How Mini Coopers and the Census Helped Tinley's 2012 Budget

Today is Tinley Park’s all-day budget meeting, where the village board reviews all the requests for the FY2012 budget.

Overall, the village is doing well – there’s about $1 million more coming into the general fund than going out. That gap has been decreasing every year since the economy collapsed, but village officials said if it hadn’t been for a hiring freeze the village put into place in 2007, there would be more money going out of the general fund than coming in.

As able throughout the day, we’ll be posting articles looking at the four major aspects of every budget:

• Where is Revenue Up?

This article is about where revenues are up.

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Rather than go through the scores of village revenue streams, everything from taxes to service fees, here are a few of the major funding sources that went up.

Property Taxes

Property tax revenues (which makes up 43 percent of the village’s money) were expected to bring in about $15.5 million this year but actually brought in closer to $15.2 million. It’s expected to bring in $16.7 million next year.

Why?

They asked for that much.

Property taxes are confusing and Cook County property taxes especially so (). But the value of Tinley property went down 8.9 percent in the Cook County section of town and about 4 percent in the Will County section of town.

But taxing bodies don’t ask for a tax rate. They ask for a dollar amount. Villages, school districts, park districts, etc., compute how much money they need and send that money to the county. The county then figures the tax rates that will provide all these governments the amount they filed for.

Sales Taxes

Sales taxes were expected to bring in $9.85 million this year, actually brought in nearly $10.7 million and are expected to bring in $11.5 million next year.

Why?

Heating/cooling systems and Mini Coopers.

Temperature Equipment Corporation and a switchover from Mazda to Mini at International Autos are two business deals in the last year that will bring new sales – and sales taxes – to town.

But TEC, Mini, Subaru and the upcoming and were lured to Tinley using incentives that share some of that sales tax money. In the case of Old Navy and HomeGoods, . So although that is extra revenue, it doesn’t mean the village will get all of that.

Although the economy hurt sales, it didn’t hurt Tinley Park as much as predicted or as much as it hurt other towns.

“We were not as bad as we thought we could have been with sales taxes,” Seaman said.

Income Tax

They budgeted more than $4.1 million for this year, ended up getting nearly $4.6 million and expect about $4.5 million next year.

Why?

The census.

This is actually bad news. The amount they budgeted is irrelevant. The amount they actually got is based on per-person U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The 2009 population estimate was 59,140.

And the 2010 census showed that was too high. The new census put the population at 56,703.

Fewer people means a smaller share of the state-collected income tax.

Hotel/Motel Tax

Money from the hotel/motel tax is expected to break $1 million for the first time next year. This year it was expected to bring in $680,000 but brought in closer to $790,000.

Why?

A tax hike to help pay for the new convention center.

In January, the board increased the tax on hotel stays in town from 4 percent to 6 percent, with the new money earmarked to support debt services on bonds the village issued to help pay for . The new money can’t be used anywhere else.