The December 16, 2004 meeting held a Truth in Taxation hearing. This hearing is required whenever the District's tax levy exceeds a 5% increase over the previous year.
Supt. John Hill commented that District 3 funding is based on property tax and equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of the district. He added that District 3 lives and dies by these, because we get so little funding from the State of Illinois, so District 3 funds come more from property taxes than do the funds for some other school districts. He also said that we don't know what the district's EAV will be until April, after property taxes are paid, so the District bases a lot of it's tax levy on estimates.
The estimates used for this tax levy is 10% of EAV. Since the tax levy is made in dollars, not percent, the District can lose tax money if the levy is too little.
Based on a 10% tax levy, District 3 is requesting $4,369,937.00. They anticipate getting $4,071,059.00 in tax dollars once the EAV is known. The rates estimated to be allocated to the different funds are as follows:
Education -- 2.7400
Building -- 0.2045
Transportation -- 0.0981
IMRF -- 0.0471
Working Cash -- 0.0391
Special Education -- 0.0164
Tort Liability -- 0.0774
Social Security -- 0.0959
Bond -- 0.3680
Supt. Hill noted that as the EAV increases, the rates allocated to all funds except Education will go down, so that the money from the tax increase goes to the Education fund. He also said that existing property EAV in Fox River Grove is expected to increase less than it did last year.
There was one development that is important for taxpayers in Fox River Grove, and in fact, in all of Illinois, to be aware of. Hill noted that the Illinois Association of School Boards is working to change the tax cap basis from Consumer Price Index (CPI), where it is currently, to the Employer Price Index (EPI). The bottom line for taxpayers is that this change would allow school districts to increase property taxes
without passing a referendum (because the property tax levy would be based on a different index).
Now I may be wrong about this, and please discuss this issue in the blog comments and on the e-mail list, but I think that this is the wrong time for school districts to unilaterally act to raise property taxes. Yes, such a change would free District 3 and many other districts from a very short financial leash, and I have no doubt that some school boards will be salivating at the chance to get extra funding despite the voters' wishes. But, however badly the funds are needed (and I don't doubt that many districts desperately need the funds; District 3 is in remarkably good shape compared with other districts in McHenry County), I think it is unwise to leave behind the long-term benefits of school districts and residents working together to solve funding problems in order to see short-term gains in money flow. District 3 and the residents of Fox River Grove have shown remarkable creativity and dedication to solving the funding problems here. Taxpayers and the School Board working together hasn't been easy, but it has shown great promise, even in this very short time since the referendum vote in April. Funding reform for schools is needed in Illinois; there is no question about that. But, there are better ways for school districts to reach financial solvency than an end run around the taxpayers.
