Carbondale keeps municipal property taxes level for next year

Although municipalities have been struggling due to mandated reductions by the state, the Carbondale City Council voted to keep property taxes flat for another year.

The council unanimously approved the 2017 tax levy in the amount of $2,082.242, with $1,035,289 set for city purposes and $1,046,953 for the public library.

The library property tax did increase by about $15,000 or about 1.5 percent over last year.

"The bottom line is that we are not increasing property taxes this year," Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry said at the Nov. 7 meeting.

The mayor pointed out that the city did increase taxes earlier this year with the food and beverage tax.

"We promised you how we were going to use those and we are living up to that promise," Henry said.

He referred to the $1.7 million downtown revitalization occurring just before the eclipse in August.

"So, we - or at least I - want to hold the line on property taxes this year," he said. "We never know what the future is going to bring to us. We had a perfectly balanced budget this year and then the state of Illinois, in what they call a budget, took $700,000 away from us."

At the county level, the Jackson County Board voted to lower the property tax rate by about 2 percent at its Nov. 21 meeting. The rate decreased from about 1.65 to 1.62.

A news release from the county said a property owner could see about an $8 reduction on a property valued at $100,000 on the Jackson County segment of the next tax bill.

"This is an effort toward responsible use of taxpayer dollars," Jackson County Board Chairman John Rendleman said.

According to Liz Hunter, chair of the Jackson County finance and administration committee, the board worked with elected officials and department heads to build a budget that remained within in the goals of the board and still provided services from each department.