St. Charles plans 2.7% city tax levy increase: about $23 a year

St. Charles homeowners now have a good idea of what the city will ask for on next year's property tax bills. City leaders settled on a 2.7% increase in the city's levy, which staff estimate works out to about $23 more a year for a home with a fair cash value of about $400,000.

That is the city's piece only. Schools, the library, the park district, the township, the county and other taxing bodies set their own levies.

The numbers

The proposed 2026 levy estimate is $15,875,855. That is $417,083 more than last year's extension of $15,458,772, according to an Oct. 19 city memo.

Of that increase:

• $214,113 goes to required increases in police and fire pension contributions.
• $202,970 goes to other purposes.

Pensions are a big part of the city's levy. Last year, $7,758,196, or 50.2% of the levy, went to required police and fire pension funding, according to an Oct. 5 memo from the city's finance department.

The city also includes its general obligation bonds in the estimate at first, then abates the tax levy tied to those bonds later in December, the memo says.

The four options the council weighed

At the Oct. 5 Committee of the Whole meeting, staff laid out four choices, each with an estimated yearly impact for a $400,000 home:

• 1.4%: covers only the required pension increases. About $12 a year.
• 2.7%: matches the 2025 CPI-U inflation rate. About $23 a year.
• 3.1%: close to the city's average levy increase over the last eight years. About $27 a year.
• 4.1%: pension funding plus inflation. About $35 a year.

The council's consensus was 2.7%, the Oct. 19 memo says. For comparison, last year the council approved a 3.99% increase, and the city's finance director estimated a $24 yearly increase on the city portion of the bill for a $400,000 home, Shaw Local reported in December 2025.

How much of your bill goes to the city

The city's share is roughly 9.9% of the total property tax bill, according to the city's tax information page. The same page lists the city's tax rate as $0.694329 for the 2025 levy year, payable in 2026, and gives an example: a resident in a $300,000 home pays about $675 a year to the city. The city says about 90% of the average bill goes to other taxing districts.

What happens next

The estimate went to the Committee of the Whole on Oct. 19 with a staff recommendation to approve. The estimate was on the City Council's Nov. 2 agenda for formal approval; the city had not posted minutes of that meeting as of Nov. 9. The final tax levy ordinance is scheduled for the Dec. 7 City Council meeting.

Council meetings start at 7 p.m. at the St. Charles Municipal Center, 2 E. Main St., and include time for public comment. Agendas and memos are posted ahead of each meeting on the city's agenda portal.

Your actual bill also depends on your property's assessed value and on what every other taxing body levies, so the city's $23 estimate is a guide, not a promise of what your bill will be.