Hazel Crest officials are studying avenues for providing some measure of property tax relief, including tax rebates and not increasing the village’s property tax levy next year.

Tax rebates of $250 or $500 could be offered to residents of single-family, owner-occupied homes, according to one option. Rebates would apply just to the village’s portion of a homeowner’s property tax bill.

Village trustees recently discussed both options and plan to revisit the issue at a committee meeting June 24, Village Manager Dante Sawyer said.

“We are evaluating that (flat levy) option as well as other options,” Sawyer said.

Nothing is yet on the full Village Board agenda as far as tax relief, Sawyer said.

The options were outlined in a June 10 memo to Hazel Crest Mayor Sandra Alexander and village trustees.

It noted property tax levies for last several years have had increases of more than $500,000 to more than $600,000 from the prior year.

The property tax levy attempts to calculate how much a municipality will need in property taxes to help fund village services, which can also be paid for through other revenue sources such as sales taxes.

Municipalities generally adopt levies for the upcoming year at the end of the current calendar year.

The memo referred to the zero-increase levy as a “corporate property tax buydown,” or a mechanism where funds are identified to replace or compensate for lost revenue from local governments that do not levy a property tax increase.

“Another funding source must be identified to account for traditional increases in operating expenditure, such as salaries, pension contributions, health insurance benefits, and general inflation to the cost of good of services,” the memo explains.

After several years of property tax levy increases, that would involve dipping into reserves to cover the losses.

Hazel Crest said reserves in its General Fund stand at $8.5 million.

That represents 41% of annual expenditures, or just about five months of reserves, according to the memo.

It said the Government Finance Officers Association recommends maintaining at least two months of operating reserves for fiscal stability.

Sawyer said some type of property tax relief has been discussed for several months, in light of Cook County reassessments that caused massive increases in tax bills in several south suburbs.

“Recently, residents in South suburban Cook County, including Hazel Crest, have faced substantial increases — up to 20% or more in their property tax bills,” the memo stated.

“These surges are driven by reassessments, shrinking tax bases and increased assessments, causing financial strain for many homeowners.”

Cook County’s property tax appeal process also shifted $1.91 billion in taxes from businesses onto homeowners over the last three years, exacerbating inequities in the city and suburbs, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing a Cook County treasurer’s office study.

Homeowners’ bills grew by about 7% over that span as a result of the shift, the Tribune said, pointing out the study was the first to calculate how much shifting burdens have cost on property tax bills.

Those increases fell more on lower-income Black and Latino taxpayers, the report found.