District 300 passes annual tax levy

The good news: the tax rate in Community Unit District 300 is probably going down next year.

The bad news: that doesn't necessarily mean tax bills will be lower.

That's because the tax rate adjusts depending on assessments in the district. If assessments go up, the tax rate will drop; if assessments go down, the tax rate will rise or won't decrease by as much.

Either way, the district will get more money than last year, and your tax bill will rise accordingly.

"Taxing bodies will still get their money," Dundee Township Assessor Dan McMahon said. "The public really can't win, can they?"

District 300 asked for $191.6 million in local property taxes this week, a 38.6 percent increase over how much the district collected last year.

But the district will end up collecting only an estimated $150.7 million, a 9-percent increase over last year's haul.

For that, residents can thank tax cap legislation that limits increases to the rate of inflation - in this case, 4.1 percent. The rest of the increase would be from taxes collected from new homes and businesses in the district.

The district's philosophy has been to ask for much more than it will actually collect rather than risk losing out on tax revenue by underestimating.

The district estimates the 2008 tax rate will drop about 25 cents, from $3.87 to $3.62 per $100 of equalized assessed value, a measure of property value that is used to calculate tax bills.

District 300 held a public hearing on the 2008 tax levy - the amount it is requesting - on Monday.

Robert Lee, an East Dundee resident who is running for a seat on the District 300 school board, was the only person who spoke at the hearing, saying the district needs to do a better job of explaining how the tax levy process works.

"Adequacy of communication efforts should not be a measure of success," Lee said. "The levy process is very easy to understand if time is taken (to explain it)."

Superintendent Ken Arndt said Lee made a valid point but that the General Assembly, rather than individual districts, needs to address the laws that lead many taxing bodies to ask for more than they ultimately receive.

"It can certainly be simplified," Arndt said. "It's going to require a legislative fix."