December 2, 2024 – Board of Trustees Meeting – Village of Arlington Heights, IL/Public Hearing on 2025 budget begins at 00:02:06 YouTube Tips ⓘ
The Village Board of Arlington Heights on Monday night, December 2, 2024, approved a village portion tax levy of 2.46% to the property tax bill for residents of Arlington Heights in the public hearing of the 2025 budget.
The tax levy increase of 2.46% was attributed primarily to the expenses related to the addition of an upcoming permanent, fifth ambulance in 2026, which includes additional overtime staffing, six additional full-time paramedics, additional ambulance maintenance costs, and a new ambulance that will be ordered in 2025, and received in 2028.
Village Manager Randy Recklaus explained that the Village of Arlington Heights has experienced a “dramatic increase in EMS calls” in the last 10 years — a 15% increase in calls for service from paramedics. Recklaus provided no explanation regarding what type of calls caused the increased need for EMS. None of the Village Board members questioned the increasing trend in an apparent trend of unhealthy Arlington Height residents and visitors. No critical thinking was displayed by the board to consider possible causes — perhaps an aging population, the large number palliative care and extended nursing care facilities in Arlington Heights, lack of law and order at cheap hotels causing injuries or attracting psychiatric disturbances, the legalization of marijuana/THC products in Arlington Heights, an increasing homeless trend, increased assisted living facilities in single-family and multi-family residences, charitable organization funding of troubled individuals so that they may live in Arlington Heights area apartments, and nightlife disturbances related to alcohol in downtown Arlington Heights.
Village board members also failed to explain or discuss why ambulance bills and insurance coverage for ambulance calls are not financially supporting the operations of the EMS Division of the Arlington Heights Fire Department.
“It’s not about running it like a business where fiscal responsibility is a huge part of what we are to do to use our tax dollars responsibly; it’s about providing for the health, safety, and welfare of all of us; and that’s through our police our fire, our public works, and the staff who make all of it work for our community. I really think we do it well.”
— Trustee Nicolle Grasse
The approved tax levy increase occurred following the approval earlier this year of a poorly-focused, over-budget downtown sign project intended to keep downtown Arlington Heights ‘relevant’ at a cost $155,000. Trustee Grasse referred to the signs as public art, and vowed her support of public art.
The increased tax levy was approved following the second consecutive year 7% raise for Village Manager Randy Recklaus, while he oversaw negotiations with police officers that resulted in Arlington Heights police officers working without a contract for all of 2023 and part of 2024. The agreement on the police union contract did not occur until March 2024. There was discussion in the community regarding why Village Manager Randy Recklaus was treated so well financially, while police officers struggled to gain any ground financially with the Village of Arlington Heights.
The increased tax levy was also approved while several neighboring municipalities announced decreases or no increase in their tax levies. In the Village of Mount Prospect, the village board approved 2024 property tax levy decrease of 5% from 2023. A homeowner with a $336,000 market value home would experience a decrease of $53 on their property tax bill portion from the Village of Mount Prospect. Mount Prospect Finance Director Amit Thakkar stated that the tax levy decrease is attributed to high positive projections in sales taxes for 2025, as well as multiple revenue sources to help offset expenses. Vehicle stickers were also eliminated in Mount Prospect.
The Village of Palatine announced no increase in tax levy, but is introducing a 1% local government tax on groceries.
The Village of Buffalo Grove 2025 budget was proposed with a 0% increase to the property tax levy.
In Elk Grove Village, the property tax levy was decreased 1.83% by approval at a November 19, 2024 meeting.
Village Manager Randy Recklaus report on tax levy increase …
This year we have a $211 million plan. Staff has tried to prepare a budget that reflects not only the organizational demands of the Village from our own departmental operational perspectives, but also based on the formal and informal feedback that we received from the Village Board and of course are many discussions with residents, Village boards and commissions and other stakeholders over the course of the past year. It’s not just a wish list. It’s a balanced policy document that does its best to move the community forward based on the anticipated challenges, obligations, and opportunities that lie ahead.
The budget also reflects strategic priorities adopted by the Village Board as well as the long tradition of physical conservatism that we’ve had within this village government. The past five years the village has benefited from increasing sales tax and income taxes, and this is really allowed us to take the pressure off of property tax increases, and we’ve kept a flat levy other than the loss and cost for the last five years, and that was really unprecedented, that we were able to maintain that for that period of time But we’re projecting for 2025 from a budgetary standpoint to be more of a normal year and inflation has now returned to normal levels, but revenues have begun to flatten as well, and we’re experiencing increased service demands in certain areas, and one of the highlights as we’ve discussed in previous meetings the village has seen a dramatic increase in EMS calls in the last 10 years. We’ve seen a 15% increase in calls for service, and so we have been adding a fifth ambulance in service whenever staffing permits; however, in 2024 we worked with the Village Board to develop a plan to staff a fifth ambulance full-time ramping up over the next two years. The budget we’re proposing allows us to maintain that schedule where we will have a fully staffed fifth ambulance in 2026.
