Lyons Township High Millions Short In Tax Money: Official

LA GRANGE, IL – A top Lyons Township High School official said this week that the school could be up to $6 million short in property tax collections.

At a school board meeting, Brian Stachacz, the school's business services director, spoke about Cook County's problems in distributing tax money on time.

For a decade, the county has been undergoing a software project that is blamed for delays.

The issue has sparked much finger-pointing among county officials and the software vendor, Texas-based Tyler Technologies.

Previously, the county provided information on which year the tax collections applied, but it hasn't done that lately. That makes it hard for entities to determine how much they're short, Stachacz said.

"We're definitely short on collections right now," he said. "I don't have a great handle on how I'm going to reconcile that right now until the county comes back and gives us a list of all the distributions."

Now, Stachacz said, the school is short by $3 million in its main account.

"Are we $4 or $5 million short? We could be," he said.

Stachacz said the county has indicated that it has distributed 97 percent of property tax money, which could mean the high school could be short by up to $6 milion.

"I don't have a real accurate way to look at that," he said.

This budget year's deficit is projected at $1.5 million, but that could change, he said.

The high school can cover that shortfall with money already in its bank accounts.

More than 90 percent of the school's money comes from property taxes.