‘Taking money and throwing it into a fire pit’: School districts struggling with property tax distribution delays

Several suburban school superintendents told the Cook County Board Thursday their districts are hurting financially because of delays in receiving revenue from property tax collections.

The problems stemmed from Tyler Technologies’ Integrated Property Tax System purchased by the county, which repeatedly has failed to distribute property taxes on time, resulting in millions of dollars lost to suburban public schools.

Palatine Township Elementary District 15 absorbed about $2 million in losses. This included about $1 million in interest income lost from delayed collections and $715,000 from early redemption of investments.

The delay forced the district to borrow $25 million in tax anticipation warrants just to meet obligations. Officials said the district needs about $17 million each month to make payroll and meet vendor obligations.

District 15’s chief school business official, Diana McCluskey, thanked the county for the two property tax distributions between Christmas and the New Year, which amount to 60% of anticipated fall tax revenues.

“We still need you to distribute the remaining $33 million or so left in your coffers of our fall collections,” she said.

The district received an email from Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office Wednesday outlining a tentative distribution schedule over the next two weeks.

Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 has lost more than $401,000, school board member Eileen Kowalczyk said.

“That is like taking money and throwing it into a fire pit and just watching it burn,” she said.

Northwest Suburban High School District 214 Superintendent Scott Rowe said the delay resulted in $1 million in lost investment income to the district.

“Every tax dollar represents a family, a business and a shared investment in our communities,” he said.

Prospect Heights Elementary District 23 board President Becky McClaney said the delay has caused the district’s fund balance to fall into single digits, below the 33% target.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle released a statement saying her office is open to having ongoing dialogue with the districts that have reached out.

“We want to gain a better understanding of the issues they have and work together with all property tax offices on solutions,” she said.

According to a statement attributed to the treasurer’s office, it began distributing the property tax funds still owed to taxing districts Wednesday.

“We cannot act sooner because extensive accounting and data migration work must be done during the next week to incorporate and balance previous distributions that were made outside the new system,” the statement read.