Geneva schools weighing options for getting cash

Proposed request

"Shall the limiting rate under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law for Geneva Community School District 304, Kane County, Illinois, be increased by an additional amount equal to .01% above the limiting rate for levy year 2006 and be equal to 4.09983% of the equalized assessed value of the taxable property therein for levy years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010?"

Your school district wants more money to operate the schools.

Would you rather:

A. Start paying that increase now in smaller steps and end up ultimately paying $1,480 to $1,617 more.

B. Put off that increase four years and ultimately pay less than in option A -- but paying the bulk of the increase, $1,190 to $1,327, in one tax year.

C. Reject any tax rate increase at all.

That's what school trustees in Geneva District 304 are going to discuss tonight.

Time is of the essence if officials want to implement this for next year, as an earlier state primary election means the deadline for putting a referendum on the ballot is Nov. 19.

Officials are considering asking voters to approve lifting the property tax levy cap for four years, to allow the district to maintain a $4.01 operating tax rate throughout tax years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

For the 2006 operating tax, which taxpayers paid this year, the district can charge up to $4 per $100 of equalized assessed valuation, within the limits of the tax cap. That $4 does not include money to repay money borrowed for capital projects.

Rebecca Allard, the district's assistant superintendent for business, intends to present materials Monday showing the effect of raising that rate to $4.01 now versus a 65- or 75-cent tax rate increase in 2011.

The charts assume a 6.6 percent annual increase in assessed valuation for a house with a market value of $300,000 and assessed value of $100,000, not including any exemptions.

If the district did nothing now, tax rates would decrease to $3.46 by tax year 2010, Allard projects. Tax bills would increase by $93, $122, $133 and $119 each year.

If voters approved a 65-cent tax rate increase, that would hike the bill $1,190 in tax year 2011, and you would have paid $26,784 over those five years. A 75-cent tax rate increase would result in a $1,327 jump in that tax year, and a five-year bill of $26,921.

Under Allard's proposal, you would pay $4.01 for the tax years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and $4.02 for tax year 2011, if voters agree to the plan again. The total bill on that home would be $28,401.

Taxes would go up $275, $282, $301, $320 and $356 those years.

"With a managed tax rate, we have the ability to be more accurate," in planning programming, she said. Taxpayers also could budget for increases in their tax bills, and might prefer spreading the hit out.

District 304 is subject to Illinois' property tax levy cap law, which limits increases in tax levies for certain funds to the rate of increase of the consumer price index or 5 percent, whichever is less, unless voters say otherwise.

Under this question, the tax levy extension would be determined by the tax rate, rather than the "otherwise applicable limiting rate calculated under the provisions" of the tax cap law, according to sample ballot language.

The extra penny would go to the education fund, Allard said. It could be used to increase programming or restore items cut when the district was placed on the state financial watch list in 2003 for having a deficit budget.

The district's financial plans already account for the costs of running an additional school, Fabyan Elementary, when it opens in 2009.

In its master plan adopted in 2006, the district called for an operating tax increase in 2011 to maintain existing programming.

It also called for a building referendum in 2008 or 2009 to expand Geneva High School.

The district turns its levy request in to the county clerk in December. Taxes are then billed in April, and paid in May and September.

If voters approve this rate increase in February, the district could file an amended levy request.

The board meets at 7 p.m. in the administration center at 227 N. Fourth St., Geneva.