Joliet Tax Hike, Gasoline Tax Increase Proposed In 2025 Budget

JOLIET ? Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy's choice for Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty has decided that Joliet residents need to pay more money in property taxes as well as gasoline taxes so she's urging the Joliet City Council follow her recommendation and adopt a 2025 city budget that calls for several new city employees and higher salaries for the city's best-paid staff.

Beatty's budget calls for increasing Joliet's fuel tax from 4 cents to 5 cents for gasoline and from 4 cents to 11 cents for diesel fuels. The revenue generated from the fuel taxes would be used to fund more vehicle replacements for the city, according to Beatty.

Meanwhile, according to Beatty's memo to the City Council:

Property tax revenue account for 21.8 percent of Joliet's general fund revenues. When determining the amount for the 2024 levy, "we accounted for assessing our current tax rate to new properties, pensions, and a minimal inflationary increase," Beatty wrote. "The result is a tax levy that is a 6.45 percent increase from last year?s levy."

Beatty notes that the property tax levy increase amounts to an increase of more than $3 million.

"This is expected to increase our rate by approximately 1.05 percent to existing properties," Beatty pointed out. "This is because new values account for 5.4 percent of the 6.45 percent increase. Since the final assessed values are not available until after the deadline to file the levy with the Counties, the impact to the rate is an estimate. This levy does include an 8 percent increase for the Library portion of the levy."

Beatty's memo to Mayor D'Arcy and the Council notes that Joliet's general fund levy would increase from its 2023 rate of $0.2098 to $0.2464 and the total overall levy would increase from $1.1507 to $1.1628.

Other Budget Highlights Noted By Beatty:

Beatty noted that "Budgeted Revenues in the General Operating Fund are expected to be $16 million higher than 2024" and that Joliet "is projecting increases in sales and miscellaneous taxes of $4.7 million. The City's share of the State of Illinois Income Tax is projected to increase by $3.6 million."

One of the main reasons that Beatty wants to raise your Joliet property taxes is to fund all the new full-time jobs she's proposing in hopes of growing the size of Joliet's government and its number of employees.

Beatty is calling for an increase in new positions by 29. The breakdown is as follows:

14 new Joliet police officers

3 new Joliet firefighter/paramedics

3 new Joliet firefighter lieutenants

1 new Joliet fire captain position

1 community paramedic funded by a grant

3 new information and technology staff

1 bilingual employee for the City Hall front desk

1 new office manager at Public Works

1 new development coordinator for community development

As Joliet Patch has reported on in the past, the city of Joliet owns numerous vacant buildings across the city that are empty, and the city has been unable to redevelop or sell.

"The budget also adds an additional $1 million to maintain City owned buildings," Beatty noted. "This amount is needed to avoid damage that is possible if we do not complete preventative and ongoing maintenance."

Joliet also intends to spend $1.6 million of your tax money on Ottawa Street Parking Deck repairs.

The city also wants to spend $3.6 million to purchase three dozen new vehicles across the city including: 28 police vehicles, three large dump trucks, two fire department vehicles and one fleet van, one snow plow for buildings and grounds and one building inspection vehicle.