What It Means: Center Cass' Proposed Tax Hike

DARIEN, IL – Some residents think the proposed property tax increase in Center Cass School District 66 is much higher than it actually is, proponents say.

The hike amounts to about 24 percent. But it only applies to District 66's portion of the property tax bill. Not everyone understands that, the proponents say.

Voters are set to decide in next Tuesday's election on the tax increase. Early voting is underway.

According to the school district's calculator, the estimated increase for a $400,000 house with a homestead exemption is $636.

With 1,100 students, the district includes parts of Darien and Downers Grove.

In Darien, District 66 makes up 38 percent of the tax bill, followed by Downers Grove High School District 99 at 31 percent. The rest is made up of a variety of other taxing bodies.

Darien's Cass School District 63 also has a tax referendum on the ballot, though smaller than the one in Center Cass.

On its website, Cass emphasizes that no taxpayer has both Cass and Center Cass on the same bill. They are entirely different jurisdictions.

In Center Cass, Nikki Giancola Shanks is one of the residents who have gone door to door to make the case for the increase.

In an interview last week, she said that when Patch and opponents refer to the nearly 25 percent property tax increase, some people end up believing that percentage applies to their entire tax bill. If that were the case, she said, the hike would be in the thousands.

For a $400,000 house, the tax increase amounts to about $50 a month.

"I'm not saying that's not a big chunk of money for people," Shanks said. "But it's a lot better than thinking it's going up by $200 or $300 a month."

Another proponent, Elizabeth Uribe, said she, too, has found many people don't understand how the tax increase would affect their entire tax bill.

"We've been tackling that for quite some time," she said in an interview.

The tax increase is expected to bring in $3 million more a year, according to the district. It would pay for building improvements, among other things, officials say.

Shanks said she and her husband chose to live in a well-rated district because of their 15-month-old daughter.

But she said she and her husband took "a punch in the gut" when they found out about the district's financial issues. The tax bills should have been higher all along, so the district was better able to improve buildings, among other things, she said.

Shanks said many residents bring up the district's referendum from a few years ago, but it was scaled back from what was needed at the time.

"How long do we continue to kick the can down the road?" Shanks said.

She said one example of the many issues is that Lakeview Junior High lacks a functioning intercom system in much of the building. The school had to pass out walkie-talkies to some teachers, she said.

District 66 Superintendent Andrew Wise started as superintendent in 2020.

"He got handed a pretty bad deck of cards," Uribe said.

In April, Patch wrote a story on the district's reasons how the money could help.

Jerry McDonald, a former Center Cass board member from the 1990s, has argued against the increase.