North Cook News

For the second year in a row the Maine Township Board, citing its flush reserve funds, approved an abatement of the General Assistance and Town Fund tax levies.

The abatement means that taxpayers are off the hook for the levies approved in December, Trustee Susan Kelly Sweeney, who pushed for the abatements both this year and last, told North Cook News.  

“It’s not a rebate where taxpayers get money back,” Sweeney explained. “The abatement means that the money will not be taken from the taxpayers in the first place.”

Maine Township Trustee Susan Kelly Sweeney

The move saves township homeowners more than $2.4 million.

Sweeney added that she doesn’t know of any Illinois township ever abating taxes over one year much less two.

Bryan Jones, executive dDirector of the Township Officials of Illinois, said he likewise couldn’t recall any other township ever abating taxes. Jones has 33 years of experience with the association. 

The February 25 vote by the board abates the entire $413,644 General Assistance 2019 tax levy along with $2 million of the Town Fund levy.

General Assistance, which helps older residents and those with disabilities, has $2.5 million in reserves. The township estimates it will need just over $600,000 to fund programs through 2020.

The Town Fund will have $7 million in reserves at the end of 2020, the board estimates. A portion of that will be used to cover the $4.3 million Town Fund budget, along with $1.6 million that remains in the levy.

Last January, Wirepoints, a government watchdog group, called out Maine Township over its excessive reserves.

"While Maine Township as a whole has excess reserves – $11.6 million in total – there’s one part of its budget that’s particularly egregious: its General Assistance (GA) fund," Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of Wirepoints wrote.

They also wrote that the township was breaking the law.

"Illinois townships can’t hold fund reserves bigger than 2.5 times the fund’s annual expenditures (expenditures defined as the average of the previous three years),” they wrote.