2025 Budget: Highland Park commits to $36 million in infrastructure spending, proposes 8% tax hike

The City of Highland Park’s proposed 2025 budget — which was reviewed during the City Council’s meeting on Nov. 18 and adopted on Nov. 25 — includes a balanced operating budget as well as a property tax hike. 

The city’s budget documents, including a recap and complete and approved file, are available online.

City staff presented the council with an operating budget in which 2025 operating revenues are expected to exceed operating expenditures by more than $19 million, according to Ghida Neukirch, Highland Park’s city manager. The total budget, though, features a $6 million deficit, which Neukirch’s team attributes to capital expenditures.

The city’s 2025 budget earmarks $99 million for operating revenue, which is slightly lower than 2024, officials said. Next year’s total revenue, per the proposed budget, is expected to be $125 million, a number that is approximately 4 percent lower than 2024. Revenues in 2024 are expected to finish the year about 20 percent higher than 2023. 

Highland Park’s 2025 budget calls for $131 million of total expenditures, a figure that is anticipated to be 15 percent lower than the estimated total for 2024, according to Neukirch. 

Current budget projections allocate $36 million for infrastructure, facilities and equipment, Neukirch said, adding that this “really just aligns with one of our core priorities of infrastructure investment.” 

In a statement, which she read Nov. 25, Mayor Nancy Rotering also addressed the city’s spending plans:

“When I became mayor, we as a City Council agreed to make investing in infrastructure a priority. It had been a constant annual expenditure of $10.8 million with no acknowledgment of inflation or variable needs or conditions. We were falling behind. Rebuilding and maintaining infrastructure is messy. It’s expensive. It’s disruptive, but it’s critical for our public health and safety. The 2025 Budget includes $36 million for our streets, our sewers, our water mains, stormwater management, sidewalks. There’s more to do and we will be getting it done.” 

As part of the 2025 budget, officials are proposing an 8.1 percent increase in the property tax levy. This includes a city levy of $18.3 million, which is 7.9 percent higher than the 2023 extension, and library levy of $5.8 million, which is 8.9 percent higher than last year’s total, said Kristi McCaulou, Highland Park’s finance director. 

The total combined increase will come out to an uptick of roughly $125 a year per household with a $500,000 equalized assessed value of their property, per McCaulou. 

Highland Park’s property taxes are approximately 8 percent of a property owner’s last total tax bill, according to city officials. 

City documents say that the increase is attributed to “pay for higher debt payments from debt issued for capital improvements,” higher multimodal fund costs and pension cost increases. 

The increase in the library’s portion of the levy is slated to pay for higher debt service, which includes a new debt issue for the library’s expansion plan and higher “other net costs,” officials say. 

The council will vote on the adoption of the tax levy at its Dec. 16 meeting. 

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