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<\/p>\nCity Council approved Elgin\u2019s proposed 2026-27 budget and a higher property tax rate on first reading last week, with another round of discussion ahead before both are finalized.<\/p>\n
The budget is built around a proposed rate of 68 cents per $100 valuation, up from nearly 62 cents last year. The increase would cost a homeowner with a $100,000 house about $66 more in taxes this year.<\/p>\n
Budget documents show the proposed rate would generate about $8.5 million in property taxes, up from roughly $7 million last year. Almost $300,000 of that increase would come from new property added to the tax rolls.<\/p>\n
The average homestead tax bill is projected to rise from $1,657 to $2,001, based on a projected 4% increase in taxable value, according to officials.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Elgin City Council approves the proposed 2026-27 budget and tax rate on first reading Sept. 1. The budget includes a nearly six-cent tax hike that would generate an additional $1.5 million for the city. File photo<\/p>\n
The proposed rate includes about 57 cents for maintenance and operations, with the remaining cents for the city\u2019s interest and sinking fund, which covers debt payments.<\/p>\n
Officials said much of the additional revenue from the higher tax rate would go toward recurring personnel costs, including new employee positions and a compensation study, although council members have not finalized how the money will be divided.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are recurring costs that you can then budget on, and you would expect to be able to pay for (in the future),\u201d Acting City Manager Beau Perry said.<\/p>\n
Perry said the city projects a positive general fund balance and that some previously set-aside money remains available, though he cautioned it cannot be treated as a recurring revenue source.<\/p>\n
About $400,000 from a prior bond-related fund could also be used for certain parks or police expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do have an amount of money that if you did decide to do one-time capital, buying, equipment or funding the reserve that you have that ability to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Perry noted the council can still lower the rate before final adoption, but they are under a time restraint.<\/p>\n
The Sept. 1 votes do not finalize either the budget or tax rate.<\/p>\n
The council is scheduled to hold another public hearing Sept. 15 before voting on the final tax rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council approved Elgin\u2019s proposed 2026-27 budget and a higher property tax rate on first reading last week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-283032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}