Deal may help Huntley schools keep $1 million in aid

Huntley District 158 reached a deal Tuesday with state education officials that will stop the annual loss of $1 million in state aid.

With District 158 set to approve its 2008 budget Thursday, Tuesday's agreement should clear up uncertainty over revenues.

After months of frustration at the perceived resistance of state education officials, District 158 officials were pleased with Tuesday's meeting.

"The meeting went very well," District 158 board vice president Tony Quagliano said. "They appear definitely on board."

Education officials agreed to change the district's limiting rate, a factor in determining state aid, if the district provides the state with documentation that the rate it is seeking is correct.

District 158 needs to submit a letter from the sponsors of a 2006 law it helped pass stating the intent of the legislation was to affect state aid in the 2007-08 school year.

The district also needs to submit a legal opinion from McHenry County Clerk Kathy Schultz affirming the limiting rate District 158 is asking for is in compliance with the Illinois School Code.

"Providing that we get both those things, yes, we will accept the limiting rate," state board of education spokesman Matt Vanover said.

The district hopes to send these documents to the state by Thursday, Quagliano said.

The 2006 tax cap revision was supposed to address the issue District 158 is trying to resolve.

The law required all school districts to institute tax increases only once after a referendum -- as District 158 did when voters approved a 55-cent tax hike in 2004.

Before the law passed, District 158 could have raised taxes 55 cents each year for five years. The district, however, promised voters it would raise taxes only once -- and it kept that promise.

Before the tax cap revision, District 158 would have been penalized for raising taxes only once. The district would have received less in state aid because the state assumed it collected the full amount.

Under the 2006 law, District 158 should receive its full share of state aid even though it raised taxes only once.

But this hasn't happened because the district's state aid was calculated before the tax cap revision passed -- using the old assumptions.

District 158 will hold a public hearing on its 2008 budget at 6 p.m. Thursday.