Riverside is preparing to sustain the costs of its own street and bridge maintenance.
At the Village Board’s Aug. 15 meeting, trustees approved amending the village code to ensure that a portion of tax revenue goes to fund regular street and bridge improvement projects and maintenance.
The new tax rate will not affect the amount of tax collected by the village from residents; effectively, the change allows Riverside to earmark a certain portion of property taxes that it will set aside to pay for design, engineering and construction costs related to street improvements.
Specifically, the measure creates a maximum tax rate of 0.1% of a property’s equalized assessed value for these improvements.
The move comes ahead of a tax referendum the village hopes voters will pass in November that would let it to increase the 2024 tax levy to 9.3%. Normally, the annual tax levy increase in Illinois municipalities is capped at 5% by the state’s Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, but Riverside and other communities can surpass the maximum with voters’ permission.
If the referendum passes, the tax levy increase would go into effect at the same time as Riverside pays off outstanding debt, meaning residents will not see their taxes go up. The village owes that debt after taking out 10-year bonds in 2014 with voters’ approval to fund street maintenance, a practice it started in 2004.
Since 2004, Riverside has had to pay about $1 million in property tax revenue toward extra costs related to issuing its street bonds, including interest and attorneys’ fees, meaning it could not invest the full amount it collected back into its roads.
Due to the cumulative nature of annual tax levy increases, the one-year revenue hike will give Riverside an annual influx of about $265,2000 that it can use directly to improve village streets and bridges.
If voters do not pass the referendum, Riverside would have to find an alternate source to fund its street improvements, which could heavily delay projects planned for 2025.
Establishing the maximum tax rate to earmark tax revenue is just the village’s latest effort to put the referendum up to vote, a process trustees initiated at their July 18 board meeting. The next step in the months-long process is just over the horizon, as Village Clerk Ethan Sowl must certify Riverside’s submission by Wednesday, Aug. 28.
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