Libertyville officials are giving $1.85 million in property taxes to several other public entities.
The rebate is a 70 percent portion of $2.6 million in property taxes generated in the village’s tax increment financing district.
“It is helpful to us, because it’s additional funds that come back to the school district that would otherwise go to the village,” said Yasmine Dada, Assistant Superintendent for Business at Community High School District 128. “We appreciate the dollars we get from the village. We’ll add it to the revenue sources, and hopefully we’ll continue to get it in the future.”
District 128 will receive $660,000 and Elementary District 70 will get $690,000. Other organizations on the receiving end of the TIF rebate are Lake County with $143,000, and Cook Memorial Library with $68,000. College of Lake County, the Lake County Forest Preserve, Libertyville Township, and Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency are also getting money.
In the past, Dada said, District 128 officials have used the funds to pay for capital projects.
The TIF district includes 158 acres in downtown Libertyville. In a TIF district, the taxing bodies continue to collect property taxes based on the value of the land at the time the district was created. As property values, which are used to determine tax bills, increase, new revenue is funneled into a fund used to finance capital projects and incentives to promote development. TIF districts were designed to improve blighted areas.
The 23-year TIF district in Libertyville was supposed to expire in 2009. But the joint review board, which includes representatives from taxing bodies in the area, supported an extension to continue to raise revenue until 2021.
When the village received approval for a 12-year extension, the village agreed to rebate 70 percent of property taxes to all of its taxing bodies, according to village documents.
The money the village keeps is funding parking improvements on the west side of Milwaukee Avenue and additional parking on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue.
Funding for the parking area is part of a plan that goes back to 1986, when the village established a TIF district that has since generated more than $50 million to fund 65 projects to renovate the downtown area, according to village documents.
If TIF programs aren’t available or adequate in terms of helping to fund district capital projects, the state’s Video Gaming Act (VGA) should be considered by municipalities across Illinois. The VGA represents the largest source of funding for the $31 billion Illinois capital plan—a five-year investment in infrastructure improvements that will create at least 439,000 jobs—and as such, can go great lengths in helping municipalities generate significant local revenue. Through the VGA, communities that choose not to outlaw gambling will see the state collect a 30 percent tax on the net income generated by local video gaming terminals before redistributing one sixth of that percentage into the local general fund. The final amount—$360,000 annually in Libertyville’s case—is unrestricted in its use. To learn more about the VGA and the Illinois capital plan, please visit http://www.backtoworkillinois.com.