CHICAGO (CBS) – They aren’t government employees. They are in effect lobbyists, but their salaries and pensions are funded in part by your tax dollars.

ROUND LAKE PARK — The Avon Township Board has voted to cut all three of its tax levies.

The collective reductions, approved earlier this week, total approximately 13.8 percent over last year.

Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling said he has received many phone calls and e-mails in support of the tax cuts.

Avon Township board members this week voted to cut all three tax levies. That means Avon intends to collect about 14 percent less from property owners in 2012. “We are encouraged by the countless phone calls and emails from residents supporting this initiative,” said Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling. Officials said the township is debt-free and taxpayers should be the beneficiaries of that status. Yingling said the levy reductions will “in no way” reduce the level of service to residents. Avon Township encompasses the Round Lake Areas, Hainesville, Grayslake and parts of Third Lake.

At its monthly Board meeting on Monday, the Avon Township Board voted to cut all three of its tax levies. The collective reductions total approximately 13.8% over last year. “We are encouraged by the countless phone calls and emails from residents supporting this initiative”, stated Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling.

The first reduction was made in the Township’s General Fund, which was reduced by approximately 21.6%. This reduction was possible as a result of the record surplus the Township generated in its last fiscal year. “Since the Township is entirely debt free, the township decided to return these surplus funds to the taxpayers via this substantial cut”, explained Yingling.

Avon Township Supervisor Sam Yingling says he was shut out of the process that resulted in a recent $450,000 settlement of a political firings lawsuit.

Had he been consulted by an insurance pool attorney hired to handle the federal suit against the township, Yingling said, he would have favored going to trial with the workers who claimed they lost their jobs for supporting the opponent of former assessor Bryce Carus in the 2009 election.

Avon Township residents watching their budgets got some tax help from Supervisor Sam Yingling and five political allies who recently presented a check for $16,633 to the board. State law prohibits them from revoking their annual pay raises, so they have returned the money each year since Yingling was elected 2009. That’s public service.

The total amount of salary pay-returns will total nearly $30,000 by the end of the 2011 pay cycle, Yingling said.

Avon Township officials said Wednesday the township has a larger-than-expected surplus which will be applied to planned reductions on next year’s taxes.“People don’t realize the extent of overspending and waste at the local level,” said Supervisor Sam  Yingling. “Since getting elected two years ago, our mission has been to make Avon Township more efficient, eradicate the culture of overspending and find creative ways to deliver the same services with  less revenue from the hardworking taxpayers of Avon Township.