Rockford Sun

The Belvidere city council of Belvidere recently discussed the 2022 property tax levy.

During a Dec. 19 city council meeting, the Belvidere city council discussed how much to raise the 2022 property tax levy. Because of tax cap laws, the most they could ask for was a 5% increase on the tax extension they received last year, however, the council could also choose not to increase the levy at all if they saw fit to do so. The deadline to submit the 2022 property tax levy request to the county was Dec. 27.

Belvidere Alderman Tom Porter argued that a 5% increase was necessary to fund the city's necessary services and infrastructure.

"I understand the whole situation with the taxes and everything and the hard times that we're going through now," Belvidere Alderman Tom Porter said at the meeting. "I think we have a responsibility to the taxpayers to be good shepherds of the taxpayer money. But that being said, we also have a duty to make sure that we don't let the city go down the tubes, basically, because of a lack of funding for the needed requirements and services that help improve the quality of life for our citizens. I also feel that we need to not abuse the powers given to us by the home rule either. I think we need to be mindful of that. So with that in mind, I do know that we do need to raise the taxes. I think we're at this point in agreement that we do need to do something because of holding it flat for as long as we have."

The library does its levy jointly with the city, and their request for this year totaled $773,503. The council also discussed several different options for the levy amount, mostly talking about options that would fully fund their shortfall for the police and fire employee pensions and Alderman Porter's proposition for the full 5% property tax levy increase.

After much debate, the city council did finally decide to pass the 5% increase on the property tax levy, with a small amendment made to decrease the city’s portion by about $130,000. This would bring the final levy request to $6,006,634 including the library’s portion. The city’s actual extension amount will be determined by the county and paid out in the spring.