Western Springs Tax Hike Info Available

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – State law bars public bodies such as Western Springs from openly advocating for voters to pass a property tax hike.

But the village can let the public know what the money would pay for. And officials are doing exactly that for an April 1 property tax referendum.

The village has created a section of its website for information related to the tax increase. It is also planning three "open house" meetings, which it details on the site.

"Referendum 2025 offers an important opportunity to provide essential funding for critical projects that are essential to the continued well-being of our community," the village said in a statement Monday.

If the hike passes, the village would go into debt by $45 million to pay for infrastructure projects.

For the owner of a $750,000 house, the increase would amount to $345 a year over a decade, which works out to $29 a month. That's in addition to a total property tax bill of roughly $16,000, according to the village.

The website said the community needs more than $200 million over the next 30 or 40 years to pay for infrastructure. Nearly half of the village's water and sewer systems is more than a century old, and almost a third of the village is without sidewalks, the website said.

The current referendum is far greater than previous ones – $6 million in 2008 and $12 million in 2016.

One of Western Springs' challenges is that its income sources are limited.

That, in part, is because 95 percent of Western Springs is residential, officials say. Compared with other suburbs, the village's commercial tax base is small.