHenry County municipalities overlap into adjacent counties. If you see “McH only,” that is one of those villages. The data shown applies only to takes being collected by the McHenry County Treasurer.

Under the Real Estate Tax Cap, non-Home Rule units of government can get an inflationary increase of 1.5% this year.

The only tax districts that have Home Rule status in McHenry County are

  • Algonquin
  • Barrington Hills
  • Crystal Lake
  • McHenry

Woodstock is taking a special census to see if another 30 people can be found to put them over the necessary 25,000 person population to qualify to be a Home Rule unit.

The only other way a city or village in McHenry County can become a Home Rule unit is by referendum.  That’s how Barrington Hills achieved that designation.

Experience has shown that city fathers want Home Rule status so they can have the power to raise taxes without a referendum.

This year you will note that all local Home Rule units expect Barrington Hills have property tax takes of less than the increase in the Consumer Price index of 1.5%.

Taxpayers in Island Lake, which is only partially in McHenry County, are seeing over a 23% tax hike.

The other high ones

  • Barrington Hills (13.8%)
  • Fox Lake (6.4%)
  • Lakemoor (6.6%)

are also partially in McHenry County and partially in Lake County (and Cook and Kane, in the case of Barrington Hills).

Of the others, Harvard’s taxes increased the most–3.8%.

Several towns actually are collecting less than last year:

  • Algonquin (-0.4% McHenry County portion only)
  • Bull Valley (-2.3%)
  • Huntley (-2.7%)
  • Lake in the Hills (-0.04%)
  • Prairie Grove (-1.35%)
  • Richmond (-0.3%)

Below you can see the comparison of taxes collected in 2013 and 2014:

Tax Comparikson Munis Tax Year 2012 vs 2014

Read the article about the numbers immediately above, entitled, “Crystal Lake’s Hikes Taxes Almost 10%–More Than Any Other City or Village,” here.


Comments

Comparing City & Village Tax Takes — 2 Comments

  1. I guess those $800 administrative tow fees for Bull Valley (that aren’t refunded, no matter how flimsy the DUI they charge you with turns out to be) are really paying off for them.

    I’m excited for the day when all the other municipalities in the county pick up on this lucrative tactic.

    It’ll be like a return to Thomas Hobbes’s state of nature, where the municipalities take the place of the perpetually warring factions and the victims of war are those people unlucky enough to be abducted by each municipality’s army of road pirates.

  2. Rawdogger they already have!

    Bull Valley didn’t invent it they just perfected it.

    The fact that it’s non refundable is unconscionable, and it’s the same everywhere.

    Police do make mistakes and some lawyers can get you out of almost anything but you’re $till gonna pay!

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