Wheeling District 21 requests 11 percent levy hike

Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 is requesting a 10.9 percent property tax levy increase, though in effect the district only expects the amount it requests from taxpayers to go up 2.6 percent, officials said.

The school board Thursday night unanimously authorized the larger levy request - sometimes referred to as a "balloon levy" - to capture new property growth and the value of other property throughout the district. The state's tax cap rule limits actual property tax revenue growth to the lesser of 5 percent or the rate of inflation (2.1 percent), plus new property.

Taxing bodies must submit a levy request by the end of the year, though the actual levy will be set by the Cook County Clerk's office next spring.

District 21 officials project the actual levy, once set by the clerk's office, to be roughly a 2.6 percent increase over last year's extension. For the owner of a $300,000 house receiving homeowners and senior exemptions, it would mean paying $67 more to the school district in 2018.

Mary Werling, the district's assistant superintendent for finance, said the district is projecting property values in the district to decline about 5 percent next year. With an expected increase in the number of exemptions homeowners take, Werling said she expects a shift in the tax burden from residential to commercial property owners.