Excerpts from mysuburbanlife.com:
The Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Fire Protection District can start restoring services that have been cut and setting aside funds for long-term needs after an emergency and rescue tax was passed Tuesday, Fire Chief Peter Van Dorpe said. About 7,790 voters – or 54 percent – voted yes, and 6,593 voters – or 46 percent – voted no, according to unofficial results. The district, which serves about 40,000 residents in Algonquin and Lake in the Hills, is expecting the tax to generate about $800,000 a year.
The 0.1 percent tax will add about $65 on the property tax bill of the owner of a $200,000 house. District voters rejected the same referendum in the March primary by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
About half of the funds gained from the tax are expected to go toward the department’s vehicle replacement fund. The department also plans on putting an ambulance back in service that has been out of commission for about two years, taking care of deferred building repairs, waiving fees insurance won’t cover for patients being transported to the hospital and planning to set aside money for a dive team.
Some residents have questioned why the district needed the tax when it had a little less than $200,000 surplus in fiscal 2016, Van Dorpe said.
He said the district’s 2016 budget was prepared before the March referendum results were in, and the department anticipated it would get the money needed to make repairs at its stations. When the referendum did not pass, the projects were deferred, so the money set aside for them never was used, he said. The surplus also did not provide enough funds for long-term planning, he said.
