Hinsdale Wealthy, But Faces Budget Challenges: Leader
HINSDALE, IL – The village of Hinsdale faces its share of budget challenges, although it is seen as a wealthy town, an official said this week.
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“When you say we’re a wealthy municipality, the residents are wealthy, the municipality is not,” Village President Tom Cauley said during a budget discussion at a Village Board meeting.
Forty percent of Hinsdale’s main account comes from property taxes, and the village makes up 7 percent of the property tax bill.
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“You talk about excess funds. I don’t see any coming our way,” given cost hikes and the increase in state-mandated police and fire pension obligations, Cauley said. “It isn’t as though we have money laying around.”
Trustee Neale Byrnes compared Hinsdale to Oak Brook, which has a large amount of retail and commercial property. The village of Oak Brook assesses no property tax, given its enormous sales tax income.
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“I always say the streets in Oak Brook should be paved in gold, which basically they are, because they have a ton of money,” Byrnes said.
Cauley said Hinsdale is different from towns like Oak Brook and Melrose Park.
Oak Brook has far more property value per resident than Hinsdale – $637,020 vs. $373,670, according to the state comptroller’s records. And Oak Brook’s sales tax income amounts to $3,000 per resident, far more than Hindale’s $270.
Melrose Park has far less property value per resident than Hinsdale, at $85,578. But its sales tax income per resident stands at nearly $1,000, nearly four times Hinsdale’s.
Cauley is right that the village’s residents are wealthy. The local median household income is more than $250,000, compared with $160,000 in Oak Brook and $65,000 in Melrose Park, according to U.S. Census data.
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