Brookfield has approved a minor tax levy increase that will help fund the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library over the next year.
At the village board’s July 22 meeting, Brookfield trustees approved a resolution to increase that levy by .02% for the next year to fund the library’s “various property, building and maintenance projects” over the next year, according to a memo from the meeting’s agenda. The board approved the measure as part of the meeting’s omnibus agenda, meaning they did not discuss or vote on it individually.
According to the memo, the additional amount will levy about $92,000 for the library from property taxes collected by Brookfield residents, the same amount that the library received last year from a similar tax levy.
The library’s own board of trustees seeks these tax levies each year as a source of funding for the library, but Brookfield’s village board must approve each year’s tax hike as the taxing body for the village. The library board approved a resolution authorizing the additional tax levy at its June 26 meeting.
All property tax hikes in Illinois must follow the Property Tax Extension Law Limit, which caps annual property tax levy increases in a way that protects property owners from extreme inflation. According to PTELL, the tax levy increase each year in Illinois municipalities must match the previous year’s consumer price index inflation rate but cannot go above 5% in years where the CPI does without express permission from voters. The CPI for 2023 was 3.4%.
According to state law, the village must issue public notice in the Landmark for the increase so registered voters in town have the opportunity to petition against it. As long as fewer than 1,338 voters — about 10% of voters in Brookfield — petition Brookfield within 30 days of publication, the village will be allowed to levy the library’s tax; however, if enough voters petition the village, the tax levy could instead be put up for a public vote at the next village election in April 2025.
