Build on Our Economic Development Successes to Reduce Property Taxes

Property taxes in Illinois are out-of-control, forcing people to uproot their families and seek greener pastures elsewhere. While the village only makes up 5% of your property tax bill, we continue to do everything we can to reduce these taxes for our over-burdened residents.

That is why I have prioritized economic development. Not only does this provide good-paying jobs for our residents, but it also increases revenue for the village to offset property taxes, including sales tax revenue from the 6,000 people who commute into Cary for work every day. Since I took office in 2013, we have attracted approximately 74 new businesses to Cary while helping 8 of our existing businesses expand within the Village of Cary. In fact, Sage Products recently announced its expansion over the next few years, adding over 800,000 square feet and creating up to 450 new jobs.

To accomplish this, we took a number of growth-oriented steps. We reduced fees, making it less expensive to open a business within village limits. We re-instituted a façade improvement program, providing matching funds to businesses to help them beautify our downtown. We resurrected a low-interest loan program to help businesses become more viable by making capital improvements. We helped small businesses utilize grant programs to ensure they located here in Cary. And we began working to improve the streetscape of our downtown, making it a more desirable, walkable and entertaining destination.

While we have made great strides, we have more work to do. Over the next four years, I want to work to annex several vacant properties on our borders that we can utilize for commercial development to further reduce the property tax burden on our residents. I want to develop the property around Meyer Material, utilizing an intergovernmental agreement with Algonquin that could invest all retail sales taxes generated by the property into maintaining the future park. I want to attract more commercial development along Route 31 to take advantage of the state’s efforts to make that a major corridor for McHenry County. Furthermore, I want to find the right strategic opportunities for our remaining vacant properties, ensuring we are filling these properties with sustainable businesses that meet our residents’ needs.

Our economic development successes allowed us to keep our portion of your property tax bills flat my first two years in office and even reduce those taxes the past two years. Moving forward, I will continue to do all I can to lower our property taxes.