DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Forest Preserve Operations Committee met Oct. 24.

Here is the agenda provided by the committee:

1. Roll Call 

2. Approval of Agenda 

3. Approval of Minutes 

a. Minutes from September 26, 2024

4. Public Comments 

Any member of the public may address the Committee for up to 3 minutes on any topic of their choosing. There will be no yielding of time to other members of the public and agenda time for public comments is limited to 30 minutes in total.

5. Public Hearing 

A Public Hearing to obtain public comment and consider the proposed property tax levy and Fiscal Year 2025 Budget for the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District. Detailed information regarding the proposed property tax levy can be found in Ordinance FP-O2024-01. The full proposed FY25 budget document can be found on the County’s website at: https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/reso-fp-2024-012.pdf 6. Ordinances 

a. Ordinance FP-O2024-01—An Ordinance of the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District Providing for a Tax Levy 2024 for FY2025. 

The Forest Preserve District’s annual property tax levy must be adopted by the end of the calendar year. DeKalb County Forest Preserve District’s is subject to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL), commonly referred to as “tax caps”. PTELL restricts extension limitation for the year to the lesser of 5% or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index during the twelve-month calendar year preceding the levy year. For 2024-25 extensions, the County’s cap has been established at 3.4%.

It is recommended for the 2024-25 levy year that the Forest Preserve District does not levy to the cap and pick-up equalized assessed valuation (EAV) that is the result of new construction while working to reduce the tax burden on existing taxpayers.

The starting point when considering the property tax levy is to understand the Forest Preserve District’s equalized assessed valuation (EAV) for the coming year. Estimated EAV figures are still not finalized, however the figures are coming together and can provide an idea of what the District’s levy will mean to property taxpayers. The District’s final rate setting EAV in 2023-24 was $2,971,473,323. An overall assessment factor of approximately 10.00% has been applied to properties within DeKalb County unless they were individually re-assessed by their respective Township Assessor. Based on the best information available to the County Supervisor of Assessments, estimates for the County’s EAV for 2024-25 is $3,490,282,770 (+17.46%), which includes $221,662,105 in estimated new construction.

The proposed rate reduction for 2024-2025 is 7.93% (from 0.064044 to 0.058964). When the rate reduction exceeds the increase in property value, the result is less taxes paid to the County. That rate is then applied to new construction, which is where new dollars are generated to support County services.

The table below outlines last year’s levy and the proposed 2024-25 levy:

	2023-24	2024-25
	Total	Existing	New	Total
FPD Levy	1,903,052	1,927,300	130,700	2,058,000
Percent Change Levy	-	-	-	8.14%
EAV	2,971,473,323	3,268,620,665	221,662,105	3,490,282,770
Percent Change EAV	-	10.00%	7.46%	17.46%
Rate	0.06404	0.05896	0.05896	0.05896

The proposed levy would see an increase in the average EAV of 10.00% for existing tax payers and 7.46% of new EAV. The Forest Preserve District tax rate is expected to decrease by 7.93% to 0.058964. Since the actual EAV for 2024-25 will not be known until the final tax extension is published next spring, the actual Forest Preserve District tax rate, determined by dividing the District’s levy by the EAV, will be uncertain. If the actual EAV published next spring is not as high as the projected level, the final Forest Preserve District rate may be slightly higher than expectations discussed below.

The proposed levy would mean that, on average, existing property owners would expect to see their property values increase and their rate decrease. The chart below shows the estimated change in the Forest Preserve District tax bill for a $200,000 home in 2023 (payable in 2024) and the same home in 2024 (payable in 2025) which is now valued at an estimated $220,000 based on the average increase in EAV (10.00%):

	2023-24	2024-25
Market Value	200,000	220,000
Property Value (1/3)	66,667	73,333
FPD Tax Rate	0.06404	0.05896
FPD Tax Bill	$ 42.70	$ 43.24
Difference		$ 0.54

The chart below shows the increases based on the previous year distribution with a redistribution of the individual levies within the total aggregate amount:

	2023-24 Levy	Percentage	2024-25 Levy	Percentage
General	1,576,000	83.12%	1,734,000	84.26%
Tort & Liability	262,000	13.82%	262,000	12.73%
IMRF	6,000	0.32%	6,000	0.29%
FICA	52,000	2.74%	56,000	2.72%
Total	1,896,000	100%	2,058,000	100%

FP-O2024-01 establishes the property tax levies for property tax year 2024, to be collected in FY2025.

b. Ordinance FP-O2024-02—An Ordinance of the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District Providing an Annual Appropriation. 

This Ordinance establishes the annual appropriation and budget for the FY2025 budget year.

7. Presentations / Discussions 

a. Monthly Report of the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District

8. Executive Session 

a. Land Acquisition per 5ILCS120/2(c)(5)

9. Old Business 

10. New Business 

11. Adjournment

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/packet-fp-10242024.pdf