Swan song for Elgin’s senior tax rebates

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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:17AM

ELGIN — West side resident B.C. Shirley, 72, was glad to hear Monday afternoon that he will be getting a check later this year from the city’s Senior Citizen Property Tax Rebate Program.

“Who couldn’t use an extra $200, especially being on a fixed income?” Shirley said.

But this will be the final time that Shirley — or any Elgin senior — gets the money, because the city has pulled the plug on the rebates.

The city has had the program in place since late 1996. To qualify for the money, a person had to be 65 or older, live Elgin, have a Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption, and be the owner of a home or mobile home for the 12 months in the year the rebate was issued.

Qualifying homeowners received a $200 check, while qualifying mobile home owners received $35. Since the program’s start, the city has rebated $9,387,015 of its share of casino money with it.

As set up in 1996, the program would only continue if the city’s take of casino cash was at least $13.275 million. That revenue stream has declined from $24.3 million in 2007 to $14.709 million in 2011.

Still, with the threshold met once more, checks should be issued by the end of May, Elgin Chief Financial Officer Colleen Lavery said Monday.

For 2010, the city issued 4,326 checks totalling $812,895. The total cost of the 2011 program is expected to be $825,000. At Wednesday’s committee of the whole session, the city council is set to move along plans to disburse that money and conclude the program.

“I was a little concerned about getting the money because we hadn’t heard, and I knew the casino had made enough money,” Shirley said. “But if they have to cancel the program to help out other people, I understand.”

Casino revenue dip

Indications the program could be cut began in late 2010, when council members held budget talks in the wake of dipping casino revenues. The city anticipates those revenues will decline to $10.540 million this year and be at about that level at least through 2015.

Last August, the council looked at a possible new approach to the program that would have had two phases.

The first disbursement would have given money to seniors who met the program’s original guidelines and who also obtained the Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption or the Illinois Circuit Breaker Property Tax Grant.

The second payout would have been made only if the casino’s cut to Elgin reached $13.275 million and would then include seniors who qualified under the original guidelines of the program.

To qualify for the “senior freeze,” someone must be 65 or older and have a total household income of $55,000 or less. With the circuit breaker, one must be 65; live in an Illinois residence that was subject to property or mobile home taxes; and have an annual income of less than $27,610 for an individual, combined earnings of less than $36,635 for a couple, or combined earnings of less than $45,657 for a bigger household.

However, as budget talks progressed during 2011, given the economy’s lingering impact on the city’s finances as well as on the casino, the consensus among the council was to end the program.