Naperville Public Library’s proposed 2025 budget calls for a 4.52% increase in property taxes — about $741,228 more than collected this year — though it’s too early to say how the bump would affect the average taxpayer, Executive Director Dave Della Terza said.
Next year’s spending plan, including a prospective $17.1 million levy request, is up for review by the Naperville Public Library Board at its meeting Wednesday. Should the budget proposal, which also calls for a 4.62% increase in spending over this year, receive the trustees’ go ahead, it would move to the Naperville City Council for a final OK.
The council is ultimately responsible for approving the library’s budget and levy request, as the agency falls under the city’s financial umbrella and does not have its own taxing authority.
The library’s budget, however, is primarily supported by tax revenue.
According to the proposed 2025 budget, money from property taxes accounts for 96% of the agency’s revenue. Investment income and fees, dollars accrued from library operations such as room rentals and book sales, personal property tax relief and per capita grants bolster the library’s purse to some extent. However, for the most part its operating budget relies on how much is levied.
That means that when the library needs to up its spending, its levy request goes up a comparable amount, Della Terza said. That’s the case this year.
The library’s total operating budget proposed for 2025 is $17,921,402, a little more than $791,900 more in expenditures over its 2024 budget. More funds needed to support competitive salaries and higher benefit costs is driving the hike, Della Terza said.
The library is budgeting nearly $12.2 million for salary and benefits in 2025, an increase of 6.31% over what was allotted this year.
Market adjustments to ensure wages are competitive with other libraries and similar industries are factored into the agency’s spending plan each year, though the 2025 adjustment is higher than it has been in years past, Della Terza said.
Over the past five years, the budget for salaries and benefits has remained fairly flat. From 2020 to the proposed 2025 spending plan, the total change in salaries and benefits is just over 5%, which shakes out to an average bump of 1% per year.
The library’s been able to keep large fluctuations at bay through efforts to find staff efficiencies and decreasing benefits costs. But in planning for 2025, administrators found that “we’re falling a little behind in those salaries and benefits lines,” Della Terza said. The lag is a function of minimum wage going up statewide putting pressure on the library to keep salaries attractive, he said.
The statewide minimum wage is $14 an hour but that’s due to rise to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2025.
Currently, the library’s lowest paid position starts at $15 an hour. That would increase to $15.50 with the agency’s 2025 spending plan, Della Terza said.
Market adjustments aside, benefit costs overall are projected to increase by a total 3.97%. That includes an expected 6.9% increase to health insurance and a 10.45% increase to retirement benefits.
“We always try to do our best to make the budget as reasonable as possible, but this year, we have the salaries rising, health insurance is going up, retirement benefits are going up,” Della Terza said. “So when it all happens at the same time, then there’s an increase that has to happen there.”
Other budget highlights include a 13% increase in the agency’s IT budget to accommodate several technology projects and a 10% decrease in its facilities budget, with fewer building projects and furnishings needed for next year.
Asked how he expects the library’s 2025 budget to affect taxpayers, Della Terza said, “It’s really unknown at this point.” It ultimately comes down to what the library’s tax rate proves to be, he said.
Since 2014, the library’s tax rate has been on the decline. There is a possibility that 2025 could bring the agency’s first rate increase in 11 years, but it’s too early in the process to say whether that will happen, he said. There are several other factors beyond the library’s spending needs that impact what rate taxpayers will see on their bills.
Property values, for instance, are an integral part of the tax rate equation, Della Terza said. But there’s also the fact that the library works closely with the city to ensure their budgets balance out together. The budget for Naper Settlement, which likewise falls under the city’s financial umbrella, is also a factor to consider.
“It all depends on what the city is doing, what the settlement is doing. All that impacts the rate and the total impact on the average taxpayer,” Della Terza said.
Staff plan to publish the proposed annual budget and capital improvement program documents for 2025 on Oct. 11. The information included in the city’s proposed budget will be presented to council members and the community through a series of workshops tentatively scheduled for Sept. 24, Oct. 22 and Nov. 12.