Politics & Government

Orland Park Trustees to Vote on $2.5 Million Property Tax Rebate

Now the whole board has to vote on the rebate plan, after the finance committee looked it over at Monday night's Orland Park Village Board Meeting.

Update, 10:55 p.m. Monday, July 2, 2012

Orland Park residents are one vote away from receiving a property tax rebate from the village, for the first time since 2009.

The village’s finance committee gave the go-ahead for the full board to take a vote on a $2.5 million rebate of property taxes, culled from a handful of capital projects that were under budget, and other sources. About $490,000 came from selling land on the southeast corner of 143rd Street and LaGrange Road to Marquette Bank, while construction on the intersection had just under $382,000 that can be put into the rebate. (Look at the attached document to see the full list of savings sources)

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The average return if 19,000 applicants send in for the rebate would be about $137 per household, Orland Park Finance Director Annmarie Mampe said during Monday night’s committee meeting.

“In 2009 we rescinded it, but not forever,” Mampe said. “That wasn’t the plan. We’re comfortable that we have the savings to fund the rebate.”

Find out what's happening in Orland Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The rebate can be paid out in two ways. If about 19,000 people apply for the rebate, then they can receive $137 across the board, or a specific amount that is comparable to a property’s equalized assessed value can be factored.

Trustee Brad O’Halloran said he is in favor of the equal rebate for all applicants, in part because it will be a simpler payout to administer.

Mampe said they will work toward setting up the application process to be done electronically, but that would mean uploading electronic versions of personal documents.

“We just have to work around how we can attach documents,” Mampe said. “Not everyone will have that technology.”

The tentative timeline is for applications to go out late October to early November, and then the rebate could be paid out in March 2013, if the full board approves the rebate.

Trustee James Dodge pointed out that the rebate would only be good for 2013, citing ongoing state funding issues that could eat into municipalities’ available money.

“We are doing this against the context of we don’t know what will happen next year,” Dodge said. “We’ll do as much as we can when we can, but we need residents to be mindful with what the challenges are on this one.”

Original Post, 5:53 a.m. Monday, July 2, 2012

Orland Park’s finance committee will hear a plan Monday night to bring back a property tax rebate for local home and property owners.

Mayor Dan McLaughlin had previously asked village staff to look into bringing back the program that was stopped after March 2009, following six years of rebates.

Staff has pinpointed about $2.5 million that can be refunded in total. The committee will talk over a few ways it can be dispersed.

Read the attached packets for the finance, parks and recreation and technology agendas, as well as for the  attached to this article.

Orland Park Patch’s live blog through Cover It Live will provide minute-by-minute updates from the meeting on this page starting at 6 p.m. Look in the Cover It Live window, and you’ll see an area where you can join in and offer your comments and questions. The same rules apply as on finished articles on the site.

Leading up to the meeting, let me know if there's anything you particularly want to know about in the comments.


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