Your Taxes

The Naperville Park District relies on the support of property tax dollars to help fund it's parks, facilities and maintenance. The portion of your property tax dollars that the park district receives is a small percentage of your total tax bill. The property taxes are based on the Equalized Assessed Value (EAV), which is one-third of the property’s market value.

At the end of 2003, the Illinois legislature passed two Public Acts, 93-0612 and 93-0601, which impacted how and what a park district was allowed to levy taxes for. Public Act 93-0612 allows park districts to levy taxes (up to four cents) to support special recreation costs and American with Disabilities Act (ADA) expenditures while also excluding this levy from a park district's tax cap limitation. Public Act 93-0601 provides for the recalculation of a park district's Debt Service Extension Base (DSEB) which was frozen in 1995. The DSEB provides for the District's capital projects such as sports complexes, community parks and existing facility renovation (e.g., Centennial Beach). The passage of these acts allows park districts the ability to raise revenues to support their special recreation, American with Disabilities Act and capital development needs.

Since the inception of the tax cap in 1995, the Naperville Park District no longer has the discretionary ability to raise taxes. One way that the park district is now able to realize an increase in property tax revenue is based on two inflationary factors: an increase in the EAV or a rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 5%, whichever is less. The park district also may choose to pass a referendum to raise property taxes, but this initiative is successful only when it is backed by the voting community.

For comparison purposes, here are the past six years of Naperville Park District tax rates:

For an additional perspective, here is how the Naperville Park District’s tax rate compares to other area park districts:

The Naperville Park District has been proactive in determining alternate ways of generating revenue to benefit programs and services, yet because these options are still relatively new, we must continue to rely on the support of the taxpayers now and into the foreseeable future.

Springbrook and Naperbrook Golf Courses are unique in that they operate as an Enterprise Fund. This requires the golf courses to generate sufficient revenues to cover all operational and maintenance expenses, capital improvement costs and any debt service incurred by the department and avoid using general fund monies. It is extremely important to maintain and manage the Enterprise Fund in a fiscally responsible manner so that the users of the facilities (golfers) are not only supporting the daily operational and maintenance costs, but also the long term capital improvement projects keeping the courses competitive with the local golf market and up to today’s industry standards.