Huntley Dist. 158 state aid fix passes Illinois Senate

Huntley Unit District 158 has scored its biggest victory yet in its effort to stop losing more than $2 million in state aid each year.

The Illinois Senate unanimously passed a bill this week that would fix the error and allow District 158 to recover some of the lost money.

"The bigger piece is getting it right moving forward," school board Vice President Tony Quagliano said. "It just gets us back to where we should have been all along."

But district officials concede the toughest battle may be ahead - in the state House, where the bill arrived on Thursday.

"It's going to take a much bigger effort in the House," said Quagliano, who has been leading the effort to resolve the issue.

The district has faced opposition from the Illinois State Board of Education - which is likely to prove a challenge as the district's effort moves to the House.

Quagliano, who last month traveled to Springfield to testify about the issue before the Senate's revenue committee, plans to meet with state Rep. Mike Tryon, who is sponsoring the House bill, to discuss the district's strategy for lobbying the House.

While tempered by the prospect of an uphill battle in the House, District 158's victory in the Senate - thanks largely to the support of sole sponsor Sen. Pam Althoff - is significant because previous efforts to resolve the state aid issue with a legislative fix have been unsuccessful.

The issue stems from an error in the Kane County Clerk's office several years ago that led the state to overestimate the amount of local property taxes the district was receiving.

As a result, the state gave the district less funding. And because each year's state aid is based on what the district got in the previous year, the problem has been compounding and costing the district more each year.

Quagliano estimates the district has lost more than $8 million since 2004. The issue is now causing the district to lose more than 20 percent of its state aid each year.

District 158 was able to get a one-year patch in 2005 but so far has been unable to persuade both houses to permanently fix the error and make the district whole.