Average homeowner to see $65 increase in District 225 taxes
The owners of a $500,000 home within Glenbrook High Schools District 225 will pay about $65 more to the district than last year, according to district estimates.
At the Nov. 8 district board meeting concerning the 2021 tax levy, and also in an online statement by the district, the approximate bill for that $500,000 home, stated as the average for the community, would be $3,190.
The increase would be around 2.0376% from the 2020 payment of $3,125, the district stated.
About 87% of district funds are generated by property taxes.
District 225 is seeking a total 15% increase. An increase of 1.4% reflects the Consumer Price Index, or amount of inflation, between December 2019 and December 2020.
The remaining 13.6% reflects the district's request to capture about $822 million of taxes stemming from the equalized assessed value of new property. The bulk of that comes from the property under The Glen tax incentive financing plan (TIF) that the Village of Glenview looks to dissolve by Dec. 31.
In legislation passed to aid taxing bodies before The Glen TIF began in 1998, District 225 received "make-whole payments" of between $9-$10 million "for the last several years," associate superintendent Dr. R.J. Gravel said at the Nov. 8 meeting.
"Our more practical guess is that the school district will see between $625 and $650 millions dollars in new property come onto the roles," said Gravel, who anticipates a total increase of 8-9% on the high side, rather than the 15%.
The levy cannot be pinpointed beyond an estimate because Cook County will not announce the equalized assessed value of properties until May 2022.
"When we come back with what the county actually awards us we adjust the budgets further, and that's where we then get creative with what we need to sustain some of the programs and everything," said school board Vice President Peter Glowacki, a member of the District 225 Finance Committee.
The 13.6% to capture the new property values is a "best guess" by the Finance Committee, Gravel said.
The balloon levy that exceeds the 1.4% CPI represents a one-time effort to capture funds from the new properties coming onto the tax roles, notably The Glen with the impending dissolution of the TIF.
"A school district can only capture new property growth in the year that it is first recognized by the Cook County Assessor," Gravel explained in an email to the Herald.
"If a school district's levy does not reflect an amount representative of the new property coming onto the tax rolls, it forfeits the ability to increase its levy beyond inflation."
Board member Skip Shein cautioned a fellow board member who said the increase would "only" be $65, considering that is just the District 225 take. Fifteen other entities are listed in a sample residential tax bill recently offered by the Village of Glenview.
Board member Joel Taub declared this is not a matter of district overreach.
"This is just to maintain the status quo at a reasonable level where we can maintain the generational equity that we have done over the 56 years we've been in business," he said.
Gravel agreed.
"If the school district did not design a levy in a way to replace the make-whole revenue and it was to lose 9 to 10 million dollars you would absolutely negatively impact the student programs both academic, activity-based, all different extracurriculars, which would not meet the standard that our community has come to expect and appreciate about living here within the Glenbrooks," he said.
"This levy is our best estimate, best calculation to insure that we are able to promote that intergenerational equity that we have come to expect."
The 2021 levy was approved for a public hearing to be held at the District 225 board meeting of Dec. 13.