Due to the flattening of our revenues to normal levels and the continued service increases, we’re recommending a modest 2.46% increase to the village’s property tax levy as we discussed last June and November. We are looking at a smaller increase than we anticipated over the summer. It’s important to note that the village represents only about 12% of a typical homeowners property tax bill. Therefore that 2.46% increase is not a 2.46% increase on your entire property tax bill, just on the Village portion.
For an owner of a $425,000 home in Arlington Heights, this would mean a $29 increase due to the proposed levy. The budget will also continue the village’s prudent investments in Village infrastructure including the recently accelerated water main project our road enhancement and stormwater system, and the mandated replacement of our lead service lines.
Overall, we believe this is a prudent financial plan for the coming year and staff recommends approval.
Wendy Dunnington said she is in “complete support of the budget … I .. when we did talk about the budget, I had asked about if we could use our fund balance at all to pay for the tax for the … instead of having a tax, if we could use money from our fund balance and so I wanted to ask for our next budget cycle if we could take a look at other town’s fund balances, not just for one year, but maybe over 3 to 5 years to see how we compared to other towns … if we are right on track or if we are on the low end or high end and how that looks.”
Reckless replied, “Sure we can definitely do that and you know we did have figures of what the fund balances were in neighboring communities for this year, but we certainly can look at a kind of a midterm trend as you’re suggesting as well … that’s easy enough information to come by.”
Nicole Grasse commented …
“First I want to thank the staff and the board for all the work done long-term also in preparing this budget it’s it’s as I look back even at the past year or so.
I just want to mention a few things just for transparency sake, and just to kind of let everybody know some of the decisions that were made that do affect us that matter, I am hoping that maybe Manager Reklaus can actually clarify a couple things in a minute, too. I think that by reducing (sic: eliminating) the car stickers that reduced about $1 million or so in what we brought in in revenue, but it also was because our neighbor and communities were doing that and it just was better for the staff involved in all that we agreed that that was a good thing to do but that’s $1 million … so I think it’s important just to think about some of these little things that we do decide to do.
We have the fifth ambulance … I have to say in my neighborhood we actually had a medical and police event last night in my neighborhood there were probably 10 squad cars, paramedics and fire truck, and I am so grateful for what our community provides, and I fully support the additional pension that we have to pay for these people who do this important work for us. As I look at my time on the board and see what we are tasked with doing as a municipal government, it’s not about running it like a business where fiscal responsibility is a huge part of what we are to do to use our tax dollars responsibly; it’s about providing for the health, safety, and welfare of all of us; and that’s through our police our fire, our public works, and the staff who make all of it work for our community. I really think we do it well; but we had a lot of pension that we had to make up for our police and fire that I am grateful we paid extra from our surplus for the long-term goals to reduce what we would have to pay down the road.
So we are making some really good long-term decisions, I think, to help with what we will have to pay as a community, but also taking care of ours, who take care of us. So I just want to mention that. But also along with the fifth ambulance that is an important part of what we need as a community that costs money … we also have the — as everybody has experienced — the above normal premiums for healthcare that have been present for all of us, and so that also has added to why we’re having to unfortunately raise this tax levy some … along with the declining tax revenue or more stagnant, I should say, it’s more level tax revenue.
So I am grateful for the hard work we’ve done. I just think it’s really important to speak to kind of how we make these difficult decisions for the best of our community, but especially to provide the top quality services for all of us in our community that we expect, and are grateful for, and so I just want to thank everybody because I don’t think anybody ever wants to raise our taxes, but I’m grateful that we were able to do it in a way that really will continue to provide for the best quality services.”
Mayor Thomas W. Hayes congratulated other board members and staff on the results of the 2025 budget, but did not directly acknowledge the negative news that the property tax levy was increasing.
Mayor Hayes closing comment …
It’s always been one of our strategic priorities to provide the highest quality services at the lowest possible cost of the taxpayer, and I think we’ve done a great job with that. I know we’re entering the campaign season here in the municipal government, and we’ve got a number of candidates here, and I think there’ll be some agreements, and some disagreement amongst the candidates, but one thing that I think every candidate will have on their platform is to do just that … continue to maintain high-quality services at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer. I don’t think anybody would disagree amongst the candidates on that, and so I’m just really proud of the fact that we’ve been able to do that for so many years now, and it’s a tribute to the great leadership that we’ve had on our village management level and our our staff and so congratulations again to our current members of the staff who have been able to do that once again this year and so again my thanks to everybody from Randy on down to Tom and all members of his team … so again congratulations and ‘great job’
All village board members were in favor of closing the public hearing with the approval of the 2025 budget.
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