Candidates for Oak Park Village Board often claim they will cut the waste at village hall and control our spiraling property taxes. Yet over the last five years the village has kept its tax increases well below inflation, including a 0% increase in 2023. What did that do for your tax bill? If you are like me, almost nothing. I pay more than ever, and it goes up with every reassessment.
A fact that most people don’t know, apparently including many village board candidates, is that the village levy is only 15% of your tax bill. And much of that is nondiscretionary stuff like firefighter pensions. The discretionary portion of the village levy amounts to less than 10% of your tax bill.
So I ask all of the candidates, what amount do you think you can realistically decrease of that 10%? If you can find $2 million in waste, that’s less than 1% off of our tax bill.
That amount would be offset by increases in the school district levies within a year. Which brings me to the school districts. Together, D97 (elementary) and D200 (high school) comprise almost two-thirds of our tax bill.
D200 is in the midst of a projected $250 million+ renovation plan. D97 has been raising its levy at close to the max allowable rate even as enrollment falls. If you want to save taxpayers money, the school budgets are a much better target than the village budget. Their portion of your tax bill is seven times larger than the discretionary part of the village levy, and growing much faster.
So why don’t these folks run for school board on an austerity platform? My guess is that many of them have kids in the schools. Well, that’s inconvenient. It’s easier to run for village board on a cost-cutting platform because many voters don’t understand how our taxes work. They think the village board controls everything.
If you are reading this, you now understand, and won’t be fooled. The village board controls less than 10% of property taxes, and that amount pays for things like police, street resurfacing, and sewer overhauls. It will be hard to meaningfully decrease it and, over the last five years, the village board has had the slowest levy increases of any local taxing body. Relative to inflation, the village board actually gave you a tax cut. If a candidate tells you otherwise, you should now be able to ask them some hard questions.
I’d start with, “Do you really care about our taxes? If so, why aren’t you running for school board?”
The thing is, most Oak Parkers, myself included, really like the schools, and school board candidates who run to control school spending historically have a very bad go of it. I bet most of the fiscally conservative candidates for village board wouldn’t do a thing to change our school funding. So are their fiscal positions genuine, or just branding?
Sources:
Tax growth comparison 2020-2025: https://jvanderberg.github.io/oak_park_tax_history/?c=g&y=2020-2025
Tax comparison 2025: https://jvanderberg.github.io/oak_park_tax_history/?c=p&y=2020-2025
Village tax breakdown: https://www.oak-park.us/files/assets/oakpark/v/1/finance/2025-budget-graphic.jpg