D158 looks at tax shift between counties

At the April Huntley Unit District 158 school board meeting, member Mike Skala and CFO Mark Altmayer presented data showing a large shift in the school tax burden from McHenry County to Kane County. Skala wished Kane residents to have advance warning for the huge increases in tax bills arriving soon. Most, but certainly not all, McHenry County residents in D158 will see only a small increase up to a big decrease.

The district increased its levy only 2.7 percent. Kane’s average equalized assessment valuations declined 2.77 percent vs. McHenry’s 14.1 percent. The latter reduction would have been greater if the state had not applied, for the first time in 28 years, an equalizer of 3.48 percent to McHenry because of low assessments.

Normally, the Huntley shared taxing districts in Kane and McHenry have about the same tax rate for 90 percent of their taxes. In some perverse consequence of the tax rules, however, the District 158 tax rate will be 4.81 percent in McHenry and 4.95 percent for Kane. Similar differentials probably exist for the other shared taxing districts in Huntley, thus offsetting the impact of the state’s multiplier on McHenry.

The people in Grafton Township in McHenry County should start cooling the champagne for the big parade they owe their assessor.

Me? I live in Rutland Township in Kane, and am hoping Grafton will hire me to pick up the droppings of the horses pulling the Grafton assessor’s wagon. Then maybe I can afford to pay the projected 16-percent increase in my tax bill. See the pages of district158.org/weblinks/Fiscal%20Services/Levy%20Year%202010%20Property%20Tax%20Update%20Presentation.pdf.

Herm Faubl

Huntley