Voters near Springfield face new property tax to pay for pensions

Voters in the village of Jerome, on Springfield’s southwest edge, will decide whether to adopt an additional property tax to pay for public pension contributions.

The village of Jerome will look to voters Nov. 6 for a new source of public employee pension funding.

Jerome residents’ general election ballots will include a referendum seeking voters’ approval for an additional property tax. Leaders would use the revenue exclusively to cover village contributions to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, or IMRF.

Owners of a single-family home with a fair market value of $100,000 would pay an additional $53.33 in property taxes under the tax hike proposal for the 2018 levy year – payable in 2019, according to the village. Under the proposal, the village’s property tax extension would rise to $67,432 from $22,169, a 204 percent increase, according to the village.

The referendum will read: “Shall the corporate authorities of the Village of Jerome, Sangamon County, Illinois be authorized to levy a new tax for the purpose of covering the Village’s Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund employer contribution and have an additional tax of 0.16% of the equalized assessed value of the taxable property therein extended for such purposes?”

Jerome is a village of 1,600 residents with a median household income of $49,000. It sits on the edge of Illinois’ capital city, and more than one in four workers is employed by a government body.