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District U-46 tax levy being finalized for vote

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 is set to finalize a property tax levy hike with a vote on a certificate of tax levy and an accompanying resolution scheduled for its Monday, Dec. 13 meeting.
  The items were presented at the Nov. 15 meeting. The board has already unanimously approved, under the Nov. 1 consent agenda, a determination of tax levy and a levy resolution.
  “The tax levy resolution is an annual resolution needed to allow administration to file the certificate of tax levy,” said Dale Burnidge, director of financial operations. “The certificate lists the levy amounts requested for each fund.”
  The items must be filed by the final Tuesday each December with the clerks of Cook, DuPage and Kane counties.
  The certificate represents the corporate and special purpose levy which is set at $300.2 million, a 2.5 percent increase from $292.8 million. The district expects $297.9 million, however, as the district defensively levies “to insure receipt of all property tax dollars to which the District is entitled,” the Nov. 1 determination states.
  The funds included in the certificate are the educational ($191.6 million), operations and maintenance ($40.3 million), special education ($37.5 million), transportation ($9 million), social security ($6.1 million), tort ($5.4 million), municipal retirement ($5.3 million) and fire prevention and safety ($5 million).
  The total levy presented on Nov. 1, including the debt service levy, is set to increase 2.2 percent from $335 million to $342.4 million which is the largest allowed under law. The debt service levy is expected to slightly drop from $42.28 million to $42.23 million.
  The levy comes after the board approved a $61 million increase in spending in this year’s budget while enrollment dropped for the seventh straight year, losing 533 students (1.5 percent) to a total of 36,090 according to numbers presented on Nov. 1.
  The levy is determined by the Consumer Price Index (1.4 percent) and Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV), where the district estimates property values increasing from $5.4 billion to $5.6 billion. However, the levy is set at an EAV of $5.7 billion as the defensive levy.