The Examiner U-46 News FeedLatest U-46 budget hikes spending by $61.3 million By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 unanimously approved, via a 7-0 vote, of the Fiscal Year 2022 budget which increases spending by $61.3 million and revenue by $59.9 million at its Monday, Sept. 27 meeting.
Spending will have risen 53.7 percent while enrollment has declined 11.4 percent since 2012, under this budget.
The trend of increased spending with enrollment declines continues for the seventh straight year, with enrollment projected to drop by 451 students to 36,049, while it expects to lose an average 791 students a year for the foreseeable future eventually dropping to 33,676 by the 2024-2025 school year.
Spending is set at $660.8 million (up 10.2 percent) and revenue at $662.3 million (up 9.9 percent).
Salary and benefits are the largest spending item at $446 million, a $26 million increase (6.2 percent) from $420 million last year. Property taxes are the largest revenue line as the district plans to take the maximum amount from taxpayers allowed under the law, as usual, with $5.5 million additional for $324.6 million, up from $319.1 million.
Board member Melissa Owens lauded the district for increasing spending including adding $9 million in salaries and benefits specifically to add 34 new elementary and 26 secondary teachers, who she said were cut in previous years because of enrollment declines, as well as 12 new elementary and 26.4 secondary teachers “in order to reduce class sizes to provide for greater social distance.”
“I believe we are truly budgeting for the future,” Owens said.
Board member John Devereux also praised the budget and said the state should give U-46 more funding, despite Illinois being $171.5 billion in debt according to usdebtclock.org.
“We’re well aware of the property tax burden that falls on our local community,” Devereux said. “This is again a product of our school funding structure in the State of Illinois that requires local property taxes to fund an outsized portion of local school budgets.”
U-46 property taxes only represent 49 percent of this budget’s revenue while most school districts are more self-reliant with an average 66.4 percent of their revenue from property taxes, according to the state board’s annual report card.
Also, to be noted, since the so-called “evidence-based” funding formula was approved in 2017, taxpayers have seen 21 new tax and fee hikes, including income and gas taxes, to go along with increased property taxes.
The most recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows Illinois spends more per student while having the worst academic results of all of its neighboring states.
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