Brookfield will seek to extend its property tax levy for 2024 by 4.13%.
Illinois law limits increases in annual property tax extensions to the consumer price index’s inflation rate or to 5% if the rate is higher. The CPI for 2024 is 3.4%.
The village estimates the total levy for this year will be roughly $16.3 million, up from about $15.6 million last year.
Of that number, about 82%, or $13.4 million, is proposed for Brookfield’s combined levies, an increase of 4% over last year’s levy of $12.9 million. The remainder, about $2.9 million, is for the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library; this amount is about 4.69% higher than the 2023 levy of $2.7 million.
Brookfield is requesting 3.4% in accordance with the law alongside an additional 0.6% to capture new growth in the village’s overall property value as determined by Cook County as a basis for property taxes, known as the equalized assessed value.
At the village board’s Oct. 28 committee of the whole meeting, Finance Director Doug Cooper explained that the village must seek the additional levy for new growth this year or it would lose the ability to earn property tax revenue on that portion of its EAV forever.
About half of Brookfield’s combined levies, roughly $6.7 million, would go to the village’s general fund while another 22%, about $293,000, is for its special recreation and debt service funds. The remaining 28%, about $384,000, is split 2-to-1 toward the police pension and firefighter pension funds.
Trustees approved a resolution estimating the total tax levy Oct. 28. A public hearing for the tax levy is scheduled for the village’s board’s regular meeting Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
