District 211 property tax levy adopted by narrow 4-3 vote

This story has been updated to correct the amount of the recommended levy. The correct amount is $235.9 million.

All local governments that levy a property tax approve the annual amount they're seeking at the end of the year, but Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211's recent 4-3 board vote came unusually close to leaving the district without its main source of revenue for a year.

While board members Mark Cramer and Pete Dombrowski had expressed their disfavor with the recommended $235.9 million levy during the vote on tentative approval weeks earlier, even they were surprised when fellow member Steven Rosenblum joined them in voting no on final approval.

Rosenblum said that during the weeks between the votes he received additional information and public input that convinced him the 3% levy increase wasn't necessary this year.

In contrast to what other officials said, Rosenblum said he believes that failure to approve a levy Dec. 12 would have allowed time to set a different amount before the end of the year. And if that isn't true, he added, maybe the district should consider starting the levy approval process a bit earlier in the fall.

"I was in favor of approving the tentative budget so it could be reviewed and discussed by others," Rosenblum said. "That led to the public input that led to my final decision."

The 3% increase matches the tax cap limitation of the rate of inflation - 1.9% - plus the value of new property anticipated during the year ahead, which is 1.1%.

Because District 211 received a nearly $1.3 million property tax relief grant through the Illinois Board of Education in 2019 and had to reduce its 2018 levy an additional $700,000 to receive it, the new levy technically is 3.9% higher than what was ultimately sought from taxpayers last year.

But District 211 Chief Operating Officer Lauren Hummel said the state grant came with a one-year hold-harmless provision so the 2018 levy reduction will not affect the tax cap for the 2019 levy.

Extending the hold-harmless provisions beyond a single year is something District 211 is lobbying for, Hummel said, but she characterized the district's chances of securing another grant as slim.

Another somewhat different aspect to this year's levy is that the expiration of a tax increment financing district along Dundee Road in Palatine resulted in a greater amount of taxable property in the district's projection, Hummel said.

Cramer said his vote against the levy was based on a few factors, not least of which was his running for the board in 2019 on a platform of not increasing the levy. He said other reasons included last year's levy leaving the district with an $8 million surplus; his objection to the payment of an additional $5 million to eliminate the current unfunded liability amount with the Illinois Retirement Fund; and a pending sale of 62 acres in Schaumburg for $17.7 million.

Dombrowski, who is in his fifth year on the board, has regularly criticized the levy for being set at the maximum of the rate of inflation before the district has budgeted its needs for the year ahead. While the district regularly looks at five-year projections to assess its needs, the levy is set at the rate of inflation regardless, he said.

"It's a useless exercise," Dombrowski said of the five-year projections.

But board President Robert LeFevre Jr. said the "forever projection" is even more important. If the district doesn't keep up with the rate of inflation year by year, the tax cap prevents any revenue left on the table from being recaptured later, he said.

By eliminating all its debt, the district has also eliminated its levy for it that is allowed to exceed the tax cap, LeFevre said.

To maintain its debt-free status, the district is dependent on its surpluses to pay for capital improvements, LeFevre added.