On December 9, 7:27 p.m., the ECC Board of Trustees unanimously voted to propose a tax levy for ECC during a public hearing with an estimated 54 attendees. 

The tax levy was passed with the majority of the Board of Trustees being present during the meeting.

“The annual tax levy resolution for 2025 was passed on December 9, 2025 (6 of 7 trustees were present),” said the Chair for the ECC Board of Trustees, Jennifer Rakow.

 The proposed levy would increase Kane County property taxes by 3.4% compared to last year.

In 2024, the total property tax amounted to $72,529,973 million; however, in 2025, it is set to increase to $75,004,748 million according to the Board of Trustees Agenda notes.

ECC Professor Sean Jaster said it would be necessary to raise the tax.

“Elgin Community College is one of those examples of where taxes go to something truly worthwhile,” Jaster said. “It’s about building a better community; a stronger community.”

Some Elgin residents, however, had a different view, calling it, “Another tax increase, a third year in a row,” said Elgin resident David Teas.

Residents also gave out their concerns about how their livelihood could be affected as well.

“We’re struggling on fixed incomes,” said Elgin resident Fred Haas.

ECC Veteran Service coordinator Anitra King expressed her neutral perspective on the levy, saying, “I understand where it’s coming from.” 

However, for “Homeowners and renters, you have taxes you’re forced to pay,”  King said.

Former ECC trustee Shane Nowak expressed that there’s another way to go about the levy when it comes to addressing homeowners’ concerns.

“You can split it down the middle. You can say you hear the members of the public, or you also hear the concerns of the college,” Nowak said.

Nowak also said, “Say about a 4.6% property tax increase. One of you, if you are brave enough to actually make a motion to make it 2.3%, that way the council gets some extra revenue, but you also do the concerned citizens here tonight.”

The main use of the levy would be to spread out ECC’s funding.

These funds would be for “Educational purposes and the operations and maintenance purposes,” Rakow said.

The funds that finance ECC are: property taxes, state grants and contracts, federal grants, and local grants and contracts. Tuition and fees are also included according to a 2025 Fiscal Year Chart from the ECC Board of Trustees Agenda.

“Those funds are dispersed over the entire college budget every year,” Rakow said.

A large portion of these funds comes from property taxes.

“Here you can see prior property taxes account for 44.37% of ECC’s revenue,” Rakow said.

The proposed tax levy is also being utilized to pay for the new Manufacturing Technology Center built at ECC.

“The tax levy is also necessary for paying principal and interest for bonds. (Bonds were issued to help us pay for the construction of the MTC (Manufacturing and Technology Center), for example. We must pay back principal and interest for those bonds,” Rakow said.

Although the levy would be used primarily to fund the college, there are still growing concerns for affordability by Elgin Residents.

“At the end of the day, people will not be able to afford the taxes, and they will have to leave or sell their homes,” said Elgin resident Jane Linder.

Currently, the ECC Board of Trustees is waiting for the budget of the 2027 fiscal year to be completed.

“Next, we await the FY2027 budget to be finalized/drafted,” Rakow said.

Rakow also said, “They[Board of Trustees] will “see a couple of drafts around May, and then vote on the final budget in June.”

Half of the tax levy will be used for the 2026 fiscal year budget, and the other half will be used for the 2027 budget.

“50% of the 2025 tax levy will fund the FY26 budget, and 50% will fund the FY27 budget,” Rakow said.