Most DuPage County residents can expect to see an increase of less than $10 on the Forest Preserve District’s portion of next year’s tax bill under a new tax levy unanimously approved by the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

The owners of a home with a $270,000 market value will pay $106.38 to the district on their 2008 property tax bill, which is paid in 2009. The same owners would have paid about $100.42 this year, assuming a 6 percent appreciation in their property value.

Property owners will pay $11.82 per $10,000 of equalized assessed value, which is roughly equivalent to one-third of market value. Last year, the rate was $11.87 per $10,000 of assessed value.

“Here in DuPage County, a couple could spend over $100 for one evening out including dinner and a play,” District President Dewey Pierotti said in a written statement. “For that same amount to provide a year’s worth of experiences in the forest preserves, especially in tough economic times, is quite a bargain.”

The levy will fund the district’s operating budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Overall, the district will collect about $51 million to fund operations and debt payments in the next fiscal year, which is about $3.4 million more than this year. The increase is the result of rising property values.

The equalized assessed values used to determine the tax rate are based on property values as of Jan. 1, 2008, said Carole Hofmann, the district’s finance director. The turbulence in the real estate market could be reflected in next year’s rate, she added.

Hofmann said at this point it is hard to predict how the fluctuations in the market will affect the property tax levy the board approves at this time next year.

“My crystal ball is a little cloudy right now,” she said.

The new tax rate will be reflected on the 2008 tax bill, which property owners will receive in May. Payments are due in two installments on June 1 and Sept. 1.

In 1991, the Illinois General Assembly approved a property tax cap. The law ties increases in tax levies to the Consumer Price Index, which measures the rate of inflation. Non-home rule taxing bodies are allowed only to increase their levies at the rate of the CPI or 5 percent, whichever is lower.

One of the goals of the tax cap was to prevent taxing bodies from receiving windfall revenues as property values increase. When property values increase, tax rates must go down to make sure residents’ taxes don’t rise faster than the rate of inflation.