Local

Tax Levy and the Golf Course, Take…, Four!


The Village Board takes up discussion of the 2006/2007 Tax Levy tonight, Monday, December 4.  The final levy will be adopted at the regular meeting on December 11.  The memorandum prepared for the board tonight gives a basic introduction to the levy and the levy process:

The 2007/2008 Budget will be funded by the 2006 levy. The tax levy consists of six separate categories. Each category is evaluated separately to determine levy needs. Following is a summary of the tax levy discussed, as well as the analysis process. Note that the summary shows a 0% increase in the General Corporate Levy. The entire levy increase is attributable to pension funds.

 The total increase from last year's tax levy is 2.6%.  A 13 year summary of the tax levy is as follows:

Tax Levy Increases

1993     15.1%
1994     11.4%
1995     11.7%
1996     8.2%
1997     6.7%
1998     4.8%
1999     2.9%
2000     2.9%
2001     2.9%
2002     2.9%
2003     2.9%
2004     8.1%
2005     9.3%
2006     2.6%

A link to the current board agenda and the Village Budget can be found on the Links page at eNews Park Forest.

In other news, the board takes up discussion of the possible closing of the Hidden Meadows Golf Course yet again tonight.  The matter was unexpectedly tabled last week to a time "indeterminate."  The memo provided for the board provides the following information:

During the Board’s budget deliberations in 2005 there was some discussion about the future of Hidden Meadows Golf Course given the decline in rounds sold and the amount of Village taxmoney put into it annually to make the operation break even. The topic has been discussed offand on by the Trustees since. Prior to the Board’s Strategic Planning session on October 14th, Director of Recreation and Parks John Joyce submitted a memo requesting a decision on the matter so that he could advise staff and know where the Village stood with the operations related to marketing, purchases and grounds care activities for a potential 2007 season.

During that discussion at the October 14 planning meeting, there seemed to be consensus to close the facility for public golf at the end of the 2006 season. The attached resolution is intended toreaffirm that discussion. This potential action by the Village Board was discussed at the November 20 Rules Meeting in which a number of matters were presented by employees and/orvolunteers at Hidden Meadows, residents of the nearby Tamarack Street residential developmentand other members of the community. Staff provided a thorough follow-up to the Board regarding the issues broached at the November 20 Meeting in preparation for action at the November 27 Regular Board Meeting. At this subsequent meeting, the Board voted to have the matter tabled/postponed pending additional discussion of how the Hidden Meadows property would be maintained assuming there were to be no golfing season in 2007. In particular, the Board mentioned items related to maintenance include costs, level of upkeep and length of expected maintenance costs pending any development of the golf course property. Follow up information was provided to the Board on these matters. This included the most accurate cost estimates that Staff could reasonably project based on maintenance expenditures for other similar large tracts of land in the community.

The matter may be voted on next week. 


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