The Kane County Forest Preserve District is now in a “growth phase” after voters in Tuesday’s general election appeared mostly in favor of the district’s proposed tax increase, district officials said.
Unofficial results on Wednesday showed that 58.59% voted in favor of the tax increase while 41.41% voted against it. Numbers are expected to change somewhat as vote-by-mail and provisional ballots are counted.
The property tax increase is expected to be around $10 per $100,000 of home value, which comes to about $3 per month for the average Kane County property owner, according to the district’s webpage on the referendum. From that increase, the district would receive around $6.9 million next year, district staff previously said.
Kane County Forest Preserve District Executive Director Benjamin Haberthur told The Beacon-News on Wednesday that the district was previously in a “financial pickle” because it wasn’t able to effectively draw in federal and state funding, but this tax increase would fix that issue.
The district would now be able to fund both capital projects and continued land protection efforts with the help of the tax increase and grants, he said.
“It’s a big relief that we can continue to deliver the primary mission of the Forest Preserve District,” Haberthur said.
If the referendum question had not passed, the Kane County Forest Preserve District would have been focused more on maintenance rather than expansion, according to Haberthur.
Now that it appears to have passed, the district will start planning for the future, he said.
“Now we’re in a growth phase of our history, as far as developing and getting the preserves open to the public,” Haberthur said.
The Kane County Forest Preserve District’s current 10-year master plan is set to expire in 2025, and now that the district knows the levels of funding it will have going forward, it can start planning for its next 10 years, he said. Since the funds won’t be available until the next budget cycle, the district has around seven months to plan how to spend the money “wisely and appropriately,” he said.
Haberthur previously presented some of the projects that would be supported by the tax increase, including an expansion to a program reintroducing bison to the Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve, improvements to the Rutland Bog that would allow it to be opened up to the public, an Urban Ecology Field Station at Arlene Shoemaker Forest Preserve in Aurora and a multi-level wildlife observatory at the Muirhead Springs Forest Preserve in Hampshire.
The tax increase is also expected to help to replenish the district’s Land Acquisition Fund, which was fully spent or committed, past reporting shows. This would allow the district to acquire up to 125 acres of open space and natural areas per year.
Forest preserve maintenance, improvements and educational programming would also be supported by the tax increase, according to the district webpage on the referendum.
Other benefits of the tax increase include up to an additional 250 acres per year of restored wildlife habitat, new trails, new recreation areas, increased flood protection and more, the webpage stated.
Even with the tax increase, property owners would be set to see the Forest Preserve District portion of their property taxes lowered over the next few years as bonds previously approved by voters get fully paid off. For a $300,000 house, yearly property taxes are expected to go down roughly $25 by 2027, even with the tax increase from the referendum, according to past reporting.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
