Harper ballot measure targets building needs

It's November or never for Harper College, which gets just one shot at asking taxpayers to fund campus facilities improvements without technically raising taxes.

A referendum on the ballot will ask voters for permission to borrow $153.6 million to implement part of a long-range plan to upgrade facilities on the Palatine campus. Priority will be placed on repair and renovation projects to aging buildings, some dating back to the late 1960s.

"Everything's functioning but there's a serious need for a major overhaul," said President Robert Breuder, who's set to retire next June.

Harper's last successful referendum was in 2000, when voters approved $88.8 million to build the Avante Center. The college has been aggressively paying off those bonds and, as a result, annual payments are set to drop from $11 million to $4 million.

Instead of passing along those savings to taxpayers, Harper proposes issuing new $153.6 million in bonds - the amount Harper can fund without increasing its tax rate.

Should the proposal fail, taxes would decline by about $15 for a home valued at $300,000, college officials say. Harper's tax rate is 26 cents, so those same property owners currently pay about $200 annually to Harper, depending on exemptions.

The college's enrollment has grown 33 percent in the last decade, and officials predict the school will serve about 41,000 students in some capacity this year. Enrollment isn't expected to abate anytime soon, especially since numbers tend to spike when the economy turns sour.

Breuder cited a survey earlier in the year that gauged community interest in further investment in Harper.

"They pretty much said, 'We love you but we can't afford an increase in taxes,'" he said.

Respondents said the college's primary interest should be to take care of existing infrastructure before embarking on new construction, as well as tapping into nontraditional sources and existing funds to the extent it's able. Harper's unrestricted fund balance sits at more than $52 million, and philanthropic contributions to a capital campaign led by the college's foundation have surpassed $8 million.

The college recently drafted a Campus Master Plan, which outlines $334 million worth of projects to tackle over the next 10 years:

• Repair, $123 million: upgrades and maintenance to infrastructure and utilities, targeting Buildings G, H and M; underground tunnels; and HVAC systems.

• Renovation, $129 million: update classrooms, labs and event facilities in classroom buildings, the library, Wellness and Sports Center, Student Center and improve athletic fields.

• Renewal, $82 million: construct Public Safety Education Center, Campus Life Center and parking garage.

The $153.6 million sought in the referendum accounts for less than half those items. Officials say they'd immediately target repair and renovation projects. Breuder is also anxious to move forward with the Public Safety Education Center but says the college needs to wait for state funding.

Harper has been eyeing November's election for a while, said Judy Thorson, vice president of administrative services.

"We needed eight years of bond payments and wanted it to coincide with a presidential election," she said. "It'd be a tax-rate increase in the future, so we felt it was important to go now."

Added Breuder: "If this doesn't pass, we'll blow through reserves pretty quickly."