An abatement is a decision by a governing body to decrease a tax levy obligation. When the Village issues General Obligation bonds to pay for capital improvements, one of the conditions of the bonds is that the repayment of the bonds is backed by the full faith and credit of the Village. Therefore, the Village is legally bound to levy for 100% of the debt service; however, depending on the project the Village may decide to repay the bonds using other sources of revenue, such as Water and Sewer or MFT collections.
Another form of abatement occurs when an entity, other than the Village, pays the costs of maintaining a special service area. An example would be when a Homeowners Association pays for the care and maintenance of a stormwater detention area.