Heyworth, Illinois

It's the time of year when your taxing bodies are preparing their tax levies.  A tax levy is an ordinance adopted by a taxing body that requests a dollar amount to be collected from property taxes and each taxing body must adopt their levies each year by the end of December. 

This year, the Village is holding a truth in taxation hearing because it anticipates raising its tax levy by $50,580.79 from last year, which results in an increase of 47.78% from last year's amount ($105,862) for a total amount for next year of $156,442.79.  The primary reason the Village is increasing its levy by this amount is because its TIF I is expiring, and the TIF I Fund was paying for certain operational expenses in the TIF areas.  Although the TIF I Fund paid for quite a bit more than this $50,580.79 amount each year for capital project expenses that benefited the TIF area, the Village, through strategic planning (i.e. structuring of bonds, refinancing of bonds, reallocation of expenses, decreasing expenses, etc.) does not need to increase its levy more than this $50,580.79 amount.

Although the Village intends to increase the tax levy dollar amount requested from last year by 47.78%, the property tax rate of the Village is projected to go down from the current rate of 0.47473 to approximately 0.47031.  

How can that be?  Unless you understand how property taxes and property tax rates are calculated, this may seem odd.  Unfortunately, these processes are fairly complicated.  The short answer why the Village's tax rate is projected to go down even though the Village is requesting a dollar amount/levy increase is largely because TIF I is expiring and the significant growth and property values that the TIF I helped produce is now included in the tax rate calculations.

The following resources are intended to help explain this:

(1) Mayor Zalucha's Press Release/Water Bill Insert that provides a summary of this information.
(2) How Does a TIF District Expiring Effect My Taxes that provides a more detailed explanation on what a tax levy is, how tax levies and tax rates are calculated, how these calculations effect what you pay with your property taxes, and how the TIF I expiration effects this entire process.
(3) McLean County Assessor Estimated EAV Report for the Village of Heyworth, which provides the estimated EAV for the Village for calendar year 2023 (Tax Year 2022), assists in the projection of what tax rates will be for the Village for next year utilizing the tax rate calculation formula.

The Village is holding a truth in taxation hearing on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. at the Heyworth Village Hall at which time this levy request and more information about this process will be provided.   We encourage you to attend if you have questions or would like to learn more.