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Algonquin eyes telecom tax hike Proposal would bring in about $400K more a year, help pay for infrastructure needs By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com ALGONQUIN – Residents’ phone bills might go up. Village officials proposed increasing the town’s telecommunications tax from 3.75 percent to 6 percent. The little-known tax is used in many area towns including Huntley, Crystal Lake and Woodstock. The proposed increase is estimat-
ed to bring in about $400,000 more a year and would be used to help pay for infrastructure needs in the village, according to a memo written by Assistant Village Manager Michael Kumbera. Village Board members are scheduled Tuesday to vote on the proposed increase at their meeting. The tax would apply to services such as telephonic voice charges for cellphone and landline use as well as
DSL or dial-up Internet services, village officials said, and not on charges for text messages or data. Because of technology enhancements and consumer trends, telecommunications tax revenue is flat to slowly declining, Kumbera wrote. He added more and more people are using text messages to communicate. Village officials estimated a person who is charged $40 a month for smartphone line access would see a 90-cent
increase a month, or $10.80 a year. If approved by the Village Board, the tax increase would go into effect July 1. Because demand for expenditures in the street improvement fund have increased, the village has had to allocate more of its home-rule sales tax to street improvements, village documents say. In fiscal 2009, 10 percent of the home-rule sales tax went into the
street improvement fund. In fiscal 2010, it was 33.3 percent. In fiscal years 2011 and 2012, it was 40 percent. In fiscal 2013, it was 50 percent, and in fiscal 2014, 75 percent of the home-rule sales tax went into the street improvement fund. For fiscal 2015, all of the village’s home-rule sales tax is going toward street improvements.
See TAX, page A6
District 200 unveils debt refinance, tax levy plans
TRAINER LOOKS TO RUN FACILITY
Board will formally vote on request Dec. 16 By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – District 200 officials recently unveiled a proposed 4.11 percent property tax levy increase and a debt refinance plan that should limit the increase to Woodstock homeowners by $55 on next year’s tax bills. Chief Financial Officer Risa Hanson said school officials purposely proposed both plans during a District 200 board meeting earlier this week At a glance as an effort to save taxpayers on property taxes, a primary revenue cost of district’s source the district request to average also uses to make Woodstock homeinterest payments owner without the on bonds. refinance plan “By doing the refinance, it results in a lower levy needed to cost of district’s make our bond request to average payments,” Han- Woodstock homes o n s a i d . “ W e owner with the believe this is a refinance plan positive step in reducing the tax burden on the Woodstock tax- projected savings for the district on payer.” B o a r d m e m - interest payments bers will formally long term with the vote on the proper- refinance proposal ty tax levy request Dec. 16. The earliest the board could execute the refinance plan is February, Hanson said. The district would start to see immediate savings from the refinance plan once approved, she said. Hanson estimates the plan would shave about $548,800 off the district’s requested levy amount, totaling $61.12 million. On paper, the district’s total levy amounts to a 4.11 percent increase from last year despite existing property values within Woodstock declining 3.68 percent. The levy increase factors both the 1.5 percent rise in inflation and the value from new property growth. Without the refinance plan, the district’s request would cost an average Woodstock homeowner $89 more on the District 200 portion to their property tax bills next year, according to district figures. Homeowners would instead pay $34 more on the district portion to their property tax bills with the refinance plan, Hanson said. The refinance proposal also is
$89
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Tricia Sales of Cary watches as Rebecca Amos of Carpentersville jumps with Porsche inside the Lake in the Hills horse barn facility. Sales is now running Silver Line Equestrian out of the facility, which is on its third tenant in two years. Sales had been working with previous tenants Josiah and Samantha Kitchel, who ran RoseGate Equestrian Center.
TAKING THE REINS Cary woman brings 25 years of experience as she leases Lake in the Hills horse barn from village By JOSEPH BUSTOS jbustos@shawmedia.com
M
ost evenings during the week, Tricia Sales is working with students as they learn to ride horses inside of one of the arenas at the village’s horse barn facility. Rather than just being a horse trainer on site, Sales is now leasing the facility from Lake in the Hills, and is the third tenant to lease the Pyott Road facility in two years. Sales, of Cary, has taken over the facility from Josiah and Samantha Kitchel who ran RoseGate Equestrian Center. Sales runs Silver Line Equestrian, and was the horse trainer when the Kitchels ran the horse stables. Under the lease terms with the village, Sales’ rent for the 9.5-acre property will be one-third of the boarding income, which was the
Sales is running Silver Line Equestrian out of the Lake in the Hills barn facility. same deal the Kitchels had. Her first payment is due Jan. 1. According to a memo written by Assistant Village Administra-
tor Jen Clough, Sales will have the late fall and early winter to begin making repairs, such as adding limestone fill to the paddocks for
feasible year-round use. When the paddocks are dirt, they become muddy when its rains and become icy in the winter. “When we can’t use them, it cuts back on our turnout space,” Sales said. Sales continues to give lessons on the property during the evenings on Mondays through Thursdays and all day Saturday. She teaches about 35 students a week, and has about 25 horses boarded on the property. To help keep Sales from relying on income from the horse stables to support her, she does have fulltime work as an operations manager for a real estate development company. She also has three independent contractors, one of whom is her daughter, working at the horse barn to take care of issues during the daytime.
See BARN, page A6
$34
$4.1M
See REFINANCE, page A7
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