Hinsdale Wealthy, But Faces Budget Challenges: Leader

HINSDALE, IL – The village of Hinsdale faces its share of budget challenges, although it is seen as a wealthy town, an official said this week.

"When you say we're a wealthy municipality, the residents are wealthy, the municipality is not," Village President Tom Cauley said during a budget discussion at a Village Board meeting.

Forty percent of Hinsdale's main account comes from property taxes, and the village makes up 7 percent of the property tax bill.

"You talk about excess funds. I don't see any coming our way," given cost hikes and the increase in state-mandated police and fire pension obligations, Cauley said. "It isn't as though we have money laying around."

Trustee Neale Byrnes compared Hinsdale to Oak Brook, which has a large amount of retail and commercial property. The village of Oak Brook assesses no property tax, given its enormous sales tax income.

"I always say the streets in Oak Brook should be paved in gold, which basically they are, because they have a ton of money," Byrnes said.

Cauley said Hinsdale is different from towns like Oak Brook and Melrose Park.

Oak Brook has far more property value per resident than Hinsdale – $637,020 vs. $373,670, according to the state comptroller's records. And Oak Brook's sales tax income amounts to $3,000 per resident, far more than Hindale's $270.

Melrose Park has far less property value per resident than Hinsdale, at $85,578. But its sales tax income per resident stands at nearly $1,000, nearly four times Hinsdale's.

Cauley is right that the village's residents are wealthy. The local median household income is more than $250,000, compared with $160,000 in Oak Brook and $65,000 in Melrose Park, according to U.S. Census data.