As you know, people who don’t reside within the Palos Heights city limits aren’t entitled to a library card as they don’t pay into the tax base that funds the library. We are a bit unusual in that we have two sizeable areas on unincorporated Palos Heights who don’t pay taxes to any library. Statute allows us to offer library cards to people who live in unincorporated areas if they pay a non-resident card fee each year. There are two allowable methods for calculating what this fee will be.
The first is the “general mathematical formula.” This entails calculating that average cost that each household in Palos Heights pays to the library and charging that amount to any non-resident household that wants to have a card. The advantages of this method are that it’s simple and non-intrusive. We do a simple calculation to establish the average cost per household of library services, and we apply that cost identically to every non-resident.
The second method that we can use is the “tax bill formula.” This method entails looking at the tax bill of each non-resident who is interested in getting a card and doing a quick calculation to determine how much they would pay to the library if their home were in the city limits. The advantage of this system is that it’s fairer to non-residents, charging them exactly what they would actually pay rather than what the average household pays. The disadvantages are that it requires patrons to bring in a current property tax bill each year, which can feel intrusive, and that it’s a little bit more work for library staff to do this calculation on a case-by-case basis.
In the past, we always used the general mathematical formula. It was simple and straightforward. This year was the first year that we implemented the tax bill method. Frankly, it’s probably too soon to say whether this has been a success or not. Most of our non-resident cards are purchased in May and June, which makes sense because they typically expire at the end of June each year. So far, we have only had one non-resident card purchased with the new system. I expect there to be 3-5 more in the next few weeks. My recommendation is that we stay the course for now and give both staff and non-resident patrons an opportunity to work within the new system before evaluating its efficacy.
Recommendation: I recommend that you approve the “tax bill method” in calculating non-resident card fees for the year beginning July 1, 2025.