In tonight’s meeting, the Kankakee City Council addressed several ordinances pertaining to the city’s existing sales tax levy.  Mayor Wells-Armstrong had previously assured residents she would address the property tax burden for Kankakee residents and business owners.

 

Upon taking office, the Mayor worked with the city council to increase the sales tax from 6.25% to 8.25%, with the additional revenue from the 2% increase going toward the pension line items for the police and fire departments on the property tax bill.  A city ordinance was adopted to ensure the additional 2% was allocated to the pension line items and not used for other City expenses. The ordinance went into effect on July 1, 2018.

 

With three months of trending revenues, the City is averaging $425,000 per month, which yields $5.1 million per year. As a result of the increased revenues to be applied to the pension line items, the tax rate will be reduced from the current rate of 8.309 to 6.265. The City will be requesting to levy approximately $3.9 million less than it did in 2017. Property owners will see an approximate 25% reduction of the CITY portion on their property tax bills.

 

“This is another step forward in making good on my commitment to the voters to bring them some property tax relief.  The City faced some difficult fiscal issues when I took office and in working with the city council, we made a bold and unprecedented decision to raise revenue to address our challenges,” stated Mayor Wells-Armstrong.

 

For more information, contact Mayor Wells-Armstrong’s office at (815) 933-0500.  Visit the City of Kankakee’s website at citykankakee-il.gov.

 

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