Last month was the planet’s warmest August in the 174-year record of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Like other communities, Bloomington-Normal really noticed the heat's impact.
The August heat wave didn't just cause people to droop. Normal City Manager Pam Reece said the town's shade cover wilted, too.
"The extreme heat and some drought conditions have been very stressful on our trees," Reece said on WGLT's Sound Ideas. "And the tree canopy is very important to reduce heat islands and trying to cool down the community."
Reece said town staff took temperature readings in various places during the heat wave. The differential between surface temperatures in shaded areas and open concrete or asphalt pavement was 20-40 degrees.
"That's a massive difference in terms of just seeing the impact of heat. And if you don't have the opportunity to be in a shaded area, under an awning or something like that when we are having these extreme heat situations, it just brings to light the value of trees," said Reece.
Nationwide, studies also show average temperatures in areas that have concentrations of low- and moderate-income or minority residents run 10 degrees warmer than more affluent or white neighborhoods.
Reece said the town is seeing other impacts of climate change: drought, extreme cold, and 100-year floods a couple years apart.
"Those sorts of things, we need to better prepare our community for," she said.
The town does not have a tree planting policy though, as a matter of practice, workers have been planting more trees in rights-of-way in recent years, Reece said, adding a policy and ways to address other climate change hits should be rolled into the upcoming re-do of the town sustainability plan.
“Moving forward, we're in an exciting position to bring in community stakeholders to survey residents to find out what's important to them, where their concerns lie, how we can best position Normal for the next 25 years for continued growth, yet make sure our community is prepared to minimize the impact of flooding, rain events, extreme heat, extreme cold. All of those situations affect homeowners and housing situations. These topics run across an entire spectrum from economic impact to housing costs, utility tax impact and so on,” said Reece.
Property values and taxes
The value of developed property in Normal is going up 23%, according to the town finance department, thanks to the surge in housing prices and in community and workforce development. That would mean a big increase in tax dollars raised if taxing bodies keep the same tax rate in coming years. Reece said that's not likely to happen.
"I think our historic practice — to look at how much money do we need to meet those obligations— is not expected to change," said Reece.
The town share of property taxes is relatively small. The bulk of property tax money funds school districts.
"Last year when we adopted the property tax levy, the total amount we needed to collect, the property tax rate dropped 9 cents or so (per $100 of assessed valuation). I think what the council looks at and what staff looks at when we go to council is the impact on the taxpayer," said Reece.
Many homeowners in Normal received notices from the assessor this year that their property values rose 10%.
The town ended the fiscal year in March with a surplus. Reece said the town has not decided where to put that money. It could go to infrastructure. It could be allocated as additional pension payments to reduce the underfunded amount the town is filling. And it could be put into the debt reserve fund to pay off bonds once those instruments become callable.
Last year, Reece said surplus money went to infrastructure, noting the town's finances are doing well in general.
“The only concern we really had this year was the slowdown on construction permits. We're not surprised by that, given the current interest rate environment and some challenges there,” she said.
Everything else is strong — even expenses are coming in under budget.
“And what that means, is it allows us a little more flexibility to invest more in our capital projects,” said Reece.
Sales taxes make up 40% of the town revenue stream. Reece said when that much of the budget depends on an "elastic" revenue source that can decline or go up depending on overall economic conditions, the town tries to make conservative estimates of what the revenue will be.
“We don't plan to get double-digit increases in sales tax, we try to project a more reasonable level, maybe a 3%-4% increase, perhaps 5%,” said Reece. “I would argue that does force us to continue to focus on things like travel and tourism, sports tourism events, bringing people into the community to spend their dollars and help support our general fund.”
