Will my property taxes go up?
The number one misconception about home rule is that residents fear their property taxes will dramatically increase. Home rule communities actually rely less on property tax as a source of local revenue than do non-home rule communities. The Villa Park Village Board have always been, and continue to be, committed to keeping property taxes as low as possible for our residents. Achieving home rule status will not change that commitment. In fact, it will make it easier to keep that committment.
To help ensure this, the Village Board instructed our Village Attorney to draft an ordinance which, if eventually approved, will limit the village’s ability to raise our property taxes to the same as if we remained non-home rule.
Northern Illinois University (NIU) conducted a study in 2002 on how 153 home rule communities in Illinois use their home rule powers for taxing. The study findings showed that home rule leads to lower property taxes by allowing home rule communities to diversify their tax base and rely more heavily on other sources of tax revenue. Many of these taxes (sales tax, hotel-motel tax, restaurant food and beverage tax, etc.) are paid in part or in whole by non-residents of the City. In other words, home rule taxes are predominately used to shift a portion of the local tax burden from residents to non-residents.
So by voting for Home Rule for Villa Park you can feel confident that your property taxes will not increase, and could even DECREASE.