Proposed Wilmette budget includes at least $120 more per average household

Wilmette taxpayers will see an uptick in some village-related costs, if the town’s 2027 proposed budget holds.

Wilmette officials during the Village Board’s Tuesday, Oct. 13 meeting went through a “high-level overview” of the proposed 2027 budget, a document that earmarks several cost increases for taxpayers.

Erik Hallgren, Wilmette’s assistant village manager, said the budget is the end product of a monthslong process that started back in June.

The proposed budget, per Hallgren, is balanced in Wilmette’s operating funds, meaning the general, water and sewer funds. Expenses in these funds “maintain or enhance” current service levels within the village, according to a memo from Wilmette officials.

Included in the proposed budget is a 2.97% increase in the village’s property tax levy. The increase, per officials, includes obligated funding for public safety pension contributions, debt service for the new police station and the village’s road program, and operational spending for 2027.

The 2.97% uptick will result in an approximate increase of $70 per household based on the median home value in the village, officials said Tuesday night.

An increase of 3.3%, or $11.40, is also included in the proposed budget for the residential waste collection. There will also be a $0.25 increase for yard-waste stickers.

Those increases, Hallgren said, are consistent with contractual collection costs.

Residents can also expect to pay $40 more toward their annual stormwater fee, which will go toward funding the long-term debt for the village’s Neighborhood Storage Project.

That massive public infrastructure investment installed just under 15 million gallons of underground stormwater storage and five miles of storm sewer to provide flood relief to Wilmette residents who live on the west side of town, as previously reported by The Record.

The proposed budget does not include any increase to sewer rates.

One of the key elements to the 2027 proposed budget is several planned reserve drawdowns, which Hallgren said are used to invest in the village’s infrastructure.

The expected drawdowns include $8 million for the police station project. Those funds, Hallgren said, will offset long-term borrowing costs for the village.

Additionally, the reserve drawdowns will also go toward any project carryovers, including storm sewer work, street resurfacing, lead service line replacements, water-main work and water plant updates.

The proposed budget also earmarks a $950,000 increase in the village’s water fund revenue, meaning there will be a yet-to-be-determined water-rate increase.Wilmette trustees are expected to review fee structure options at their next meeting on Oct. 27.

“One of the things we’ll be discussing at an upcoming Village Board meeting is different ways we can structure that water-rate increase,” Hallgren said, noting that the board will look into the village’s three-year outlook for “all of the capital infrastructure needs that we have in the water fund.”

Those needs, he said, include lead-service line replacements, water main replacements or investment into the village’s water plant.

Wilmette trustees on Oct. 29 will hold a budget workshop during their Committee of the Whole session. From there, the budget is tentatively scheduled to be adopted during the board’s Nov. 24 meeting. Adoption of the property tax levy is set for the board’s Dec. 8 meeting.

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