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 The Mount Prospect village board voted to give its village
manager a raise to just over $214,000, with a $20,000 bonus, adding him to the
growing list of expensive village managers and mayors in Illinois.
Trustees approved the salary increase unanimously Jan. 3 after finalizing the
terms of the agreement in a closed-door meeting in December. While this local
administrative salary might raise some eyebrows, the Mount Prospect village
manager certainly isn’t alone in taking home big checks in Illinois.
At least eight other village or city managers in Illinois are taking home
salaries north of $200,000 as of 2016, according to data from OpenTheBooks.com,
with all of them located in Cook or the collar counties – areas with some of the
highest property taxes in the nation. Village or city managers in Evanston,
Rosemont, Libertyville, Lake Forest, Palatine and Northbrook all make over
$200,000, while as recently as 2016, the village manager in Glenview made more
than $300,000, making that position the state’s most expensive municipal
official position. All these managers make more than every governor in the U.S.
 This is in addition to Illinois having some of the highest paid mayors in the
world. Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens – the brother of Rosemont Village Manager
Chris Stephens – made $260,000 in 2017, making him the second-highest paid mayor
in the world that year behind only recently-deceased San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
Both Stephenses have salaries higher than Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, despite
Chicago being 600 times larger than Rosemont.
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Bolingbrook has one of
the highest paid mayors in the world as well. Bolingbrook Mayor
Roger Claar, who has been in office since 1986, made $150,176 in
2017.
These high costs for local government are out of line with what
taxpayers in Cook and the collar counties can afford. Residents in
Lake and DuPage counties pay the highest and second-highest property
taxes in Illinois, respectively, and the 21st– and 27th-highest in
the country. McHenry, Kane and Will counties rank fourth-, fifth-
and sixth-highest in the state, respectively, and all are among the
country’s top 35 counties for the highest median property taxes.
Cook County taxpayers, meanwhile, pay the eighth-highest property
taxes in the state, and the 67th-highest in the nation, with
assurances of increases to come for many thanks to Chicago property
tax hikes passed in 2015.
Several reforms need to be made to rein in the state’s
highest-in-the-nation property taxes. Cutting back on the
administrative cost of government would be an easy way to start.
Unfortunately, Mount Prospect and several other villages and cities
in the Chicagoland area have put politicians and government
officials ahead of taxpayers.
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