The Village of Palos Park has joined 275 municipalities throughout the area in urging Springfield to restore local revenue payments. The Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) is generated from income taxes paid by local residents and businesses and collected by the State before it gets redistributed back to municipalities. In Palos Park, LGDF accounts for 11 percent of our annual operating budget. LGDF funds essential services, such as police and fire, road repairs and maintenance, garbage collection and flood prevention. The State promised 10 percent of total income tax collections to municipalities on a per capita basis through the fund in lieu of a local income tax. But in recent years, the State has reduced the LGDF share from 10 to 6.06 percent. Now, Springfield is considering taking additional money from LGDF this year, which would make local governments even more reliant on property taxes when they are challenged to balance their own budgets and maintain essential services. Under the current proposal, The Village of Palos Park would likely lose at least $53,000 annually.
We encourage you to contact your State Senator and Representative and let them know that you:
1) oppose further LGDF cuts
2) support restoring LGDF payments to the full 10 percent level that had been promised.
Restoring LGDF dollars to our community will help relieve the property tax burden and help ensure that basic services remain in place moving forward.