Plainfield School District Approves $205.8 Million Tax Levy

Submitted by District 202:

The District 202 Board of Education at its Dec. 15 regular meeting approved asking the Will and Kendall county clerks for $205,831,193 in local property taxes (including bond and interest) through the district’s 2014 levy.

The 2014 levy request as approved is about 19 percent higher than the 2013 extension of $173,754,561 (including bond and interest).

District officials expect the official, final levy to be about $176.3 million because the law limits what governments can actually receive. That would be about $2.6 million (about 1.5 percent) more than last year’s $173.7 million extension.

The levy is the school district’s official request for its share of local property taxes. The extension is the amount of local taxes the district actually receives from the counties it serves. The official extension will be calculated after the district’s final equalized assessed value is set next April.

The higher levy is normal, the district said in a press release. Governments must request, or “levy for” more taxes than they actually expect to receive, to ensure that they get their full share of taxes. If governments ask for less than what they ultimately are due, they lose any funds over their request.

District 202 has reduced operating expenses by about $43 million since 2009 to address budget deficits caused by the weak economy, collapsed housing market and unstable state funding.

The state tax cap law limits the amount of new revenues the district can levy each year to either the rate of inflation or 5 percent, whichever is less. For the 2014 levy, the rate of inflation is 1.5 percent; therefore District 202 can increase its local property tax revenues by only 1.5 percent (plus the value of new construction).

Of the total amount of the proposed 2014 levy (excluding bond and interest), approximately 82 percent or $144.7 million dollars will go to the districts’ operating funds, which include Education, Operations and Maintenance, Transportation, Working Cash, Illinois Municipal Employees Retirement Fund and Tort fund.

District officials expect to be able to calculate the 2014 extension and resulting tax rate after the district’s equalized assessed valuation (EAV) is finalized early next year.

However, much remains unknown about state education funding which could ultimately affect district revenues – including the status of the “temporary” income tax hike that is supposed to drop in January 2015, and the ongoing legal fight over pension reform.