Preserving Our Future
Upcoming Referendum Discussion
The Forest Preserve District takes stewardship of both our lands and finances seriously.
Maintaining 60 forest preserves and 26,000 acres for 5.5 million visitors annually is more challenging than ever. Despite an 83% increase in visitors since 2006 (when voters last approved a Forest Preserve District referendum), the District has managed to operate with a smaller portion of each property tax dollar (from 2.3 cents in 2006 to 1.5 cents in 2023).
On July 9, our board of commissioners will continue discussions on how best to plan for the future to meet the needs of our preserves and our constituents. As part of its planning session agenda, the board will discuss placing a referendum on the upcoming Nov. 5 ballot.
The referendum would aim to ensure the Forest Preserve District can continue acquiring and protecting open space, maintaining healthy habitat, improving air and water quality, investing in public safety, expanding trails, and providing educational and recreational programs that connect people to nature.
If passed, the referendum would cost homeowners less than $12 more per year for every $100,000 of equalized assessed value, increasing the Forest Preserve District’s portion of each tax dollar from 1.5 cents to 1.9 cents.
Frequently Asked Questions
The referendum question is asking voters whether to allow the Forest Preserve District to increase its tax levy rate by 0.0350% over the existing limiting rate. The tax levy rate dictates the amount of money the Forest Preserve District receives from DuPage County property tax bills.
Per state law, the Forest Preserve District can only make this increase with voter approval.
Our preserves are more popular than ever and under more stress, too. Pressure from sustained record-high visitation and increased operating costs make the maintenance and protection of our open spaces more challenging and resource intensive than ever, but the portion of property taxes the Forest Preserve District receives has decreased in recent years.
Since 2006, when voters last approved a Forest Preserve District referendum the annual visitor count, which remained steady at 3 million until 2020, grew to its present-day 5.5 million (an exponential 83% increase). During that time, for every dollar a property owner pays in real estate tax, the rate going to the Forest Preserve District has dropped from 2.3 cents per dollar to 1.5 cents per dollar.
In addition to more preserve visitors, the Forest Preserve District now has more holdings to protect than ever before. Since 2006, the Forest Preserve District has grown by more than 600 acres of open space, added 30 miles of trails, restored 8,500 acres of land, and restored 30 miles of rivers and streams. Unfortunately, open space isn’t free space, and ongoing maintenance of these ecological and recreational assets requires resources.
No. The current property tax levy does not provide the Forest Preserve District with enough revenue annually to support existing operations and acquire additional land. In fact, in 2024 the tax levy will fall short of meeting the District’s operating expenses alone by $7.5 million.
As part of its commitment to open government, the Forest Preserve District routinely reports its expenditures and annually conducts an audit of how funds are spent. The Forest Preserve District’s annual comprehensive financial report has earned recognition for excellence in financial reporting for 36 consecutive years. In addition, the Forest Preserve District has earned recognition for its popular annual financial report and budget for the past two years, again exceeding statutory minimums to provide the highest level of transparency to its residents and those interested in the Forest Preserve District. It maintains Standard and Poor’s AAA credit rating, the agency’s highest, which shows an extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. For more information about District finances, visit our transparency portal.
The Forest Preserve District is an independent unit of local government. Although we work collaboratively with the county to find efficiencies that benefit resident taxpayers, we are governed by separate boards and funded by separate revenues.
More than two-thirds of the Forest Preserve District’s budget is funded by property taxes. This is in contrast with municipalities, which are also funded by sales, income, motor fuel, hotel, utility, and restaurant taxes.
The District actively pursues funding from grants, donations, and user fees, but these funding sources differ from year to year and are not sufficient to consistently offset the costs to maintain and improve the District’s 26,000 acres of woodlands, wetlands, prairies, and waterways that support people and wildlife in DuPage County. For more information about District finances, visit our transparency portal.
The Forest Preserve District does have environmental funds specifically established for the maintenance and operation of retired landfills contained on Forest Preserve District property. These funds are protected for the benefit of the retired landfills and long-term environmental protection. While some of the interest earned on these protected funds can be spent to help make sure the preserves and service levels are maintained in the short term, the use of environmental fund interest earnings is not sustainable as a long-term strategy.
Generating sufficient tax levy revenue would eliminate the need to subsidize operations with environmental fund interest earnings and ensure the Forest Preserve District’s ability to prudently administer the balance of the environmental fund for their intended purpose.
The money would allow the Forest Preserve District to continue to operate at its current level, maintaining and creating high-quality habitats for wildlife, plants and people in the preserves’ woodlands, prairies, wetlands and waterways and maintaining and improving the recreational features that attract over 5 million people annually.
It would also allow the Forest Preserve District to purchase 250+ acres for future protection and to complete several planned projects over the next 10 years including reforestation and restoration projects, bridge and infrastructure improvements, regional trail connections, and other preserve amenities.
If you own property in DuPage County, your tax bill would increase less than $12 per year for every $100,000 of equalized assessed value.
As an agency committed to fiscal responsibility the Forest Preserve District may consider issuing non-referendum bonds in the future to support capital maintenance, improvements, or infrastructure needs.
Without this increase to the tax levy rate, the Forest Preserve District will need to analyze its current operations and determine where it can adjust its priorities. This might include:
- Reduction of services and elimination of programs for the public
- Large, frequent debt issuances to keep up with capital and infrastructure needs that will result in significant annual tax levy increases without an ability to abate
- Limited resources for future land acquisitions
- Significant stress upon remaining environmental funds to subsidize basic operations
- No capital maintenance, improvements, or infrastructure repairs that will result in higher replacement costs in the future
Contact Information
We value your input and invite you to share your feedback or questions with us at forest@dupageforest.org or via our referendum feedback form.
For media inquiries, contact media@dupageforest.org.